October 15th, 2012 - Okay. I have been unemployed since the middle of May of this year. My previous job was a temp assignment with Accountemps and it ended after 3 months. I was promised that they would look for a job for me but, the only real offer I received was an assignment in a really bad neighborhood that had a EPA sign on it that is was slated as a superfund clean up site and a prostitute had been killed outside their doorstep 2 years previously by one of her customers. So, I had to turn that one down. Anyway, I was sent out on numerous interviews in the first month or so but, almost all were for part time hours and lower pay and I did not receive any job offers. I decided to write about my experience since I am sure other people have been feeling like I do, that you seem to search and search and don't come up with any real leads.

I woke up this morning, checked emails and facebook, and checked craigslist.org for any new jobs. I scrolled through the last 3 or 4 days, just in case I had missed one in my search on Friday and I didn't
see anything that I would be qualified to do. My background is in Accounts Receivable and Collections.
I checked again a few hours later and I saw one ad, for an accounting clerk and clicked on that one, it was a part time job doing bank reconciliations using Yardi software, at $10.00 an hour. I did the exact same job in 2007 and I was paid $17.00 an hour. Wow!! I can't believe how much salaries have fallen in the past 2 years alone. Plus, a good majority of the jobs are part time hours only. So, if this job is 20 hours a week at 10 bucks, that's 200 minus taxes so, around 160.00 a week. I obviously can't live off of that.

Next, onto careerbuilders.com, more job posting in my field then last week but, most want very industry specific experience. Must have worked in apparel industry, must have medical collections background, must have worked in collections at a law firm...etc....This is something that was not a big issues a few years ago. I can't understand why it matters either. Whether you are collecting back rent or for non payment of medical supplies, what is the difference? It's the exact same methodology that is used. I finish scrolling through all the jobs posted within the last 3 days and I am missing one vital "must have" on each job I click on.

Last website search will be with  Monster.Com - Not much of a change since Friday, when I last checked. A few new accounts payable jobs, which my experience is from over ten years ago and I have tried in the past and sent my resume but, it seems my experience is not current enough. I would agree, I would assume a lot has changed in the past ten years and my skills may not be up to day. Although, I do think I can transfer my recent computer skills with Accounts Receivable to an Accounts Payable function but, most companies will just take the person with the most recent experience in AP.

Tomorrow, I will go to the library and check out the latest information that they have available. They usually put together a binder with the job section from a few local newspapers. I appreciate that they do that since it's easier tolook at all the job openings in one book. I also check the new resources on how to create a better resume or the other numerous books they have on job searching techniques.