There aren't a lot of things I'm an expert on, but I have a theory that if you've done an activity for more than a year, you know a little bit about it.
Which means I have some knowledge about job hunting. I've been thinking about that now that Rhode Island has the third-highest unemployment rate. There are almost 60,000 people out of work here. I've interviewed a few such folks over the past months. People have the skills, and the will to work, but it's hard, they say, to stand out above the sea of applicants.
My first job hunt, begun at the end of college, took me six months. It was a similar time then: high unemployment, and in my business, dozens of applicants for every job.
Still, I figured it would be easy.
The best way to get hired as a young reporter isn't with a journalism degree, it's by having examples of articles published in legitimate papers. I did. For three summers, I had worked on several community weeklies -- a great job I landed because of my impressive skills, and the fact that my father knew the group's publisher. By the end of my senior year, I was armed with recommendations, a good resume and clips showing I could write both hard news and features on such subjects as a night riding with a police squad.
The April before graduation, I put together an application package, spent a week working on the perfect cover letter and sent out bundles to 30 or so newspapers -- most of them small or medium-sized. I knew enough not to shoot too high. I was realistic.
I still remember talking to friends about which city I might want to pick once my offers came in. Cincinnati? Rochester? Providence? I was especially interested in Providence because the paper had just gotten a Pulitzer Prize and was known as a top medium-sized paper.
Out of those 30 packages, I got about 15 responses. Every one was a form letter. Every one said they regretted to inform me. The other 15 papers ignored me.
That was my first lesson. In a tough market, no matter how great you think your application package, it seldom works to just blindly mail it in.
So I tried another tactic. I drew up a new crop of papers and called first. In a few cases, I got through to an editor and chatted. I followed up with tailored application packages explaining why I wanted to work for each specific paper. I got a few personal responses. That was headway. I figured something would now come through.
But they all said no.
At that point, I figured my life was over. I commiserated with my classmate Laddie, who had just been rejected by every medical school he applied to.
I graduated, went back home to Chicago and kept up the routine -- phone calls followed by application letters followed by rejections.
Finally, I took it to the next level. I called to say I would like to visit for an interview. I suppose that's obvious enough -- face-to-face is always your best chance. But I assumed you can't do that unless invited. No one invited me. They said it was pointless; there were no openings.
By month four, I made a decision.
I would go anyway.
I began to call papers, asking for the hiring editor, and if he wasn't available, anyone. Of course, they said they had nothing to offer. But this time, I said, "Funny thing, I was just planning to be in Lima, Ohio. Would it be OK if I stopped in just to introduce myself?"
It's hard to say no to that, and few did.
As for those who did say no, I went anyway.
I got into a car with a friend who was looking for jobs in television, and we headed east. We hit many cities, including Lima.
Almost every time -- because we were there -- we got in. Sometimes, I got a whole hour. No one offered me a job, but I could tell it put me higher on the pile. I think employers also feel that if someone is creative and aggressive in the hunt, they'll be the same in the job.
Finally, on the final leg home, I walked into the newsroom of the Utica Daily Press in upstate New York the same day that a person they had planned to hire fell through.
I got the job.
In some ways, it was coincidence that I got there on just the right day. But talking your way into dozens of interviews does increase coincidence.
Two years later, I had a similar six-month job hunt, though not all at once. I called, sent packages, called again, and whenever I had a day or two off, I'd head off to knock on doors. I again called Providence, and they said don't bother. But one day, I drove six hours here anyway and arrived just when a key editor had no one to go to lunch with, and when the hiring editor had someone else fall through.
I've stayed ever since. Over the years, former colleagues and classmates told me to head to the big cities, but having found a job I liked -- that of columnist -- I saw no reason to trade it in just to say I'm in a bigger ballpark. It's what you do, not where you are.
My television friend found a job in Plattsburgh, N.Y, and moved on to Miami. As for Laddie, he's now a surgeon in Baltimore.
I don't doubt this job market is tougher than the ones I faced. I feel lucky that I don't have to fight it right now. But if I did, even all these years later, I'm pretty sure the tactics I used twice before would be worth trying again.
(mpatinkin(at)projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The Providence JournalColumn
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