I thought I’d share my job hunting experience as it’s extremely different to many others out there.
I’ve worked in the food industry since I left high school. I made a career out of it by learning about QA side of things; hygiene, process controls, weights and measures, product testing and inspection, etc. I found myself unemployed when a bad drought became too much for the large farm I was working at became too much and they went out of business. After a few months of there being no work at all in my field anywhere nearby, suddenly there were two job openings at once. One was a vinegar factory and the other a juice factory. I applied to both and received an offer from both. While thinking it over I was able to chat with the person who worked the position at the vinegar factory and they told me run for the hills, the boss is a horrible man and his little off-sider is a total Karen who causes drama everywhere she goes. Not to mention, the vinegar job paid $30k/year less. The only reason I was considering it is because it was extremely close while the juice factory was a 30 min drive away.
I ended up taking the juice factory job and it’s been great!

Posted by Beezneez86

10 comments

  1. Data set really doesn’t work if you have that little data.

  2. Could’ve explained the diagram in a sentence.

  7. Makes me want to make a chart. I got a call didn’t even fill out an application. Interviewed and got hired! I got very lucky as they didn’t mean to pull my resume but it somehow happened!

  9. When I put “managed large and complex datasets” in my resume, this is what I mean

  10. You didn’t mention what your environment is like. From what you wrote, it sounds like small town/rural, everyone knows everyone, and it’s probably relatively easy to get a direct line/plug into interviews. I mention this because it stands in stark contrast to the typical big city/suburban dweller sending out 500+ apps to god-knows-who (some scammers, some ghost listings) on indeed.

    When you think about it, going with who you know, and as you did, being able to draw on information from people who have direct experience with the particular people you’ll be working with, is invaluable. I really think this globalistic/online approach most people have to the job hunting process is ultimately backward. People say “networking” — kind of a cringe term, but whatever you want to call it — making friendships/relationships/developing trust makes the whole process way smoother for all involved. I think about it from the employer side all the time, and it’d be really difficult fielding dozens/hundreds of applicants literally from off the street, vs. someone I personally know/someone I know personally knows/trusts. The friction is just so much lower, and you feel you’d have a much higher likelihood of success than essentially cold calling somewhat warm leads.

    In addition to literally just small areas like I suspect yours is, I think it also applies to people that are really deep into a field — i.e. senior or niche positions where people have significant experience. I’m guessing the number of legitimate applications for such jobs are typically in the single digits. Similarly, I think that also becomes a “small town” of sorts, where there’s only so many people in those positions, even amongst major companies in a major cities, so you get a similar effect where everyone knows everyone or is one or two connections away. Again, I think this “closeness” effect makes the whole process so much smoother. “Oh yeah, I know that guy/know someone that knows that guy” seems to translate into a better chance of interview/success than hundreds of online applications/beautiful cover letter/awesome resume/etc. From everything I’ve seen, most jobs, especially heavily in-person jobs where people have to deal with each other on a day to day basis, are going to be way more easily filled by people who can make the employer feel comfortable more so than the person that is the absolute best on paper.

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