How to make money online - Review for Branded Surveys and Survey Junkie - Part 3 of 3

 This is not a paid review but I do have an invitation link for Branded Surveys listed in a few places because everyone that signs up gets one and it can't hurt to try.

How to make money online - Review for Branded Surveys and Survey Junkie - Part 3

I could barely get through the one month that I said I would try both sites. 

Survey Junkie just annoyed me so fast. I had used it in the past and part of me really hoped that they had improved the percentage for making the qualifications  but... No. I also thought that changes in my life and titles would also help but that was also a no. 

They do give you a few pity points for not qualifying for the survey. Around 1-3 points is what I have been seeing. Which isn't too bad because that will slowly add up. 

They also will popup surveys on on your site dashboard for 1-3 points. They are usually super short but theoretically they should improve your odds if you don't want to install any apps.

I am still against adding blatant spy apps onto my devices just for being certified to be able to take surveys. I am a little tempted to get a separate computer setup to put that crap on it instead. That I could see myself doing.

If only crypto miners hadn't destroyed the computer market. Maybe I can find a super cheep laptop to test this with?

On to the next site!

Branded Surveys doesn't count the surveys that you don't qualify for towards your monthly surveys. And no pity points either. I made more points doing the Daily Poll, formerly the Daily Survey, then from surveys.

Which explains a LOT about the number of people in the Gold Rewards tier when I first started looking into this.

Speaking of the  Rewards, I am starting to wonder if the additional percentages stack.

12+ surveys bronze = 5%

12+ surveys silver =  10%

12+ surveys gold = 15%

But to get gold you have to have completed 25+ surveys? Is it adding the percentages for the 12 or 20 or 30+ ranges together? I haven't qualified for enough surveys to find out. It would explain why so many people are in the 20,000 - 30,000 point range.

Then again, after going on their site casually for 3 days I have not been qualified for a single survey. The points are very slow going. I'm not sure I'm going to bother with it.

The irony of this test is that I think I am more inclined to use Survey Junkie. Years and Years ago when they were new they were... not good at all. Fortunatly they seemed to have fixed that.

They have really upped their game with getting you surveys that you can actually do. It only took me casually 3 days to get to the $5 pay out. So, if you are going to invest your free time I say go with Survey Junkie because you'll at least get $5.

How to make money online - Review for Survey Junkie - Part 2 of 3

 This is not a paid review.

Review for Survey Junkie - Part 2

I was looking at other lists for good sites to take surveys that will pay you. There are some that dominate others review lists that I will eventually get to but I am going to start with Branded Surveys. 

I found out that in order to use their site you have to let them sell your information. If you want to opt-out you can but you account & points will be deleted and you will not be able to do any more surveys.

They give you points for signing up, finishing your profile.

They have a secondary app they want you to get and any icon with the Pulse you are 100% guaranteed to qualify for. Might be worth it but at the same time I really don't want an obvious spy app on my phone.So I am doing this with out that additional app.

Each point is worth $0.01 and you need 500 points or $5 minimum to cash out.

To get to the $5 it take 500 surveys at a min of one point each. 

Which seems easier then Branded Surveys. But if you take into account the bonuses and referral link that Branded surveys has, then they seem almost about the same. more in part 3

It doesn't seem to offer any sort of invite code or a reward for inviting others. Which is strange because generally companies want to have some encouragement for word of mouth. Branded survey does give you a referral link to share. So I do have an invitation link for Branded Surveys which they make sure you know and see it as soon as possible.

It seems to have an app that doesn't seem very popular. 

I am going to be playing with Survey Junkie as I do Branded Surveys. But as they are so alike I am probably only going to have one more update planed for this series.

How to make money online - Review for Branded Surveys - Part 1 of 3

 This is not a paid review but I do have an invitation link listed in a few places because everyone that signs up gets one and it can't hurt to try.

How to make money online - Review for Branded Surveys - Part 1

I was looking at other lists for good sites to take surveys that will pay you. There are some that dominate others review lists that I will eventually get to but I am going to start with Branded Surveys. 

I found out that in order to use their site you have to let them sell your information. If you want to opt-out you can but you account & points will be deleted and you will not be able to do any more surveys.

It is an extremely easy site to sign-up with. Their sites re-directs don't seem to work well with my extensions that i have running on FireFox so I am using Chrome for it.

The dashboard looks very clean and intuitive to me. There is a Daily Survey offered and for the larger surveys it lists both the points that can be earned  as well as an estimate for how long the survey could take. Pretty convenient.

There is a Rewards area that has a ranking system biased on how many surveys you have completed per month. Which can potentially give Bonus Points that is an additional percentage. The highest reward percent is the Gold level for taking 30+ a month you get 19% bonus. It also mentions a bonus if you do 12 surveys per week, but it doesn't show what that could be.

There is a Leader Board that shows the top survey points of the day. It also shows the leader for the Week and Month. There are bonuses for being in the top 50 for Day & Week and for the top 20 for the Month.  They also give out point for a random winner for each day, week and month respectively.

There is a link to see the last 10 winners for Day/Week/Month. There are people earning over 1,000 points a day. For weekly it looks like a range of 7,000 - 9,000 earning range. Monthly seems to be 26,000 - 30,000. So if you want to be on that list it is hefty competition. The Gold & Silver levels also have their payouts instantly approved. If you are bronze or less then it can be 1-2 days for approval.

the money you get per point is only one penny or $0.01so the top monthly earners are getting about $260 - $300 a month for all their work. To get 30,00 points a month at 50 points per survey you would have to do 600 surveys a month.

Or 150 surveys every week. 

Or 20 surveys every day for 30 days. 

Or 30 surveys a day if you are only doing them Monday through Friday.

Although if you are earning 30,000 points a month and at a Gold reward level that would bring in an extra 5,700 points or $57 which isn't too bad.

You need a minimum of $5 or 500 points to cash out. The max you can cash out at a time is $1,000. Your cash out options are direct deposit, Paypal or gift cards. They list the direct deposit as their fastest and preferred method. It might be worth it to open a secondary account with your bank just for direct deposits. Some banks do a $100 free when you open a new account and have it for a year but I haven't heard of that deal for a while.

This all sounds good until you find out that you are agreeing for them to sell your information. If you want to opt-out you can but you account & points will be deleted and you will not be able to do any more surveys. I personally really hate the idea of companies selling my information. At least this one is a little bit open with it. They are a survey site so it does make sense and they do pay a good amount. But still.

Seeing as I just recently started this I do not know how smoothly the funds transfer is going to be. Assuming I make it to the $5 point. I will have a followup once I am able to test that. I'm planning on being super casual with this so... 10 surveys shouldn't be too hard to do. 

There is also an app but it dosen't seem to be very popular? I'll be experimenting with that also.

And if anyone feels like joining me in this you can click my invitation link because there is a 50 point reward for each time someone uses your link to signup.

on the Volt car Warranty

 Long story short car financial managers are going to lie to you that the very very clearly specified warranty will not cover what it says it will. They will say it only covers the battery.

Like I said, they lie.

There is a 8 year / 100,000 mile warranty by Chevy/GM that covers all the electronics that make the car run in their Warranty Manuel that is listed on their site but that the dealership will try to charge you $4,000+ to fix. Specifically the BECM.

This only work if you are still in/under the 8 year / 100,000 mile warranty!!

 I didn't even know about this warranty let alone that I was still covered by it. Thankfully my friend did and was texting me info on it while we were talking about it before I authorized the work. 

No your tech guys will not check the warranty for you. Again you will need to specify VoltTech and the Warranty Manuel that is on GM's site.

There are a few small-ish things like the 12volt battery that can cost $200 & the $400 coolant flushing that they have to do 3 times & they are required to do (I am still arguing about this one but seems legit) and any  other thing that is not the main control box or specifies as being under the VoltTech warranty.

 

Also AAA got me a super Super awesome tow company that was able to give me a ride with them to the dealership near my parents that was almost 3 hours away from the gas station that my car wouldn't turn back on at. Super awesome guys.

Now if you just say that you found info on it on a website no one is going to take you seriously. That is why you have to specify VoltTech and the Warranty Manuel that is on GM's site.

 The site I found that told me about the VoltTech part was https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/2017-battery-energy-control-module-replacement-becm.328801/page-3

The problem I (and a ton of others) had was "shift to park" error.

There is a forced restart that I did by accident when my car wouldn't start the day before my trip. something like holding the power button on for 10-20 seconds and then leaving the door open for 60 seconds. I did this while freaking out in my driveway at home. This is a full shutdown of the car because the "shift to park" error doesn't let you shut your car off all the way.

So! fortunately because I freaked out the day before I was completely calm when I had the same problem at the gas station and I was totally not shocked when the earlier solution didn't work.

I do think my calm and relaxed attitude threw the tow guys for a loop. But they were super awesome.

Suit Shopping for an Interview

I do not recomend doing this two days before your interview. You just really do not want to do it.

But I did.

I started this 3-16-2011... Here I am now and I still have the same suit.

It was a bad suit. I look like a trope for a substitute teacher gone wrong or serial killer.

In the same six years I finally have comfortable interview shoes... I just need to find a better suit.

I think I will take a page out of Japans job hunting ideas and go with black slacks, coat and a white under shirt. I would love to get away with using my black scrub pants but I think they will stand out too much. I'm not saying I won't try it but I probably won't get any flying reviews from it.

Womens clothing is terribal if you are trying to not spend much.

I would rather find a nice suit coat at a second hand store and have it tailored to fit me. This will probably amount to the same over all cost, but the difference is that the coat will fit me perfectly.

If I tailored a new coat it would cost more but last longer.

No one has an assortment of interview outfits unless you are very, very rich or moving within the same dress code. If you are going from uniform to business casual then it is so very hard. I would say that the best bet is to have 2-3 different choices. Which is my ultimate goal.

I also just really don't like my current suit.

The dream of making money online

I have written a few things about this phenomenon. Yes, phenomenon. It has turned into a cryptid of sorts over the last few years.

Blogging for money has reached a mythical level during this time.

But over all I think that not time, but corporate entities have killed it. I think the deck has always been stacked against blogging. It was a good thing and in some ways it is still a good thing.

It's just much, much harder to make money with it in a casual manner.

The Math post I did was based on other peoples experiences. Looking at it now I can't believe that people could get 100 new readers with each post. That is almost impossible not because of the advertising needed but because no one really looks for home bloggers anymore.

Which leads to the next problem, the evolutionary drift of peoples interests.

This blog has always been my ranting and job hunting release point. It is also a very casual thing for me. If i'm not pissed then I am probably not writing. Do I have posts started and not done? Yes. Do I have time to focus 100% of my attention on this? No.

Do I have a better idea of how the whole blogging this works? Yes, actually.

The big rush in the blogging world is over. The networking needed to restart it can be done. Personally I think webrings should make a comeback. They were seemingly easy bits of code you could stick on your site and be linked with other sites like yours. Blogger briefly had something like that but it seems to have dissapeard a few years ago.

I have a few other blogs that I update on a more regular schedule. They are less to make money and more for me to keep track of what I am doing. Eventually I would love for them to make money but it probably will not be with ads. It will be selling my own products.

This is how you make money blogging now.

I post update notifications on tumblr and twitter. I have an instagram. I have a set up that is mostly automatic but needs work. I have some posts backlogged because I will have good writing days.

All of this helps to get regular updates done.

All of this helps you to reach people.

How ever there is no autopilot. You have to wright and work and interact with people. Companies will make it harder and harder for you to make 'free' money because there is no free money.

But they can not truly stop you from selling things you own.

A popular craft selling site has new ToS that are trying to make as much money off you as possible, but I think when people go back to blogging and making websites like we did in the 90's... Then we will have more power again.

While a lot of the 90's internet was lost, I think there is still so much that wasn't. Personal experiences can never be taken away.

Here is to the new beginning.

An Interview and A Red Flag

So I had an... Interesting interview with a company.

They were a bit odd.

I had instructions to ask the reception worker to call them to let them know I was there and... they kinda gestured to a phone across the way and said to call. No instructions on how to use the phone system. I called the wrong extension twice but fortunately hung up before I reached anyone there. After an explanation the other reception worker called for me.

The agency I work with didn't mention that there would be three people doing the interview, but that happens.

The start was very basic with introductions and such. The odd feeling would come and go depending on questions. They asked in round robin style.

After the first question I knew that I didn't have the knowledge that they were looking for.

Near the middle of their question-asking I realized they hadn't asked me anything about my resume. I only realized because I have a time gap on it that has never been missed or skipped over. Ever.

When it cam time for me to ask them about the job, most of the position questions had been answered. So I asked my little short list of questions to see if I would be able to fit in with them.

They all but refused to answer three of my questions.

I asked about the culture there, how they will measure success in the position and the difference between a good & great employee in the position.

I have never had that type of reaction before. I can't fully explain it, it was just out there.

The culture one is usually answered with a customers first type of response that quickly launches into how they treat their employees. Or company holiday parties or something. I was met by silence then one said that customer centered environment. Another that it was a very racily diverse employment. The last they enjoyed their coworkers.

When I asked how they measure success in the position there was another pause before one gave the response that was simply 'with yearly preformace evaluations'. Which ended that.

Last I asked the difference between a good & great employee in the position. This is usually greeted with comments of the question itself before a response. This was again met with silence and nothing was actually said. More importantly, one of the interviewers was leafing the position and they didn't say any good things about them.

Fortunately the interview ended shortly after that.

The last question summed up things they didn't say to me that I am taking as this is a bad corporate environment. For each of the questions I got odd, almost angry looks. And who wouldn't take an opportunity to remind a soon to be former employee that you value all their work?

I think I will be very happy if I don't fit their bill. Should I be asked for a second interview I would agree, but I can tell I am not what they are looking for.

Can you afford your job?

An odd title, but an important question that I never thought much about.

So way, way back in 2011 I wrote about debt & controlling mothers... By the end of that summer we got into another argument and this time she said "fine! then you can do it!". I haven't grabbed anything so fast in my life. ((Small recap, my mom wanted to be, and was in total control of my finances because blah blah blah and I was lazy & trying to do too much at once.))

After all was said and done I know have savings. Mostly because I finished paying off my card. I would have more if I have done my credit card balance transfer a hell of a lot sooner.

I transferred two credit card balances into one credit card bill. I had two bills that my mom had insisted on paying more then the min on. $275 each was what she had been doing before I got control of it. After? I'm paying $200 because that is the amount that works and is slightly over my minimum.

Unfortunately I chose to do a little math and looked into what was the minimum I would have to make per hour if I wanted to get a new job. I'm using really bad math but it makes for a nice cushion when planning.

Example:
$11 hr x 40 hr = $440 x 52 wk = $22,880 - 40% = $13,738

I played with my pay check and found that 40% was pretty close to representing taxes and health and 401k crap.  I should have just gone with 50% and made my life a tad easier.

My old job? didn't pay anywhere near that. In fact, my bills were $3,000 over what I was making. Not counting the trips my mom encouraged me to go on and starting a jewelry thing. All the while saying I could afford it.

I was very lucky that I am so boring or it could have been much, much worse.

From a financial point, this was a very bad situation. Emotionally? Nah, I'm good. Yes we argue and such but it's a 'normal' thing. She has stopped asking if I want her help because I was mean and laughed evil.

Personaly I would be much better off if I could move out. But that is slowly in the works (p.s. the first time home buyers club is evil) but I don't know if I can scrounge up the closing costs. Closing costs are the devil.

Longest Interview Proses Ever

"Well, long time no update. The main reason for that is I have been going through one of the longest interview proses in my live. It spanned almost two months with three interviews and one test. Everyone was so nice and everything.

And I got the job. :3

I can't tell you how happy I am about this. All the stress of looking and here it is. I have to say I did not find this job on my own. I did work with a hiring agent and she was very helpful. Two actually, both at different companies and both were very nice and helpful.

I can't believe I don't have to keep waiting to hear back on an interview anymore.

I can't tell you how badly I wanted this job. The people I met were wonderful and it just felt right. They have a wonderful training program. The are also closer to my home so I will have a shorter commute. They also have wonderful benefits.

The only problem is that my new school is near my old job. So I will probably end up dorming 1-2 nights a week and then heading strait to work. it's going to be interesting learning all my new classes and job duties at the same time.

Adding the the stress, I have to go shopping and get my new work cloths because I'm going from uniform to work casual. My sister is looking forward to it."


God this is from so long ago. If you ever find yourself apart of an interview proses that takes two or more months you need to think about it and see if there were any warning signs about the company that you might have missed. Don't let desperation blind you to interviewer stupidity.

And if they ALWAYS get your current job title wrong (say calling you a manager instead of a receptionist) then get the hell away from them as soon as possible.

Just saying...

Easy ways to make money online: Math

So, I went over the time that will be spent and thought I should do a post on views you need to make money. Because money is the goal of blogging for money. This is going to be another long post but it breaks down the simple math for you to see. The pay off is not fast unless you really work at it.

If you do one post a week for a year that is 52 posts a year.

If you plan to do 3 posts a week per year that is 156 posts a year or about 12 posts a month.

If you plan to do 5 posts a week that brings you to 260 posts a year.

7 posts a dys will bering you to 364 posts a year.

If you get crazy and post 2 times a day every day of the week, you would be posting 730 a year.

This adds up to a lot of posts but how much time would you be spending per year typing up the posts? Using that 20 minuet per post average from my last post you would be spending just over 17 hours a year for 52 posts. For a goal of posting twice a day for a year? Over 243 hours a year.

Even with all that in mind it will still take about a year before you see any real money. You have to build up an audience who will view and hopefully click on your ads.

Say if you get $0.20 per click (not an actual amount and very low)? With only 52 posts a year you probably will not be getting very many clicks unless they are very good posts. I got maybe one click my first year.

When posting once a week, if you get 5 views to each post the day you post it and then 3 views in between when you post that would be 416 views your first year.

With three posts a week per year with the same views that would be 1,248 views your first year.

With five posts a week per year with the same views that would be 2,080 views your first year.

 At one click every 200 views you are looking at between $0.40 - $2.08 for your first year. That doesn't sound like that huge check some sites post images of. What you would need would be more posts or more people viewing your posts.

Say you get a small following your second year. 10 people check your site every day you post in addition to the base 8 views from the prior year that would bump the numbers up to $0.94 - $4.68 which is more then double the first year.

Lets get a little more ambitious, say you have been inter mingling with other bloggers and their blogs. Posting comments and taking part in discussions. Maybe you even wrote a guest blog post for a new friend in the blog world. So in stead of having 10 new followers you have 100.

At 52 posts a year that jumps your views to 5,200 from just your followers. That is quite a jump from the first years estimate of 416. Switching to just follower views&clicks you would be getting $5.20 - $26 a year.

Now, lets assume that you are using that SEO and other methods of getting you name out into the web and that you wrote 20 guest posts for other blogs. Perhaps you met people in person and they posted about you and linked to your blog. Lets even go so far as to say the stars aligned and you are just winning at the internet your third year.

Say you now have 1,000 followers who check your blog every time you post. Say you also get 500 random views for each new post and 300 in between each post. Bringing your views to 46,800 - 468,000 per year. That is $46.80 - $468 per year at one click every 200 views.

However, if you are getting that many views you are starting to enter the realm of pay for every 1,000 views. If you got $0.20 for every 1,000 views then that would give you an additional $9.36 - $93.60 per year bumping your total to $56.16 - $561.60 per year.

Now this is when we start to have fun with totals because for now we have only been talking about static numbers. Let us move into the world of the 'what if' scenario.

What if you were able to get 100 new followers every time you posted? That would be between 5,200 - 15,600 people a year finding your blog. Bump that number to 1,000 new people every time you post and that would be between 52,000 and 260,000 people a year.

At 52,000 and 260,000 people a year viewing your blog would be 2,704,000 - 13,520,000 views a year or $2,704 - $13,520 with one click for every 200 people.

Now this is the money you were thinking of when you started blogging. This is the kind of money eveyone thinks about making by doing nothing but as you can see it does take a lot of work.

Odviously the more people you get to your site every day with make a huge impact on the amount that you earn.

The more you take part in the community the more people will see you and the more chances you will have for clicks.

Easy ways to make money online: Time

Yes, I have talked about doing this and I am finally going to do a series of posts about easy ways to make money online.

While you probably can't hear me banging my head on my desk, I assure you that I am. I have had so much frustration on this subject that I can't even... Yeah more banging my head on the desk there.

The methods I have tried will be what I am posting about. They range from a parking a domain name, blogging, popular web searches for a website to god knows what else. I have so many pages of notes that I scribbled out and what if's... Thinking about the amount of time I have spent researching and testing methods is as amazing as it is frightening.

So, with that said I am going to talk about the time aspect. Easy money and time are not and will not be the same thing. The exception is if you plan on spending a boat load of money and having someone else do everything for you. (Which would be counter productive to the whole making money idea but if that is your prerogative then you are all set!)

Any 'easy way to make money online' is going to take a huge time investment.

First you have to figure out just what you want to do. did you want to write a blog about a little niche topic or one about something that you have endless amounts of knowledge on? While niche topics are will get you higher in Google search rankings they can be a bit harder to work with. You would really have to know your topic and that means more time needs to be spent on each post.

Then you need to find out what kind of site you want to have and if you want to make the site yourself. Using a blog service like Blogger does save you time because if you want to start from scratch with out knowing how to make a site... you could end up spending hours in classes or reading tutorials online and that is a really big nightmare. Trust me, cheat a little in the beginning and use a free blogging service or site.

This brings us to the time needed to set up all your accounts. (If you are going to make a separate Google account for your blog you have to keep in mind that Google only wants you to have one Blogger account. Google is effectively taking the anonymity out of the internet. I am not recommending one way or another about this.) A short list would be email, blogger, AdSense, and a web domain name. all you would have to register with before being able to use and then connecting them all together will take more time. You'd be looking at several hours to get this done for your first blog site.

You will need to set time aside to make your posts. This always seems like the easy part. But you have to log in to your blog, come up with a title, figure out what you are writing about, type out your post, label it and then make sure it posts.

If you are adding pictures to it then you need to take the pictures or find them, label them, add appropriate credits, up load them, add them to your post and then make sure they post properly. This is not a couple of minuets. A quality post with photos can take 20 or more to type and set up.

If you post with e-mail it will be faster to get the post on your blog but you will have to go back and label your post after you send it. You can also set it up to not post your e-blogs and then post and label them later. But still lots of time.

There is also getting people to your blog. Just posting can get you nothing for a long time, you will have to interact with other people and blogs that are similar to your topics. this also takes a lot of time because no one is going to automatically follow the new kid on the block.

There is also SOE which takes an insane amount of time just o figure out what it is, how it works and how you should go about it. There is a reason there are companies that offer to do this for you for a large price.

You could make a Facebook page and a Twitter account but these are time sinks and not worth it unless you are a big corporation with the need to be in constant contact with your customers. There are some people with blogs that do have a Facebook page and twitter accounts and yes they handle it well. The difference is that they already have a bigger following and did not use it to advertise.

Advertising is an option but will cost money and time.

Blog exchange sites also take time because you need to register and verify each blog you want to add. You also have to be posting on a more active level. If you only post 1-2 times a month or less then this probably won't be worth your time.

It takes time to get people to your site and it will take time before you see the profit from their views of ads or if you are lucky from their clicks on the ads.

This all takes time. There is no instant money from blogging. In some cases it can take years. If you are blogging to only make money it will show in your posts and chances are you will not make any money with out spending a lot of time on your blog.

On Crappy People in Charge of Hiring

Wow that title is a tad bitter...

See, I never put much thought into the whole hiring proses beyond getting the job. It just never occurred to me that some people should never be allowed any ware near the hiring proses. Ever.

First thing first, if someone that you are interviewing with doesn't know the difference between a receptionist and a sales manager. Especially after you explain each time that no you are not a sales manager and they still try to convince you that no rally they are the same thing... you need to run and run very far away.

When it comes to job experiance and you know you don't have it say so. Because if you do get sold on a job that you feel or know you can't do, your screwed.

Yes I dealt with this and yes I did take the job. Guess what? they didn't spend any time training me nor did they want to. they wanted some one to start in another building that they didn't need to train. I had my warning flags and I ignored them. Even in my "exit interview" the person that hired me insisted that there was no difference between a receptionist and a sales manager. My only hope is that since an owner of the company was present at it (and completely miserable) I hope that they took a good look what that person did wrong and don't let them be in charge of hiring people.

I really, really can not tell you just how bitter I am about this whole thing. And beyond that, after seeing first hand how they run both the corporate and manufacturing sides I can never recommend or comment on them to people. I just don't feel comfortable about it.

However if anyone ever asks me if I think they should work there I will say no. And while I would love to ask who they are interviewing with I can't. I know that would put me in a bad position and I never want to deal with thous people or their company again.

So a short check list:
-  is a job/company/training solution sounds too good to be true.
- they tell you one amount for pay in the interview and tell you another in the offer.
- want you in another office building right away were no one else that would be training you works at.
- tell you that they "don't remember saying that" every time you talk to them about things from the interviews.
- they take 2 months for 3 interviews to narrow it to 2 people.
-the interviewer says "there is no difference between a receptionist and a sales manager".

Then the job is probably not the one you want to be with and you should run like hell. I wish I had run like hell and not taken that job. But it's done and over with. I feel so much better now that I have that out of my system.

What a Cover Letter Really is

Cover Letters they are the bane of my job search. The examples I have found tend to be so vague that I can't tell which section is which. I will admit to having photo copied a cover letter that was sent in to us(it was exactly like the ones I saw online...). So I have gone back to searching the internet for help.

Career Builder has an Article on Covering Your Bases: Make Your Cover Letter Count which is short they have a to do list for your letter.

1) Follow a standard business letter format.
2) Writing the opening.
3) Demonstrate your knowledge of the company.
4) Explain your current situation.
5) Explain why this job interests you.
6) Briefly elaborate on one or two key points to draw attention to your resume.
7) Don't rehash your resume.
8) Have someone else review your cover letter.
9) Closing the letter.


Each section has a brief description of what you could put there... but it's still so very vague.But when put into list format it starts to make a bit more sense. I think for myself I will just have to go for it and try to be creative. Because the general ones I had been sending out just don't get my any answers.

 I will re-hash my cover letter when I notice something seems off about it. While it is a pain re-hashing it can keep it fresh and save it from looking like a form letter. Also it makes companies think I type it new If I happen to re-apply to a company a second time.

Another Way to Not Get an Interview

Please do not use a resume that is a photo copy of a photo copy X infinity.... It shows and people will pass it around and laugh at it for a few moments before tossing it out. An almost clear envelope that is written poorly is also not a good idea. Also, only send one to the company and not one to every person in the company.

And send a cover letter or letter of intrest/intent.

And for the love of god send it to a company whose industry you actually have experience in.

This person had the degrees, experiance and age to know better then to do something stupid like this.

If I ever dis this I would want to be mocked.

Dressing for the Job

This is a very true and very harsh topic and unfortunately no matter what people say jobs do judge you on your appearance. This is why some people can still land a job just by looking 'cute'. Even if they don't have some or most of the requirements because of how they look they can get almost any job if they really need to.

They also don't realize this.

If you don't dress just right for your interview then you won't land the job. Too fancy and you won't get it. Not fancy enough and you won't get it. I think that if you look like your are ready to work for the company rather then 'dressing for an interview' that you would have more luck. I did that for my current job and I got it. My bosses also complained that I haven't straitened my hair since. I think I should start doing that again.

And if you think your male boss/coworkers are not looking at your appearance think again. I can't tell you how many times my boss 'teased' me about my white socks. I wore them with black shoes and pants. I finally told him that if it bothered him that much he could buy them for me. That shut him up but I did end up getting them.

It did shock me at how much the guys in the office talked about fashion. Well... more whined but still, it was interesting. Their conversation on pink was highly amusing.

Dressing for an interview can get even more frustrating if you can't seem to get called for an interview. This can cause people to get depressed. Because why get the nice outfit that will go out of style before you can ware it?

I think that if you think of it as treating yourself to a new outfit that will come in handy, then you can start getting into a positive point of view. Personally I would try for this 2-3 times a year because fashions and personal tastes do change. Plus, it won't hurt your budget as much unlike if you grab them all at once.

Baby steps, but you have to start someplace.

Using Indeed.com in Your Job Search

Indeed.com is a wonderful site.

As a search engein it combs through a great many job posting sites and lets you know when they posted. They can show you hiring & salary trends and let you aearch in other cities. Plus you can have new postings sent to you automaticaly. You can also see who made the posting if you want to avoid hiring agents.

But! They are not an actual job posting site, more like a third party search site. They just direct you to the site which has the posting for the position that you are looking for. So you will have to register with the other sites that you are sent to.

Yet with how nicely it will streamline your search I feel it's totally worth registering with other sites.

Advice for Job Hunting on Craigslist.org

Because everyone wants to avoid the spam & scams that plague Craigslist.org

So, first things first. To get directly to your city on Craigslist, in your address bar type Your-city-name before dot-craigslist-dot-org. Like this: newyork.craigslist.org  which will take you to the New York City page.

Next thing you want to keep in mind is to keep a look out for scams. Easier said then done right? Not so.

1) Look for names. If the add asks you to put it to the attention to a specific person the chances are it's a real ad. The same for if there is an e-mail or mailing address that they ask you to respond to.

2) Read the ad and follow any directions it might have. It the add says to send it attention 'specific person' or to add a specific job number, do it. Put it in the subject of your e-mail and in your cover letter. This shows them that you can follow basic instructions and thus shouldn't get you weeded out of the running.

3) Avoid ads that offer to pay way higher then the going rate in your area. If in your area your job lands you $10 and the post is offering $20? Chances are it is not legit.

4) Watch out for duplicate ads. Sometimes the scams will use the same format for the same position and post many times. Some sneaky hiring agents do the same thing. After a while you will notice that some look exactly like ones from the last time you looked and while the location might change chances are they are a scam. Also, Craigslist has a 30 day rule which is basically that you can't post the same ad with in 30 days of your last post. A handy little thing to keep in mind.

5) Watch their grammar in both the subject and the body of the ad. Most are gimmicks to get you to apply, they are pretty obvious but some might sneak past your watch. There are some people who are legitimately bad at making postings. These are usually done by people that are not used to looking to fill an opening, by people who don't really use the internet or just someone having a bad day.

It's not a long list but if you keep these things in mind when job hunting on craigslist they could make you search a little bit easier. I use all of these methods in my own searches and I use them as I discovered them. I have gotten more call backs using this list then I have just replying at random.

Remember When E-mailing Your Resume

Just a quick post but when you are replying to a job posting via e-mail make sure to attach your resume to it. Sending a second e-mail, the same as the first but with the resume attached is a good back up plan. Personally I have not heard back from anyone were I forgot to send my resume with my first e-mail.

Also, I have tried using the BCC options in responding to the craigslist ads that were for the same or similar position title. I did get some responses but it was a pain to figure out what went with what. Also when they did respond most were scams and the others didn't mention craigslist at all. When I tested it to myself it looked kind of obvious that I had e-mailed the same thing to several people. The BCC tag is a bit of a tip-off. Personally I don't know if I will try that method again.

Another Job Search Method

So in my current search I had decided to only reply to postings that supply a separate e-mail in their add.

As you can image this has dramatically reduced the amount of e-mails I am sending. With this I'm hopeing this will also reduce the amount of scam adds that I respond to. Or the amount of sneaky hiring agencies that try and trick you into applying with them and you never hear from them again.

I have not tried faxing to companies because I do not have a fax machine. The ones that ask you to call are also not high only list because I would have to call them during work and I am not comfortable with that. But if you are go right ahead and try it.

The advantage to this is most News Paper Ads will have e-mails in them. While it is hard to tell how long the ads have been there, or if the position has been filled but the ad is still running, they are still worth a look.

Because you just never know what you might find.

How to Change Your Mailling Address

So you have a new job in another city, got a P.O. Box, switching apartments or you are moving for better weather... Now you have to look into switching your mailing address. The United States Postal Service has made it very easy to change your address.

This is the link you want.

this makes it extremely easy to do when moving or getting a P.O. Box or switching apartments. Which ever the reason this is the link that you would want to use. Or you could always go in to your local post office and get a form to fill out. Which ever you are more comfortable with.