Best day to stop at local shops for job hunting?

[gan]

So what day do you suggest I should go a friday or monday or any day inbetween. I haven't heard from any of the places I applied with doing comercial work, so I went and talked to my school advisors and they gave me the name of couple residential companys to check with. I was thinking of stopping by and talking to them and giving them my resume and cover letter. Any tips i would appreciate any.

[bluetooth751]

I always look for someone that properly fills out the application. Make sure you do not misspell any words.

I suggest you dress business casual also. (Polo shirt and dockers).

Have your resume on good quality paper.

When being interviewed use yes sir/mam. Try to avoid saying "you know" a thousand times in one sentence. When you can't think of anything to say just pause leave the uuuhhhhhhhs to someone else.

Make sure you go in with a positive attitude and if you have good people skills show case them.

Those are just a few of the things I personally look for.

If you need a place to start your career we're hiring in South Louisiana trade school grads start at min $12.00 hr plus bennies.

[thermotron1]

Bluetooth hit the nail on the head.
Certainly want to be very positive.

What frustrates me as an employer more than anything else is the applicant having the attitude of : "how can you help me Mr. Employer" as opposed to "how can I help you Mr. Employer" actually I don't even mind it if the applicant has the attitude of "this is how I think we can help each other Mr. Employer"

Make sure you take information to fill out your application properly (addresses, phone numbers, etc.) and don't leave anything BLANK!

Good luck.

[timebuilder]

I look for an employer that sees me as a valuable asset, one to be cultivated and increased in value, and I look for a company that will follow up with compensation and benefits that support that attitude.

Often, it is the person like me that interfaces with the customer in an intelligent, friendly, and upstanding manner, and I become the "face" of that company. How valuable is that to a company?

The employer-employee dynamic can be a very rocky one, and many employers do absolutely nothing to improve it. Good business people know from leaders like Dale Carnegie that people will rise (or descend) to the level of expectations that are communicated to them, even if that communication is nonverbal and indirect. An employer who lets his workers feel that he has contempt for them will soon have workers who are contemptuous of him, as well.

The relationship is a two-way street, and a great many people forget that truth.

Anecdote:

there is a company in my town that always has a sign up for "help wanted." Now, this is help for a skilled trade (welding) that the company needs to stay in business, but I can think of no other outfit in town that spends as much as they do on the classified section. After some investigation, I discovered that the pay is lower than others in the area offer, the company has no benefits, and the guy is not a "slave driver," but is about as far as one can get from the Carnegie philosophy. He always needs people because people are always leaving voluntarily, or being let go.

You would think that after several years of this, there would be a light bulb going on over this guy's head, but no such luck. He ends up with bikers who weld, ex-cons who weld, and young guys out of rehab who can barely make a bead.

Now, he could avoid all this cost and drama by simply offering more money and getting better people who will perform every day, but he would also need to change his managerial style, and that is a shortcoming he may not be willing to overcome.

What a bunch of needless, wasted energy.

[gan]

Thanks guys I appreciate the info, I will put a folder together one side with my resume and cover letter other side with any information I might need to fill out a application there on site. Now I worked for Intel for 4yrs but the contacts I had I don't think work there anymore should I just but the number down to the main line?

[thermotron1]

Main line shouldn't be a problem. However you will want to provide some sort of direct contact information of those you use to work with in order to complete references.

[gan]

Thats the problem the numbers I have don't work, and last time talked to a buddy of mine who lived up there I was told where I worked was being shutdown so they either quit, got "relocated" or got hired on at the new 12in fab. I lost out on a job with siemens becuase I couldn't locate anybody I knew when I worked there.

[thermotron1]

Thats the problem the numbers I have don't work, and last time talked to a buddy of mine who lived up there I was told where I worked was being shutdown so they either quit, got "relocated" or got hired on at the new 12in fab. I lost out on a job with siemens becuase I couldn't locate anybody I knew when I worked there.

Unfortunately, that is a tough situation. If I were you I would maybe try and do a little bit of research prior to...do a search on the White Pages or Yahoo Phonebook websites to see if you can locate some of these people. It is nearly inevitable that you will need to call on them eventually. Like here, I would be doing a lot of that tracking down of these people if you were a final candidate for a postion....but if you came in with most of it or even some of it already done...you just earned yourself a ton of points with me. For now I would roll with the main number...at least they can verify your employment and hopefully you have a supervisor that has just moved with the company that they can locate. I know this ain't much help, but I wish you well.

[gan]

Thanks I just talked to the guy I worked with part time when i wasn't in class doing pm's and troubleshooting in comercial units and he said I could put him down as a contact. Him and I got along real well; he just doesn't have enough work to hire me on, so he said he would be willing to put in a good word for me.

One of the problems with Intel was that they switched supervisors like we change underwear in the 4yrs I worked there had 9 diffrent supervisors. Now I left in 2004; july to be exact so its almost 3yrs ago should I still be putting forth a strong effort to track some of the people down?

[thermotron1]

Thanks I just talked to the guy I worked with part time when i wasn't in class doing pm's and troubleshooting in comercial units and he said I could put him down as a contact. Him and I got along real well; he just doesn't have enough work to hire me on, so he said he would be willing to put in a good word for me.

One of the problems with Intel was that they switched supervisors like we change underwear in the 4yrs I worked there had 9 diffrent supervisors. Now I left in 2004; july to be exact so its almost 3yrs ago should I still be putting forth a strong effort to track some of the people down?



Well, to be honest that really depends on the employer. We value our referencing/verification process here...so we try to reference every job all the way back to high school...even if you've had a prior 20 year career. It has been our way of doing things since the early 1960's and we have found that our turnover rate is exceptional relatively speaking. Not to say that other companies aren't more sucessful, or can't do it another way...thats just the way that we do it.

I guess what I am trying to say is...it all depends on which company you are applying for. Some it is important to them, some it is not as important. I would say if you have the time and feel like putting forth the extra effort...go for it.

[gan]

Thx I have only had 2 full time jobs and one part time proir to school then while in school a part time job, I don't like to jump from company to company I genereally stay for long period. So my job history is not that long even though I am 30 only 4 places

[maxster]

walking in with a resume puts them in a wierd position offices like to review the persons info prior to a meeting them.try this call a company you might want to work for and get the Service managers name and send him the resume...wait a week and then call him direct thru the receptioninst and ask him if there are any openings and or interest for the upcoming season.never call on a monday "zooland" in a big service groups,tuesdays late PM maybe...wednsdays the best day...thursdays last chance ...fridays forget it everybody is planning their weekends...tired by weeks end.never take a interview the same day of the call to talk,give yourself a good 12 hours "pre-game" to get your routine/mind set...EXAMPLE they call you tuesday at 1PM to come in ASAP you say at their convience wed...thurs late mornings 10/11AM latter in the week are cool.one of the biggest things to keep in mind(1)you always have interviews coming up and(2)just as many resumes out being read...if asked! http://www.mepatwork.com/(qx2nxu45ljzk2xfwpmwrdc33)/JobSeekerPages/profileList.aspx?stateAbbrev=TX

[alpha480v]

So what day do you suggest I should go a friday or monday or any day inbetween. I haven't heard from any of the places I applied with doing comercial work, so I went and talked to my school advisors and they gave me the name of couple residential companys to check with. I was thinking of stopping by and talking to them and giving them my resume and cover letter. Any tips i would appreciate any.


I would say the best days to stop by are tueday, wed, or thursday. Mondays are bad because jobs are being scheduled, and paperwork from the previous week is being processed. A busy shop is hectic on mondays. Fridays are bad because the person in charge of hiring might be taking a long weekend.

[gan]

Thanks I appreciate all the replies I stopped by and dropped off my resume. One of the first questions that was asked was if I had any experience so i told them I worked part time while in school for a AC company. Hopefully it will help. Now to wait and see what happens.

[gan]

Well I had an interview today I am little uncertain about taking it, they are offering 7/hr with a dollar raise in 30 days to be a installer helper. No guarantee of hours and I will be first one cut if starts to get slow. Its a real small company.

[maxster]

take it and the 30 days will fly by with the raise and you can keep up your resume being sent out.do anything you can during those installations to get a feel for the field...and don't worry about it getting slow. don't mention that you still have jobs being considered,along with now you have to do after work interviews while working there...working raises your value during a possible future hire at an interview.