RE: The odds of finding work through job ads

["Kat Nagel, MasterWork Consulting" <mlists -at- masterworkconsulting -dot- com>]

I've been calling myself a technical writer for...let's see...almost 
16 years now, and most of that time has been spent freelancing.  Most 
of my projects have come as repeat business from existing clients, 
word-of-mouth advertising from satisfied clients, or networking 
through friends and STC colleagues.

Before that, for the first 17 years of my career, I was an R&D 
chemist in a large corporation where downsizing and scrambling for 
survival slots across department lines were regular features of life 
in the reorganization-of-the-month lane.  (Clue #1: When your CEO 
starts talking about dancing elephants, it's time to polish up your 
resume along with your tap shoes.)  Most of my job changes there came 
from personal contacts or recommendations from former managers.

At last count, between freelance projects and those reorganization 
scrambles, I've never gone more than a year and a half without some 
sort of job-hunting effort.  In all that time, I don't think I've 
gotten a single job *directly* from answering an ad, either in 
newspapers or on company job boards or (recently) online.

Indirectly, however, there have been quite a few.  About a quarter of 
my freelance gigs, the ones I can't tie directly to repeat business 
or personal networking, have come as phone calls out of the blue with 
a request for an updated resume.  The last offer I received was 
typical.  I got a call from a recruiter in the Chicago area.  Never 
heard of his agency, and never saw an ad for the position he was 
trying to fill.  He had gotten a copy of my resume from a manager in 
the hiring company (in a suburb of Chicago) who got it from a friend 
at another company in Buffalo NY who had it in *his* files because I 
had answered an ad he had placed through a recruiter in a Rochester 
newspaper ALMOST FIVE YEARS AGO.

So, I keep answering ads and making cold calls <ugh!> and networking 
and passing out copies of my resume to anyone who has a free hand and 
doesn't duck in time.  Ya never know...

--
Kat Nagel
Owner, MasterWork Consulting Services
Phone: (585) 820-4045    Fax: (585) 244-3565
Business: katnagel -at- masterworkconsulting -dot- com
Personal: katnagel -at- bluefrognet -dot- net

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