jeremy borger [blog]

The job search continues

First blog post of 2009. Let’s hope I find a job this year.

I’ve been unemployed for over two months now. So what have I been doing in that time, besides playing lots of Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii? I’ve sent out about 22 resumes, mostly in the area of online media and advertising/marketing with titles such as “Media Planner”, “Internet Advertising and Analytics Administrator”, “Website Coordinator”, “Marketing Account Manager”, “Internet Marketing Specialist” and “Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing Specialist”. That last one was a mouthful. It’s yielded some interviews, but nothing has panned out quite yet. I’m hoping now that it’s a new year, companies will start focusing on their new hires a little bit more.

I’ve also looked at other things outside of the marketing/advertising area, such as “Corporate Trainer” and “Software Trainer”. Training was one of the things my career coach said would be a good fit for my personality and something that would be interesting to me. I don’t disagree. She also suggested freelancing for some local media outlet — Cleveland Magazine, cleveland.com, Scene, Free Times, etc — either in writing or some sort of freelance video thing. I really need to do something that appeals to my creative nature and my fear is that I’ll just end up going for a job because I need a job, not because it’s something I want to do. Now, a lot of people probably just have their job because they need a job, but I thought unemployment might be a chance for me to try and break the cycle.

The problem is, it’s hard to get started in the creative freelance for hire area. It’s kinda like a chicken and egg scenario or a “Catch 22″ — you can’t get freelance gigs without a good amount of previous experience but how can you get previous experience if you can’t get a freelance gig?

Answer: You do it yourself. Blogging is a great way to get that experience. No, you’re probably not going to make any money doing it, but it is experience. People looking at your work are going to look at the work itself, not at your weblog to see how many people actually looked at it. Now that the holidays are over, I’m hopeful I’ll get to some more writing and video shooting/editing/on-camera stuff with that new video camera I bought. Have you seen Fancy Mustache?

Speaking of not getting paid for your blog… Since unemployment only pays $365 a week and I don’t really want to stand on Public Square, harassing others as they go to work, I decided to install a tip jar on my blog. The Scratchback tip jar (on the right hand side of the screen) allows you to give me $5 through PayPal without me having to buy a styrofoam cup. And in exchange for your donation, you get to put a link in the tip jar that others who visit this blog can see and click on. Link to your blog, your favorite website, a job listing, whatever. Your link stays there until enough other people pay $5 to bump you off. Click “Show some love, buy one!” to donate. Thanks.

Oh, I also dug up an old interview I did with The Plain Dealer’s Michael Heaton and put it up on YouTube. Check it out…