Once I finished my resume, I spent a day driving around the area where I wanted to work. I recommend this seemingly not super important step to anyone out there. It gives you a chance to reacquaint yourself with your area, seeing the streets and strip malls around you as if for the first time. Pull in and drive right by stores, looking for "Now Hiring" signs, and make notes.
Remember that big box stores tend to have a LOT of employees, which means lots of turnover. Even if there's no hiring sign at Best Buy or Staples, they'll probably be looking for someone very soon.
I recommend this after you do your resume and get your clothes together, because signs go up and signs go down, so doing this before you even have your resume might cause you to get your hopes up for an opportunity that will be taken while you're busy rewriting your job experience into active voice.
I'm restricted to workplaces that are 5-15 minutes away from the house because I'll be using my parents' car and will be getting dropped off/picked up most of the time, so that's where I looked. I jotted down one page of hiring and another page of places I should check out anyway. It wasn't hard and it was kind of fun riding around, really seeing what was in the different shops I never really looked at before.
Conclusion:
This step is fun, and could combined with your next step if you're crunched for time, but I got really nervous on the first day I wanted to go applying and just drove around doing this instead. It gave me time to think about where I'd be applying and what route to take the next day, so I don't consider it a waste.
1 comment:
If you have a bike, I would also recommend biking around to nearby shops/stores to look for work. It gives you great pre- and post- work exercise (jazzing up and chilling out) and you're always guaranteed a ride. The two drawbacks to this would be a nighttime commute and inclement weather/temperature extremes. However, solutions to the first problem would be reflective biking clothing and keeping pepper spray on your person. The second issue is easily solved by bringing your work clothes along with to change into. However, changing in and out of your work clothes on-location at your specific place of business is a great de-stress technique - getting out of work clothes when your shift is over lets you know that work stays at work and makes it easier to separate work life from real life.
Sorry about the tangent. Just adding my two cents! :)
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