Insurance and in Demand

As some of you may know, I’ve been unemployed for about eight weeks now. In an effort to branch out and explore all possible avenues of employment, I decided to try “networking”. I’d heard the term before but had never really figured out exactly what it meant. After weeks of job searching, I know understand that this word has 2 definitions:

Networking present participle of net·work (Verb)

Verb:

Calling people that you never thought you’d talk to again and asking them for favors out of the blue, especially if they “know a guy who knows a guy”. Joining a bunch of useless websites that offer said service.

I’ve been doing plenty of both. The consultant that I worked with two years ago who lives in New York? Yep, I emailed him. I also signed up with about a dozen “job finder” and “professional network” websites. And each and every one of them has proven less than useless. A summary of my experience with each is as follows:

• ·         LinkedIn: “Someone is spamming your professional network with insurance sales positions. Click here to respond!”

• ·         CareerBuilder: “We think you’d be great for the following positions: Neurosurgeon, welder, big-rig truck driver, mechanical engineer for Lockheed-Martin, Lowes stockboy, insurance sales. Click here to apply!”

• ·         Monster: “We gave your information to all of these insurance sales websites. They’ll be contacting you shortly.”

• ·         The local government employment website: “Click here for job postings that match your qualifications!”  -click- “…there are no job postings for your qualifications at this time. Maybe you should’ve gone into insurance sales?”

So… does anyone want to buy some insurance?

(Don’t worry, I’ll be back on my feet and actually writing entertaining posts later this week. Stay tuned.)