”I`ve looked for a job for months,” writes a TempoWoman reader. ”I always think I`m going to get the one I want, but in the end I get turned down.
”I`m a secretary and I wonder if I need a college degree to land a good job. Maybe I don`t dress right for the interviews. Maybe I say the wrong things.
”Fortunately, I have a job now, but I don`t like it and want to move on. I`ll take any job I can get-but I don`t seem to be able to get one.
”I`m beginning to lose my confidence and my nerve.”
Many job hunters say there is no specific point at which the job is
”clinched.” Instead, landing a job is a process, one that begins with having a job plan, a target job in mind and the needed skills.
Others say the secret is to show that you`ve been learning new facets of your profession every step of the way.
Some advise being confident and willing to take risks. Upbeat personalities are attractive to would-be employers, they say.
And some former job seekers report the magic ingredient is a combination of skills, know-how, enthusiasm, good timing and plain, old-fashioned luck.
– Annette M. Ford.
Age 44, grants specialist, Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center.
”Being in the right place at the right time is number one,” says Ford, who started at Mount Sinai 20 years ago as a secretary.
Now she manages disbursement of contributions and grants that come into the hospital, and continues doing some secretarial work.
”Having a college degree opens doors that otherwise are shut,” says Ford. ”People who achieve without one are extremely motivated and productive, with a great deal of potential.”
Ford is one of those people. Her credentials are a diploma from John Marshall high school, years of hard work and two years of college.
”I was determined to get my college degree,” she says. ”I went to school at night and on weekends. I worked full time at Mount Sinai and also in two part-time jobs to pay for college.
”But when my daughter was 10 years old, I realized she needed my attention, that it wasn`t her fault I hadn`t gotten my education earlier. It would have to wait.”
Today, her daughter, Donna, age 25, has a college degree in business administration. Ford, who recently earned her real estate license, plans to complete her college degree ”eventually, when I`m financially stable.”
She believes you ”land” a job by being on the spot. ”I`ve worked in almost every department of the hospital,” Ford says. Every move was a promotion, but she needed a better salary.
Ford began looking elsewhere. Without putting pressure on the hospital, she let it be known ”I just needed more money, that I didn`t want to leave.” Her present job was created for her.
Ford got ”every job I applied for that didn`t require a college degree.” Her enthusiasm and commitment to her work made the difference. ”I always wanted to be the best at whatever I did,” she says.
– Barbara L. Provus.
Age 38, principal, Sweeney Shepherd Bueschel Provus Harbert & Mummert Inc.
Provus, a founder of the executive search firm, says the way to land a job is to ”target the job and market yourself.
”Ask what am I selling and who is interested in buying? Make an assessment of what you are today and what you want to be.”
The next step is to ”make a list of companies that might be interested in hiring you. Use your contacts. Blind dates should not be limited to your social life: If a friend of a friend works for a company you`re interested in, meet that person and get some leads.”
Provus` firm specializes in executive search at the senior level of salaries of $75,000 and above. But she says her recipe for landing a job-researching yourself and the market, using contacts and having a good product to sell-applies across the board.
Provus majored in sociology at Russell Sage College and was working toward a master`s in social work at Smith, when ”I realized it was not for me.”
She worked as a secretary and eventually got a job at Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. She was a secretary there for seven years and ”ended up” as a consultant in the executive search department, one of the few to move up to professional staff.
Provus, who earned her master`s degree in industrial relations at Loyola University, says, ”I knew I wanted to be in executive search.”
When the department was closed down, she got a job ”for industry experience” as manager of management development at Federated Department Stores.
Her next job, the one she had targeted earlier, was with a large executive search firm. She worked there until she started her own business in 1986.
”It takes patience to land a job,” says Provus, who gives talks to women`s groups on the subject, ”but you have to take the initiative-or no one will know you`re there.”
– Maddi Elga Amill.
Age 39, information coordinator, Office of Cable Communications, City of Chicago.
Amill came to Chicago in 1982 from Puerto Rico. Since that time, she`s managed to land the job of her choice and start the business of her dreams.
Her city job is full time and requires her to disseminate information about the private cable industry, as well as monitoring its compliance with franchise agreements with the city.
”I think I got that job because I did well in the interview, was bilingual and had experience in sales, public relations and journalism,” says Amill, who majored in business administration and mathematics in college.
”The secret is you have to know why you want the job. If you are new to this country, you have to pay attention to everything. I love to do new things all the time. I`m not afraid of anything.”
Her confidence and qualifications got her the job. Those ingredients are the difference between professional success and failure, she believes.
When her regular work day ends, Amill begins her second job: She is founder and publisher of Mujeres Espana, a bi-monthly newspaper for Hispanic women, which she founded in l986. The paper is distributed in Chicago and on American Airlines flights from Chicago to Mexico and Puerto Rico, and on Ecuadorian Airlines flights from Chicago to Ecuador.
Her husband, Edwin Moya, is the paper`s designer. Amill plans to publish a companion newspaper, Hombre Hispano, this year.
Active in both the Hispanic and Anglo communities, Amill, whose daughter, Lorna, is seven years old, wants to see ”the contributions of Hispanic women recognized.”
To get recognition and to get a job, Amill says it`s important to sell yourself.
”People have to know about you,” she says. ”You have to speak up.”
Send comments and ideas for future questions to Carol Kleiman, The Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
