Slashdot Mirror
How Do You Job-Hunt If You Work Overtime?
Lord_Dweomer asks: "As a recent college grad, I took a job to pay the bills, but soon realized that it would end up sucking the life out of me. I work a lot of overtime in a high-stress, tight deadline job. Once you get into that kind of downward spiral, how do you find another job?"
"All my free time, during the week, is completely non-existent, and the weekends are needed to take care of chores, and preserve my mental health. Are potential employers typically sensitive to the fact that I may not be able to interview during the week or during standard work hours? Also, will having left here after a year seem like a real black mark on my resume? My reasons for leaving, aside from the overtime (I am non-exempt), would be that I've basically been promoted in work load and responsibilities -- and have even taken on another job role, IN ADDITION to my current one. All of this without a raise in pay, or new title.
I'd quit if I had a choice, but I really need the money, yet I'm unable to look for a new job because of lack of time. How am I supposed to job hunt under these circumstances?"
I'd quit if I had a choice, but I really need the money, yet I'm unable to look for a new job because of lack of time. How am I supposed to job hunt under these circumstances?"
As much as I hate dealing with this festering pool of opportunists, sometimes you just have to contain your revulsion and deal with a headhunter. With the promise of a fat fee, they can be quite motivated to place you and can often get you "in" to places that would just pass your resume by.
Got any vacation days? Use them up to go job hunting. Failing that, quit this job now and get something convenient (like working in a friend's bar in the evenings) to pay the bills while you spend the mornings interviewing. Or sign up with a temp agency. I did that when I was between jobs once, got me by until I found something permanent, and it had the 'benefit' of not being obliged to work every day in perpetuity. It was a bit nerve-wracking though, my finances were living on the edge, so it depends on how much reserves you have in the bank.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
There are lots of positions that you could look for online at any time of the day or night. Why not just look for the job after hours and send off your resume by e-mail then? You're going to have to take a day off or something for the interview, but that's even if you're not working overtime.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
I'd set the amount of time needed to write, proofread, edit, proofread, and submit a story to /. being at about 30 minutes. I'm betting hunting for a new job takes significantly more than 30 minutes.
"Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
You just graduated from college yet you sound as drained as someone nearing retirement. Snap out of it, get your resume out there, pound pavement: you don't work 24*7.
Or... are you in over your head? It's one thing to get your degree, another to apply the theory to practical use.
Whatever happens, do not quit your job yet. It's easier to get a job while you already have one. A potential employer may consider you a hothead if you tell them you quit your job with nothing else lined up.
Trolling is a art,
Quite often additional job responsibilities are given not because of evil intent of the management, but because employee is eager to take stuff on in hope of a raise or promotion. This is especially true of new employees just out of college. Make things mechanical. Plan how much time your current workload will take, and once there's an attempt to add something on ask what part of the stuff you currently do your manager wants to "load balance" to someone else. If he has no intent to do so, warn him that things will take longer and some things may not be done.
You will end up working a little overtime (just to recoup the time you spend browsing slashdot at work), but things will become controllable. Working more than 10 hours a day and more than 5 days a week is unsustainable. So it only makes sense to do so if you need or want to do it temporarily, to, say, meet a deadline or to get rich in a startup. Pre-deadline crunches shouldn't last more than two weeks, though. If it's more - your management is doing something wrong and you should simply refuse to come in on the weekend or stay late.
There's this old proverb about squeaky wheels and grease...
I believe there's also one about the person who sticks his head up the highest getting it knocked off... or something...
Simple answer. They can't actually force you to work overtime. It's a myth that a lot of corporate types are all too happy to let continue... but legally, they can't force you to work overtime, and you can sue for wrongful dismissal if they fire you for not doing it. And they know it.
So just stop working overtime. Or cut back on it. It won't take you too long to update your resume, and then maybe an hour a day to check the job sources and send out 2 or 3 resumes a day. And when you get an interview, take a sick or vacation day.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
after reading it a second time i came to the conclusion that maybe he just doesn't really want a new job. he needs weekends for down time and cooling off... but if you really want the other job, you put in the effort.
he mentions how he's doing 2 different jobs without any sort of extra compensation but the overtime. maybe he should take it up with teh boss. maybe it would be cheaper for the boss to hire someone else at a lower pay rate than to be paying him all the overtime.
he says he's a recent grad... find a roommate, move into a cheaper apartment, don't go out drinking, don't spend money to have fun. if that's what your friends do, let them. if you can, move back in with your parents. i doubt you're tied down with family stuff being a recent grad. spread your chores out over the course of the evenings. laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc can all be done over time. hell, i haven't cleaned my apartment really well in months, but i pick up and vacuum every now and then. and i have lots of free time.
if you really want the job, you'll put in the extra effort and give up some of the quality of life crap and just deal with it until you find a new job. otherwise, you will have to learn to suck it up and deal with teh status quo. the words are harsh, but that's really what it comes down to.
please me, have no regrets.
If you are the only one in your dept. working this hard, and you have an understanding boss, let him know, and maybe you can get some relief, like getting some of the work moved to others who aren't working as hard.
Also, I'm a little confused about your overtime situation. If you are paid for overtime, then you are non-exempt. If you do not get paid for overtime, you are exempt. (As in: Exempt from overtime laws.)
If everybody at your office is working this hard, then yeah, it's time to take some "flex" time during the day to do at least a phone interview. If they aren't paying you by the hour, then it is perfectly right for you to do so. (You aren't physically chained to your desk, are you?) If they are paying by the hour, just charge them for less OT.
Remember, you work to live, not the other way around.
SirWired
I call asshole who's never had it that rough. Some jobs require - absolutely require - that after a few months in you have some spare time on the weekend or else you simply crack up. The OP probably would have had an easier time doing it in the first month or two but, of course, he didn't know he should be looking for a job then.
Was it: "The employee that comes to work in a suit and leaves for job interviews on company time gets the unfair dismissal case."?
If you're under that much stress and duress, and you're able to handle it, you may be able to handle looking for a job at the same time.
I've been in this sort of situation before. Frankly, I find that it's hard to go through a good job search if you have a full-time job at all. I find job searches to be worse than any full-time job I've ever had, and having to do it after a long day's work isn't fun. Doing it after working 18 hours straight is pretty demoralizing.
And on top of all the rest, potential employers want everyone to be so goddamn chipper. That's what gets me, is even if your working hard and still looking for a job, you're tired and a bit depressed, which is exactly the wrong state to be in if you want to get hired. They want you to have the most beautiful resume ever, a personally-crafted cover letter, and a big smile on your face when you show up for an interview. Lots of them want you to tell them how they have the best company ever and the job you're interviewing for is your dream job. All this after they went through all the trouble of writing a 2 sentence job post for Monster.com.
Honestly, my theory is that there's a serious problem with the way we find work, in that the skills to find the job, the skills to get the job, and the skills to do the job are often not the same. Sometimes, they're contradictory. And we don't have help, and we treat people like their lazy idiots if they have any trouble with the process.
I mean, yeah, you have to suck it up. If you want a job, you have to do it. But can't we have a little sympathy for someone who works long days, has other things going on in his life (don't we all?), and is frustrated by the job-search process? When he asks for help, can't we offer something more productive than name-calling?
My advice (and others have said similar things) is to put limits on the hours for the current job. When they dump more hours and responsibilities on you, say no. Leave on time. Take vacation/sick/personal time for interviews. Do what you need to do. It won't make your boss happy, but you don't need him to be super-impressed if you're not trying to move up in that company anyway. Wait until you get your new job, then work your ass off to impress the boss. Work your ass off when you work for a good company where hard work will pay off.
*yes, before I got my current job, I interrupted my job search for about a month because I was working 20 hour days sometimes and I didn't have the energy to look.
I don't think you guys are being fair to the OP. Being in a job you need but don't like can be very draining in time, physical energy, emotional energy, etc. While it may appear to the casual viewer that he has time to job hunt (time spent posting on slashdot, for example), the amount of energy required to post on slashdot can hardly be compared to the amount of energy needed to update a resume/cover letter, search for jobs, apply for jobs, arrange a schedule of interviews, etc: one act is a form of relaxation, the others are not.
It IS hard. But a good way to get in the door is to temp.
I finally got an MBA, but all my experience was in IT. I wanted to be an operations analyst.
I finally got a foot in the door at large footwear/apparel company - but I had to swallow my pride and go in as an "admin assistant". Sure I could make more in IT, but I didn't want to be in IT any more.
My first job was as an admin assistant and it lasted a month. I got transferred to another part of the company as basically an assistant to an operations analyst. 11 months later, I landed a permanent job, making pretty good money, and working as a supply chain performance analyst. It's a perfect job for me - I'm learning the things I want to learn, and am making great connections for my next job.
And by the way, I never would have gotten the job I have now if I had just applied from the "outside". It's all about getting in the door and then busting your ass to make a name for yourself.
If there's a company you want to work for, find out who they temp through, and work your way in. It's not glamorous, but it works!