Ross Said:

Where can I find a part time job near center city Philadelphia?!?

We Answered:

Spend a day in center city. Just go into every possible place, and put your applications in.

Marion Said:

Why can't I find a job?

We Answered:

Based on what you have described, you have good experience. I would think that working and living in Japan would be a huge competitive advantage right now - working for an employer with offices in Japan (or even headquartered in Japan).

It would be helpful to know what kind of job you are looking for. My guess, since you didn't specify, is that you are just looking for ANYTHING.

People often don't target a specific job becase they think they're being "flexible." That's not a good strategy - your search will be unfocused, and the people who want to help you won't be able to help you because they won't recognize an opportunity for you when they see it.

Networking is THE BEST way to get a job. No question! I interview people about how they landed their job, and the answer more than 90% of the time is a former boss, former college roommate, former colleague, etc.

The person hired is often the friend of a person who works at the employer - not the best qualifed person for the job, but the person who the boss feels will be a trustworthy, realiable emploee with many or most of the required skills. So make sure that your friends and family know what job you are looking for.

Contact those people you went to school with, worked with (and for) at the State Dept., the city of Philadelphia, and Ford Motors. Don't forget the Naval reserve - that's often a close "family" of co-workers.

Your college's career center may offer support to alumni, too. Check your school's Website to see, or call them and ask to speak with someone in the alumni career center. If you don't know what you want to do, they may be able to help you with some testing and counselling.

Once you've figured out the job you want, put together a list of employers where you'd like to work. Now you have a list of targets for your networking and online job search.

These 3 Websites are good sources of jobs:

* Craigslist - http://www.craigslist.org

Craigslist is a giant online classified ads site, organized into hundreds of small sites by location. Pick your city from the lists on the home pages. They have jobs and "gigs" (which are short term jobs). You can browse through what's available or do a search.

For help using Craigslist, see this guide to using Craigslist to find a job - http://www.job-hunt.org/onlinejobsearchg…

* Indeed - http://www.indeed.com

Indeed is a "job aggregator" which collects jobs off big job sites (like Monster and CareerBuilder) as well as many other smaller sites and even employer Websites. So, it's a great place to do one search that covers more Websites and employers than you would think of yourself.

* Job-Hunt.org - http://www.job-hunt.org/

With over 8,700 links to employers and career resources, organized by state or specialty, Job-Hunt will help you identify possible employers and also job search networking and local support groups to help you with your networking.

For each state, Job-Hunt links to an average of over 125 local resources and employers:

- - local job search support groups
- - local job sites and online classifieds
- - state and local governments
- - colleges and universities
- - public school districts
- - banks and financial companies
- - internet and technology companies
- - medical, biotech, and pharma companies
- - many other employers

Job-Hunt also links to the Fortune 500 companies by state and the Forbes 2000. See the Pick Your Employer page - http://www.job-hunt.org/employers.shtml - for tips and more resources.

After you apply for a job, follow up. Call or stop by to see if they have any questions about you and what the next steps in the process are. Be politely persistent.

Good luck with your job search!

Armando Said:

Employment: Need to find a job ASAP, baby on the way?

We Answered:

Start with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor or employment development department, whatever they call it. Go online or to one of the offices and see what openings are posted.
Another idea is to contact temp agencies. There are general ones like Adecco and ones that specialize in office or administrative work like AccountTemps and Select. Apple One and Manpower are some other national temp agencies that might be able to place you.
Tell everyone you know that you are looking for work and follow up on every lead. Look at want ads in the paper and on sites like Career Builder, Monster and Indeed.
I could give you more specific ideas if you could let us know what kind of work you do. Best of luck!