Now, I’ll take a moment to do an uncompensated plug! I have tried a few nominally priced resume distribution companies. By moderately, I mean around $25. Think about that. When you have no income, three of those services equal a month of groceries or a big portion of the heating bill. One place will distribute my resume for $20 a month and will even show me where it went and if it was reviewed, because they have a money-back guarantee if it isn’t reviewed by a minimum number of companies. BUT, if you want to see WHO reviewed it so you can follow up, that's another $10 a month. That’s the site that hooked me up with the company that will do my resume and teach me how to job hunt for ten thousand dollars. Then there’s iHire Marketing.
iHire Marketing is part of the iHire network, this one specializes in marketing. You can post your resume for free, but you need to be a premium member to apply for listed jobs. At first that made me mad. I am not a premium member because paying to apply for jobs just seems like too big a financial risk in this job market. But what they will do for free is have your resume searchable by their member companies and do a limited distribution. Buy limited, I mean for a fee, I can send full resume and cover letter. In the free distribution you get to write a short paragraph to sell yourself and a listing of what you have done and what you CAN do with your name and contact info. The introduction is emailed and faxed to companies in specified area codes.
I’d done this once in Michigan a few years ago. On the day they email and fax your introduction they send an email letting you know how many companies got your stuff. On the very day they sent out my information in Michigan, I got two calls that resulted in interviews. After the sticker shock for that career rapist, oops...I mean counselor, career counselor, I decided to try the iHire Marketing distribution in Toledo. Yesterday morning I got the email confirming that they’d emailed my introduction. Yesterday at noon, I got a call. If you are in the job market and have just a little or nothing to spend, try the iHire network! They have many sites that target on specialties and that summary blast is available on all of them from iHire Dental to iHire Construction to iHire Clerical or iHire Trucking! I can only give a testimonial for iHire Marketing, but even if you have nothing to spend, what they can help you with for free is worth more than most of the pay services!
Ah, but before I return to proofing my sample ad and packaging my requested application in response to my happy call yesterday, you didn’t come here to read about my job status. You came here for the “It’s about time” Mug Shot! And here it is...
Chateau Grand TraverseMichigan Wine Country
In August of 1998, Mom and I were enjoying a long weekend with Grandma at her house in Hale, Michigan. Hale is in Mid-Michigan. If you make the mitten shape of the Michigan Lower Peninsula with your left hand, Hale is at about half way between the base of your index finger and the first knuckle at about mid way across the finger. This is Michigan Geography! Traverse City is roughly a half inch above the tip of your pinky. Imagine that the nail of your pinky finger extends to the tip of the ring finger, but there’s a space. The tip of your nail is where Old Mission Point lighthouse is. Keep in mind that this is a “quick map” of the Motherland and not necessarily to scale. Length of fingers varies from “map” to “map.”
Mom and I decided that we wanted to take a day trip to try out some of the tasting rooms at the Michigan wineries in the Traverse City area. What was a weekend trip from home, was an easy day trip from her place. We tried and tried to get Grandma to say “yes” to going with us, but she insisted that we go without her. Eventually Grandma won, because Grandma ALWAYS wins, and Mom and I left in the morning for our trip to WIne Country.
We took non-expressway state roads across the state. It was a gorgeous sunny day and there was very little traffic on the trip. When we got into the Traverse City area, the sky changed to that bright and clear blue it turns on a sunny day when you get near a large body af water. I have always loved that about the Great Lakes, how clean and fresh everything looks and feels. We drove into Old Mission Peninsula and took the road that followed the shore. There were hills and fields of grape vines everywhere! The signs directed drivers to the various wineries with which the vineyards were associated. We stopped at two wineries’ tasting rooms. We tried Cabernets, a couple different whites and of course the local specialty, cherry wine. Chateau Grand Traverse was the second winery we stopped at. We wanted to stop at one we’d never heard of and one we knew we like the wine from. We’d enjoyed the Chateau’s wine for a few years, so that was a particular destination.
After packing up more souvenir wine and this mug, we headed to the Old Mission Point Lighthouse. Mom was a lighthouse fan and I enjoyed finding them with her. We spent some time enjoying the beach and snapping shots of the lighthouse and the sign that told us we were at the 45th parallel, half way between the north pole and the equator. One step farther and you’ll be farther away from the sun, closer to the frozen north and hypothermia than the life-sustaining light and warmth at the equator. Yeah, I’m being melodramatic. Funny, I recall Mom saying the same thing at the time.
We stopped for dinner on the way back to Grandma’s house, but we enjoyed a bottle of Cherry Wine with Grandma that evening as we told her about our day and the breathtaking views in Michigan Wine Country!
1 comment:
I've an award for you on my blog. Good luck, I hope you get the job, have a great night. Hugs, Edna B.
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