How to – Page 3 – Paul's Tech Talk

A Few Ways to make money while you look for a long term job!

PaulFebruary 15, 2024

Make money by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free

Those Side Hustles

Can you make money while looking for a job? Most of us who are unemployed are looking for ways to earn some extra money to pay bills. I thought it would be an idea to at least suggest to people who are in the IT field where they can go to possibly earn money while you’re either looking for new a job or pivot to do something else. Either way is up to you but this is something that can be quite useful even if you need extra money for one reason or another. This is something that can make your even more money or find you a new job that you have been looking for.

Blogging / Vlogging — Both of these do the same exact thing. You either write or start creating videos on YouTube and other video platforms to bring in entertainment, Educational, or provide a unique view to something that most others may not see. I am not saying this will bring in a lot of money but if you have been doing this for a while, you could simply ramp up and help you bring in some revenue. You’ll have to decide what you are good at and explore those possibilities.

Taking Surveys — There are several different surveys sites out that will either give you amazon cards, or other ways to pay you. I’ve been using Survey Junkie for the past few months and it is nice because you can take survey’s whenever you have a chance and get paid for them. However you will not get a lot from them but if you do enough survey’s you could bring in some extra revenue that way. No more than maybe 100$ if you really just do as many survey’s as possible each month.

Find Freelancer Jobs — If you are good at computers then you should check out upwork and look into finding some freelance jobs that will pay you to do, either temporary or a rolling bases. Each job can bring in some money per month and keep you from drowning in debt. However you should consider how you approach the perspective jobs and make sure you show them that you have what they are looking for. Depending on the jobs it could be just a few hours or a monthly type of part time jobs.

Ask friends and Family — Another way to make some money on the side while you are either working or looking for a job is tell your friends and family what you might be able to do for them and let them know you are available. This won’t bring in much but depending on your skill set and what you are willing to do, it might help bring in that income you are probably needing for bills.

The Unusual Circumstances

As you can see I’ve talked about why the unemployment rate is no correct. I’ve talked to several different friends on Facebook an some other places and we all agreed we are probably already in a recession and you should consider ways to bring in money while we weather the storm, as I would say. I couldn’t fully attest to this idea but I hope to keep myself a float and bring in money to keep from having to worry about where I will live in the future. I am sure the stress that people are experiencing is quite real among us around the world. There are some good ways for your to make even more money, so I will link to Dave Ramsey’s website on other ways you could make money in case you are really interested in this type of side hustle or other ways to make money while you are unemployed.

Are you trying to make money? Has it been good for you and what have you done to make money while you are looking for a job? Any advice you can give others why not leave a comment and subscribe to my blog for more blog topics to help you survive while we are in the trying time.

The Real Struggle to Finding a Job in 2024

PaulFebruary 13, 20243 Replies

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Why is Finding a Job in the US Really Hard?

I don’t say this lightly because I’ve come across so many people talking about this that isn’t even funny. Most of these people are just trying to find a job and it seems that they aren’t even able to land any real interviews. I’ve had that same problem as of late, no one wants to interview they just go to another qualified applicant and either Ghost me or tell me that I wasn’t selected for the interview.

I’ve personally been dealing with the Stress of looking for a job for over 2 weeks. It can be quite hard not to worry and think about what may come but this is just another example of what it is like to find a job in the year 2024. Even if the US Government says we have all these Jobs that were created, I seriously doubt this is going to help those who have been laid off and the one that may be lay off in the future.

Few Examples:

Linkedin Layoffs Trends By Nicole Roundy

Why Can’t People find a job?

More and More people are asking the same thing. “Why can’t I find a Job?” on Google. That seems more than plausible, if the US economy was so robust and we had all these jobs than it should be easy for everyone who was laid off to find a new job. It however isn’t that way and I hate to say it doesn’t look promising for the future. As I have been doing my research more and more people are having the same issues as I am and if people are not finding jobs and they have more qualifications than me then It just can’t be how I am applying and that I am applying. It has to be deeper than that and I believe it is.

Even now it isn’t clear on what people should do, because more and more people are asking the same thing. Even more “experts” try to give advice. I put quotations around the word to make sure you know that I don’t know if they are right or wrong or if they are actually experts or just people who know how to get a job easier.

I’m not here to tell you who I believe is or isn’t a expert in this field but to at least tell you that even if you do some of the things these people tell you to do to get a job may or may not work in your situation. I’m going to at least talk about what I am doing to try to get a job that may help you in your job search.

My Job Search Activities

What I am about to tell you is what I’ve been going through trying to do to hunt for a Job. However, This doesn’t that this is how you should do it but it is something to consider while you are looking for a job.

Setup Email Alerts on Job openings — This can be quite helpful. I’ve done this for sites like Indeed, Monster, Linkedin, Google, and even Bing to find new jobs around me that I can apply for it and it helps to keep me from spending to much time each day to look for jobs. Each of these are easy to do and you can have each site email you daily or when there is a new job that pops up that you are looking for.
Spend a Maximum of 2 or 3 hours and No more looking for Jobs — I say this because I’ve heard people say they were looking for job as if they have a job Full time and that can’t be good or healthy to the individual. There is no way you can find jobs and apply to them all day. You should spend only a limited amount of time finding jobs. That is the best approach.
Get Resume Help — This can be quite easy for some of you but others might need to search their local community to see if you can get someone to help you write your resume even better. It never hurts to get someone to check it out and give you some advice on how to get the employer to see your resume.
Apply for Jobs that you have excellent Soft Skills for — This is something that seems to be overlooked but you should always apply to jobs that match your soft skills even more. This will get employers more interested in your application. If you can show them you have the soft skills they are searching for they may want to get an interview with you.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help with Friends And Family — This can be really helpful to be able to talk to your friends and family. It can help with your stress also but they may know of jobs that may be able to get your foot in the door. It’s what they call networking which has helped me in the past and this is something I am constantly doing now but still haven’t gotten past the interview stage.

As you can see these are just a few tips that I can give you to better keep you in the know of new jobs and how to deal with the rejections you may get. I’ve seen more and more of those rejections come my way but with all this it helps to keep me from getting depressed and discouraged. You should consider how you can better help yourself from getting that way too.

Are you looking for a Job? If so, we are both in the same boat but you can always subscribe and find out even more tips on Job hunting and just technology industry in general. Remember you’re not alone in this and we are all in this together.

In Depth Investigation of the Job Market and How it looks

PaulFebruary 12, 20244 Replies

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The Job Market

First and foremost we will at least talk about what I mean by Investigation of the job market. According Websters dictionary, the meaning of investigation is “to observe or study by close examination and systematic inquiry“. Now since we will study this and look into other aspects of this to see how the Job market is looking you can see this will be quite enlightening. First we need to look at the DATA of the whole situation of the Job Market for 2024. Let’s start with looking at trends and see if we see anything that shows us what it’s look like. I am going to look at what people are searching for in Google using the Google Trends that is quite useful for this data.

Recession in 2007 and 2009

According to the Federal Reserve History:

The Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, which makes it the longest recession since World War II.

In history we are most likely going to start looking back and saying yes we are in a recession. If you look at the graph from Google Trends you can tell people stopped searching for the job market after 2009 and it started to decline. We really need to stop denying this and just buckle up and be ready to slow our spending and slow down trying to spend. If you have any debts, it is best to pay them off as quickly as possible and try to not spend to much right now. Here’s another indicator that people are starting to ask the important questions.

Understanding that people are searching for stuff like this can help you see how many people are actually asking these questions. If the Economy is so strong and working properly, then why are people asking these questions, should be your first question?

As you can see people are asking “is the job market Bad” and that is something you should consider when you look at the stats. Why are a lot of people asking the same exact question. I drilled down and looked and I see people are searching for Remote Work, WFH, Work From Home, Job Fairs, and other things that seem to indicate how many are actually looking for a job.

I am sure there are some people who will say this doesn’t mean that we will be in recession but I honestly think we will or we are in a recession right now due to how hard it is for people to find a job. This could also be considering us into a Depression that looks like a recession. I can’t tell right now but I do know Something isn’t quite right.

Biden Economics as some would say would refute this because it’s being the year of the presidential elections and they don’t want you to know this. If you haven’t looked at how it is going down then you should check it out how many people are starting to doubt that this will help them in finding work. Just to clarify what it is:

Biden described his economic philosophy via Twitter in June 2023: “Bidenomics is about growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. Wikipedia

Conclusion and Thoughts

Finally we come to the conclusion of this because it really looks like we are not at stable as the Government is actually telling us and we should be careful to, not repeat their comments, because until you actually do your own research you will not truly understand. I’ve been researching this for the past three weeks due to my layoff. I’ve even researched, what others are saying on video. You should check out the Friday Video Posts to help you see what others are saying. I honestly think we should tighten our belts and stop spending as much as possible and try to find ways to buy food cheaper. You should try to find a job anyway you can, I have yet to find a way to do it but I have been trying and get the dreaded letter that they haven’t selected you for the next step. It can be quite depressing but it is just a matter before I find a job.

Are you jobless and have similar experiences why not leave a comment and tell people your experience so they know they aren’t alone? We are all in this together. We just need to keep encouraging people that are having the same situation and tell them you’re not alone.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog for more posts like this and others.

Friday Video Picks : 2/9/24 Job Market and Aggressive Layoffs in March

PaulFebruary 9, 20243 Replies

Aggressive Layoffs in March(2024)!

Economists estimate that we will have aggressive layoffs in March. A very thorough look at what it could become like in the later months. I am not going to say that she is right but I do think she has some very good points. If you haven’t seen this video you should watch it and decide for yourself how much of this will happen. Is there going to be a recession in 2024? Some information in this video actually shows me that someone is messing with the labor numbers and it is worse than than the US wants us to believe. I am not going to say that we aren’t already in a Recession but I wouldn’t think we will be finding the jobs easier than we did in the past. This is probably a good time to pivot and start applying to other jobs that are away from the tech industry for a time and then maybe when this is all over with you can come back to it.

Are they Lying to use about the Job Market?

Hyper Specialization is one thing that might be causing them to lie about the job market and this video goes into even more details about it. I’ve suspected something was going on with the job since I have started looking for a job the last few weeks. Nothing seems to correlate with why I haven’t gotten one interview in the last few weeks unlike previous where I could apply and have an interview at least once a week or twice a week and be feeling like I am accomplishing something. This industry is not looking good for the for see-able future and we are going to have to consider other ways to make money.

I’ve been Applying

I will say that I’ve kept applying for jobs that I know I could do because of the my work experience. I haven’t been in IT long so I have Production, Forklift, and Grocery store experience. The problem I think is that with the mass amount of layoffs going on everyone is trying to find any job they can and that means everyone is applying for the same jobs and those in bigger cities will see applications for general work also skyrocket. So the real questions is why does it feel harder to find a job and even get an interview than ever? I’d be curious as to how long this will last but I am not going to hold my breathe on how long it will be before the real numbers actually show us that we are in the a Recession.

I’ve researched this as much as possible while not looking for a job to find out what I could do to get a job and so far everything I am a seeing is not promising and we should just tighten our belts on this to make ourselves get through the storm. I am going to keep applying for jobs and networking to try to find people who might be able to get my foot in the door for places that I can work and hope that this doesn’t get to serious in the coming months. I’m still hanging on to the fact that someone will hire me and let me work in IT but I will have to start looking other places also like Remote work, and Work From Home Jobs. Again those will be flooded by people trying to find jobs and you are going to be Ghosted and forgotten most likely due to the high volume of applicants. I don’t see this coming out any other way but we must be willing to take whatever we can to survive.

Are you looking for a job? how is it going for you? Have you had any success with interviews? Leave a comment and tell me your story, I’d love to connect and find out what others have done and if they have had any interviews that didn’t pan out. Remember subscribe to my blog for even more topics about this and other stuff.

The Best 3 Free Tools for Desktop Support Professionals

PaulFebruary 7, 20242 Replies

Display Driver Uninstaller

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) is something that every desktop professionals should have mainly on computers that may have Graphics cards that are required for the job such as Nvidia or even AMD cards. You will find that every so often some driver updates causes a problem and this is a very good tool to uninstall the driver completely. I will say this is open sourced and is very good for every day support when you might need to use this little utility for just those occasions. You will find this free tool will be used more and more and you can even keep it on a USB drive as a way to use it offline when you need to do use it. It’s very small and won’t need a big USB drive but this is only one of the few that you might have available to use on your USB drive.

Portable Apps

Portable Apps has so many portable applications that it would be hard to talk about all them. However there are several that I will talk about that you can install on the USB drive. Depending on the size of your USB portable drive you have will depend on what you might want to install on the drive. However if you have a big enough USB drive, you could in theory install all available applications from Portable Apps and then you would be set.

Revo Uninstaller Portable — Great for those pesky programs that might not uninstall all the way or when something goes wrong with uninstalling programs.
HackthisPortable — Good for looking for viruses, and Trojans that might be on the system and gives you a run down on what might be running on any given system.
McAffeeStingerPortable and Kaserpky Task killer — These are great apps for programs that you have issues with when they want to keep running even when you need them to not be loaded or running on a system.
CPUZPortable and GPUZPortable — great ways to find out even more about finding out what drivers you might need for GPU and looking at what type of CPU might be on any given system. In case you needed to know.
Microsoft Safty Scanner — Great portable app that you can use on any Windows system in case you might have a Virus infection and is being blocked from being download or run locally.
CCleanderPortable — Another great applications to use to clean the registry and other places in Windows that might be causing problems and helps fix some of the registry problems you might have.

As you can see there are several portable apps you can install on any given USB drive and have ready at moments notice if you ever need it. So this is great tool that you can use for what ever you might come your way.

WinDirStat

WinDirStat is something that helps me find what might be hogging a system drive. It is great and showing graphically what could be taking up the space of a hard drive. It is portable and can be put on USB also but can also be download and used for many different reason but mostly when you need to find out why the hard drive is so full and how what you can delete to create space. So this is something most Desktop Support people will use at one time or another. I have used this several times in the past to find files that can be deleted, you just have to be careful what you delete and never touch anything in the Windows Directory or Program Files directory unless you want the system no run properly when you reboot.

These are what I have on my USB just in case I need them but these are only a few of them because there are even more tools that I use when I need them however this would start you on the right to having a powerful USB drive when you might need it. Do you have a favorite tool that you want to let everyone else know about? Why not leave a comment and tell people about it.

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