Well it only took me 9 months but I am finally employed again! It’s a labour job in a warehouse, well below my pay expectation but for the first time since August 2019 (You know, last decade…) I’m making my own money again. Finding a job pre-pandemic was hard enough but once COVID-19 went worldwide in early March, it made my job search seem hopeless.
If you haven’t read Part 1, I’ll sum up my job search journey real quick. I worked in radio for 12 years and after moving to Victoria, British Columbia from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island for a new job, I was laid off from that position only 4 months into my tenure. Layoffs are common in the radio industry but I’m pretty sure I hold one of the records for shortest time from hire to let-go in Canadian radio. After that kerfuffle and because of the pandemic, I’ve decided that job security is more important than money right now so I’m looking to take my 12 years of experience and transition it into a communications job. It’s a job that requires writing, editing, social media management and responding to comments and concern from the public in a timely and professional fashion, literally the things that you do behind the scenes everyday as a radio personality. Let me outline some of the triumphs and frustrations I’ve encountered since my last post.
Let’s start with the good stuff. Warehouse jobs are a great way to keep active in a world that closed most of its gyms. Yeah, I was sore after the first couple of weeks on the job but 3 months in, I’ve lost 15lbs and gained a decent amount of strength in my lower body and back. I do a fair amount of order picking so I’m constantly taking my 6’4 frame and grabbing items off the bottom shelf. Instead of bending over to pick them up, I decided early on to mix in some squats and I couldn’t be happier with the results. The high temperatures and poorly circulating air also give a hot yoga vibe to the warehouse. If gyms end up shutting down again because of the second wave of COVID, don’t be surprised if you see a surge of gym-rats getting part time warehouse jobs. It’s going to be the biggest fitness trend since CrossFit.
Also, for the first time in over half a decade I have a job that I don’t have to take home with me. One of the things that I despised as a radio personality is that I could never turn it off. If someone messaged us after hours, I felt obligated to respond to them right away to maintain the image of the radio station. If someone was rude to me in public, I couldn’t flat out tell them to fuck off because they could turn around, tell my boss and it would make the brand look poor in the community. At the moment I have no immediate plans to get back into radio due to its archaic ways of thinking. It’s an industry that needs to change a lot from within but I would go back in a heartbeat if the offer is right and if the company was willing to break some barriers. My current absence will be a huge benefit for me because it will give me a new perspective as an outsider but I’m not sure the industry will see it that way. Right now I’m just grateful to have a job.
Now that we’ve covered the positives about my job search, it’s time to talk some shit. First of all, if I apply for a communications position and I don’t hear back from you when I follow up, YOU STILL NEED A COMMUNICATIONS PERSON. Let me quote one of my favourite former professors at Algonquin College in Ottawa, the late Mark Valcour, “It’s dumb shit simple” when it comes to communications. If someone asks, you respond. Communications is literary just having a conversation, there’s no need to complicate it with language that confuses your audience. I was eliminated from a job competition because they told me my resume didn’t indicate that I had any experience with “Adobe Photoshop” even though the phrase “graphic design” appears on it 9 times. That’s like being turned down from a driving gig because you have “car” instead of “Toyota” written on your resume. It’s the same thing just worded to appeal to a wider audience.
I was struggling to find a simple communications job before the pandemic hit. Whenever I would apply for an entry level communications job, the employer somehow couldn’t see that my 12 years of radio experience is actually 12 years of communications experience. Once March rolled around, I knew I had to change my tune with my EI benefits dwindling every two weeks so I decided to go the essential worker route. I worked at a grocery store while I was in college so I decided to tap into that experience and apply to every grocery store chain in the Greater Victoria Area. They all were airing ads saying they were hiring and I had the experience. Should be pretty simple to pick up a job, right? Nope! Boy was I ever wrong. I applied and followed up (I usually wait about a week or 2 from my application date to follow up) with every grocery chain and thought I was getting somewhere. I talked to people in their HR departments and even department managers who all said that “someone” would call me back but they never did. Ghosting hurts way more when a potential employer does it.
Don’t be afraid to play it safe right now. Settling is a perfectly normal thing to do in a pandemic. Look deep into your resume and see if you can still use those skills you have from 5, maybe 10 years ago. The last time I worked in a warehouse was 2010 and those skills are just as relevant today as they were back then. Success isn’t linear and this pandemic is going to be a setback for a lot of people. If you are struggling with unemployment right now and need help or guidance with employment insurance or any of the other factors that come with losing your job, please reach out to me. I have a little bit of experience I can share with you.
Love,
Johnny
Johnny Novak 