To all those currently employed - HOW did you get your job?

How did you apply, was it online or a paper app? Were you recommended or recruited? I'm on the verge of being LAID OFF from a job I've been at for 4 years and I can't help but think that things may be a little different when it comes to finding work than it was the last time I was jobless.

Believe it or not, I'm not that sure how the ball got rolling with me and my job. Like a year before, I had filled out a resume/profile on one of the job sites (Yahoo, Monster, Career Builder...I forget which...actually I think I had a profile on all 3) and forgot all about it. One day a staffing agency called me out of the blue, said that they were looking to fill positions in a call center environment and asked if I'd be interested. They must have gotten my resume from one of those sites. I don't remember ever filling out an application for the company beforehand. Well anyway, I went in and met with the supervisor; there I filled out a paper application. They called me in a second time and had me take a computer literacy test, that I passed. From there I was hired. This was around November 2007.

I was supposed to start the following week, but the job was delayed. This was a staffing agency, and apparently the company they contracted for had just brought in a new batch of employees and didn't have any more room. The morning I was to start, the lady who hired me said that things were just put on hold and that she'd get back to me as soon as she knew something. This was early December. She didn't call me back until the middle of March. By that time I had dismissed the company as bogus and had actually completely a second interview with another perspective job two days before. Reluctantly, I agreed to go ahead and check it out, and have been there ever since. Started out working there through a staffing agency, a year later the company hired me outright.

Sorry to hear about your job JADACITY.

I was recommended for my job, but I still had to fill out an application and had a job test to take. It took them 2 months to finally hire me.

Sorry to hear that you are getting laid off.

I work for the City of New York and I got my gig by taking a civil service exam. I remember taking it in May of '07, got a letter in the mail that asked if I was still interested in January of '08, I told them that I was, got a callback in February of '08 and went for training that same month. Been working for them ever since. Typically, working for the city is supposed to guarantee that you won't get laid off in times like these but they are seriously making an exception for this recession. My job is still safe but they made some changes in the scheduling that I wasn't too happy about. But I have an interview for another gig tomorrow morning so it may work out for the best. Hope I get it. Keep your head up though. Things will work itself out.

I went in to interview for a field sales job at this business complex and knew right away that I was gonna hate it but agreed to it because I needed the work. It was I think for a telephone/cable company. I'd be in this group of losers who went door to door trying to get people to sign up for service. On my way out the building, this guy spots me and asks if I was there for an interview. I told him that I had just interviewed for another company and he says, "you don't wanna work there, they can't keep any employees." He gave me his card and walked me to their suite and said that I'd be working right there in that office, that I wouldn't have to sell anything and that he'd give me primarily day shifts and mostly weekends off (which was music to my fucking ears). The job was telemarketing but instead of calling out to sell, I'd just be taking calls from potential clients or calling already client back to confirm that any issues they had were being addressed. Been there for 3 years.