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Health & Fitness

Pounding the Pavement in the Virtual Heat

Gone are the days of the printed classified job ads.

As a recently unemployed person, I've been working full-time at my computer to find a full-time job. Gone are the days of the printed classified job ads. Yes, they still exist, but in a limited way.

I remember the New York Times classified section being as heavy as a hardcover book. Newsday classifieds, though not as big, had their own section. In some ways, I miss scanning the columns for a position I felt I was qualified to apply for and circling it with my red marker. Today the way to job hunt is through the Internet, but it's a very different approach. Finding a position to apply for only takes a few minutes, but I'm left wondering if my newly created sterling resume and cover letter ever gets read. In fact, I'm not even sure that it's ever opened.

As I watched Cablevision's Jobline, I began to feel very discouraged when I heard the show's guest state that resumes sent to prospective employers via the Internet often go into a black hole, never to be opened or read, and possibly even deleted! The advice of the guest was to contact the employer directly with an e-mail or phone call to the head of human resources. With a little research online it's easy enough to get that information, but what if the company is listed as "confidential?" Since I'm not really sure what to do in that case, I've decided that for now, I won't be applying to any "company confidential" ads.

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If anyone has any advice on how to circumvent the confidential companies, I would love to hear from you.

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