Any concrete suggestions on how we can assist MeFi readers who need work? March 24, 2002 1:41 PM   Subscribe

"Here's a thought: if someone tells you they're unemployed and desperately broke, help them out." Any concrete suggestions on how we can assist MeFi readers who need work?
posted by sheauga to MetaFilter-Related at 1:41 PM (31 comments total)

I'm working on an unemployed MeFi member directory.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:46 PM on March 24, 2002


Bless your heart, Matt!

Yo, MeFi-ers! Who knows where to come up with the money for Matt to design a NewsFilter and a PoliticsFilter, and pay him to moderate? Would he consider it, if we found funding?

posted by sheauga at 1:57 PM on March 24, 2002


Matt to design a NewsFilter and a PoliticsFilter, and pay him to moderate? Would he consider it, if we found funding?

Moderate two more sites? No thanks. Anyone that wants to pay for development and take over the helm is welcome to though.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:04 PM on March 24, 2002


I think the 'him' is aaron, if I read the context right.
posted by xiffix at 2:12 PM on March 24, 2002


I'd certainly enjoy running a NewsFilter and/or PoliticsFilter, but I sure don't see where there'd be any money in it. Does MeFi itself actually make a profit, even a tiny bit?

Anyway, I very much appreciate the thought, but for at least the next six months I'm going to be pretty much stuck where I am while trying to get myself back into order (losing weight, working out, etc, getting a few minor medical problems back into whack ... nothing major, but they're time consuming to fix ... alter this, get blood test, see doc two weeks later, repeat ten times, etc), because I've promised myself I'm never going back to a major city again where I'll just get sneered at by the beautiful people for being Mr. Fattie the moment I walk through the door regardless of my resume, my qualifications or my abilities, and end up as fucked as I was by my end time in NYC.

I guess what I'm saying is that, for the time being, the best help anyone could give me is if, by some strange set of circumstances, they had acquaintances in the news media in the Huntington-Charleston, West Virginia market (TV, radio, newspapers, any of them) to which they could recommend me for something. Or, alternatively, if they knew anyone in New York - or, come to think of it, anywhere on the planet, really, that might want a newsblogger/warblogger, the way FoxNews is running warblogs every day. I'm sure such things don't pay much, but even a couple hundred bucks a week would be a godsend to me and my family right now ... especially in West-by-God-Virginia where everything's so cheap anyway.

In the end though, I can't just pack up and move to another city right now. I'm not physically up to it. Hopefully by the end of summer I will be.

In any case, I appreciate the sentiments, even if nothing comes of them in the end.
posted by aaron at 2:35 PM on March 24, 2002


maybe i should start up DesignFilter?
posted by jcterminal at 2:49 PM on March 24, 2002


That's funny jct, i was thinking of doing something similar. Something that didn't involve a 2000x2000 "click here to enter" collage and didn't circle jerk each other with small tiny fonts.
posted by geoff. at 3:30 PM on March 24, 2002


xiffix: I think the 'him' is aaron, if I read the context right.

Lots of us, xiffix, are unemployed. Me, I've been unemployed now for just under a year, and I've basically run out of $$$. I can make my rent for April, and have food money for the first week or two, but then... well... there you go.
posted by hincandenza at 6:43 PM on March 24, 2002


I don't know if this will be helpful, but it's worth a shot: A few years ago when I was struggling to find freelance work, I managed to scrape together some assignments copy-editing college textbooks and the workbooks that accompany them.

To get the assignments, I had to contact the company to request a copy editor's test, send it back, encourage someone at the company to pull it off the slush pile and grade it, and then scare up work with editors. A lot of this was made easier because I was in the same city, but they did a lot of work with out-of-town freelancers who had proven their reliability.

Considering the likelihood that a lot of the people here are liberal arts majors like me, it seems like an avenue worth pursuing. Publishers farm a lot of work out to freelance copy editors, tech editors, indexers, and others.

Though a lot of the work seems to go to former staffers and others who know the business, from the two years I did this work, the attrition rate seemed pretty high. Some people can't handle the idea of poring over a 700-page textbook on the history of philosophy to find places where an en-dash was used instead of an em-dash.

I found the work to be better that most of the drudge jobs I have had, especially when the book was on a subject of interest. My favorites was a book on the ethnoarchaeology of Awatimarka goatherders.

posted by rcade at 7:04 PM on March 24, 2002


All right, rcade! Finally, a concrete suggestion... Anyone else?
posted by y2karl at 8:52 PM on March 24, 2002


What are the financial/practical strains on Metafilter to add an announcement-type board? A classifieds-sort of link for members?
What are the users of Metafilter up to and/or what opportunites can be utiltized by this exchange? Personally, I've solicited a youngster with cash in the parking lot of Frye's Electronics--although not a low point, a strange transaction, nonetheless.

posted by G_Ask at 10:24 PM on March 24, 2002


I've been unemployed since last July and I'm only scraping by thanks to the Bank of Mom. I'd love to be in the directory.

Some people can't handle the idea of poring over a 700-page textbook on the history of philosophy to find places where an en-dash was used instead of an em-dash.

Now, that would be cool. Seriously.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:55 PM on March 24, 2002


What are the financial/practical strains on Metafilter to add an announcement-type board? A classifieds-sort of link for members?

I'm most worried about keeping resume spammers out of the site. I could only restrict viewing of members to other members, and I could just allow people to post URLs to resumes so hopefully contact info is contained within those instead of directly on the site.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:11 PM on March 24, 2002


I'm working on an unemployed MeFi member directory.

Boy, at last a low user number for me! And considering I've been depending on the Bank of Vast Changes at The Last Minute aka Dumb Luck, myself, kirkaracha, I could use it, too...
posted by y2karl at 11:43 PM on March 24, 2002


Speaking as someone who hires people now and again, I think the two things I would like to see most are:
1) Easy way to find a person for a job, probably just location, and type of job they are looking for, quick description of what they can do, and a link to resume.
2) Easy way to find someone for contract work. This is probably what I would use more. I always am looking for someone to do contract work. Either to help get DNS running smooth, or to consult on barcode implementation. Or something. For this I would need to see the same thing as for hire, but maybe an hourly rate quote?

Anyway, those are my thoughts....
posted by patrickje at 12:33 AM on March 25, 2002


I have nothing to contribute, so instead I'm going to submit a tagline for the directory: "What color is your parachute? #006699, of course."
posted by darukaru at 7:31 AM on March 25, 2002


all thru the dotcom boom i was totally broke and part owner of 2 different companies--Sweat Equity--one that died in 97 and one that i quit because i got sick of it. [i hate 'automalls'] and lived on under 10k a year. I have only been in a tax bracket for a year, i'm underpaid but its more than i had made.

my designer buddies around town are ALL out of work. What i've suggested to them is to make a diagonal career move. Find an insurance firm that needs a "web master" in that great generic way. Medical billing companies. Offices. City governments. Find a niche spot in some big company where you can pull in a steady paycheck and people will think that you are a God because the company newsletter has never looked so good. More manufacturing companies are doing in-house marketing work.

Look outside of the computer tech bubble, and i think you can find places where your skills will be appreciated.
posted by th3ph17 at 10:42 AM on March 25, 2002


Anyone in the Cincinnati area in web design - implementation can send me their resume and (time willing, which right now it is) maybe we'll set up an interview.

We're not hiring, but practice interviews make perfect. I've just been put in a manager position so the interview will be practice for me as well.

A little networking doesn't hurt either.
posted by Mick at 11:22 AM on March 25, 2002


Look outside of the computer tech bubble, and i think you can find places where your skills will be appreciated.

You ain't kidding. A high school friend of mine is making good money as a IT support guy for an insurance company in Columbus, Ohio. The stuff they need done is relatively simple for someone who's been using computers since the 8th grade, as he has, even if he didn't have additional education in the topic, as he does. He told me that he considers his salary an absurd amount of money for the difficulty and amount of work he actually is called upon to do, but his superiors know so little about computers that he might as well be a wizard.
posted by kindall at 1:48 PM on March 25, 2002


I might be able to come up with a few ideas for people interested in moving to Cleveland / Pittsburgh. (Send an interesting subject line so I can pick you out from all that tasty spam.) Certainly we can do some informal networking on our own that doesn't add more tasks to Matt's list or require adding features to MeFi.
posted by sheauga at 6:33 PM on March 25, 2002


Starting next weekend, I will append a list of MetaFilter members seeking work to the weekly mefi-projects mailing. To be listed, please e-mail the following to mefi-projects@jerrykindall.com:

1) Your real name
2) Your MeFi username
3) A URL of your resume
4) Your preferred e-mail address for job-related contacts
5) Your general location (closest metro area is fine)
6) A brief description of what you can do (a few words)

I will run this feature once a month, but you'll need to tell me before the last Sunday of each month if you want to be listed. If you don't tell me to list you again each month, I'll assume you got a job.
posted by kindall at 12:34 AM on March 26, 2002


Great idea, kindall. You might want to periodically re-publicize mefi-projects (somehow). I'll bet a lot of newer members don't know about it.
posted by rodii at 7:13 AM on March 26, 2002


Google's looking for new worker bees:

"If you're an outstanding software developer, computer scientist or product manager, read on and consider sending your resume and a brief cover letter to greatpeople@google.com."

http://www.google.com/jobs/great-people-needed.html
posted by kv at 7:24 AM on March 26, 2002


"Positions based in the San Francisco Bay Area unless otherwise noted in job description." aka Googleville
posted by sadie01221975 at 2:56 PM on March 26, 2002


wow... what a great thread. i really wish i was in a position to offer anything like some of the other people in here, but i'm still in college, trying to catch up to you guys.
posted by lotsofno at 8:03 PM on March 26, 2002


I'm more interested in getting into a fist fight with some people I've met here than helping them get a job. Maybe we can simulatneously set up a MetaFight club.
posted by bingo at 4:13 AM on March 27, 2002


First rule of MetaFight club:

If you see someone in need, help them out.
posted by hincandenza at 9:17 PM on March 27, 2002


Lord knows many mefites could probably do themselves some good going to those self-help groups. We'll commence the MetaFight Club once someone admits to hugging a man with breasts, and we blow up Matt's apartment.
posted by crunchland at 4:28 AM on March 28, 2002


i've never hugged a man with breasts, but i have been a twelve-step tourist. on the whole, i found fight club to be alternately trite and clever, but i really enjoyed the first twenty minutes. of course, part of that was the visceral shock of recognition when the edward norton character was attending meetings. other people [besides me] do this? and then the helena bonham carter character shows up — what a dream come true. if only i could have met such a girl! (no offence, goneill.)
posted by mlang at 5:30 AM on March 28, 2002


on a related note, i'll fight you anytime, bingo boy. you wanna come east or shall i fly out there? or should we settle this like true internet geeks: with a game of quake.
posted by mlang at 5:32 AM on March 28, 2002


stfu mlang: i know the woman who did the opening sequence.
posted by goneill at 7:24 AM on March 28, 2002


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