Who are these people?

Looking for work (2)

At the beginning of October, I wrote a post on Substack about my search for new work with the title ‘Who am I?’ Just before posting that article, I highlighted on LinkedIn that I was open to work and looking for a new role. It was my second post on that theme on LinkedIn - the first one went up during May when I started my role search.

This second post attracted comments like ‘hey love please contact me’, or ‘let’s connect’. None of these messages had any context or relevance to my job search. Some of them have disappeared from the post and the others I deleted.

The post also garnered two messages from people I didn’t know. The people who messaged me, at face value, seemed genuine. Both started with a question – why was I looking for work? After I had briefly described that my previous contract had unexpectedly been cancelled, they empathised with my circumstances and said that they would be able to help with my job search.

It felt like someone was paying attention to me, and maybe they would be the ones to help me move forward in the role search – nothing else seemed to be working.

When I didn’t respond immediately to one of the messages, the messages became insistent – why wasn’t I responding? and why wasn’t I taking them up on their offer of help? I used Google to scan the photo. Someone was using the photo on a profile on Upwork to help people re-write their CVs (presumably the same person). It was an AI generated image. Which, if I had actually been wearing my computer glasses and not feeling low and unhappy, I should have spotted right away.  I asked this person to give me examples of people she had actually helped. The were no more messages after that.

The second one asked for my CV, which I sent. There is no information on my CV that is not already on my LinkedIn profile, so it felt safe to do so. I received a long message back telling me how old-fashioned and out of date my CV was, the keywords I was using are archaic, and the layout wasn’t good enough (which is complete BS). The message then went on to say we can help you with that, and once your CV is updated, we will post your CV on all these other of thousands of job boards and you will definitely find a job a and we have helped so many people….*

When I said ‘no thank you, I don’t need your help’, the person messaged ‘why not? we can do so much for you’. I asked him to send me links to people they had helped, and, like the other person, they stopped messaging me. I did a Google search on his profile photo, and it came up as a stock photo.

I blocked both profiles and subsequently no longer have access to the message threads.

A friend that I walk with on Sunday, and I often chat about scammers, and the ingenious things that they do to try and get you to reveal personal information or make money out of you because you could be in a vulnerable place. The refrain we always say, ‘if only they put all their ingenuity and technical skills to do some good in the world.’

There have been allies in this job search – two of them messaged me today. I am going to write a separate post about allies and genuine people because they are out there, I promise you.

If you are out there looking for work, something good is coming your way. It feels horrible when you are under the assumption that you are not making progress, but that one small act you take every day will make a difference. One of the people who messaged me today let me know about a potential role (I had sent my CV months ago), and the second was to follow up on some connections that she had created for me.

And you will do something with this time you have, like decluttering your home. You will sell your goods online, including a little stone buddha that has been sitting calmly in your bookcase, and the person who buys it will send you a message to let you know that they love it. And you will be happy that it has found a new home, because you can’t remember who bought it for you, and while it isn’t a lot of money it feels like parts of you are flying out into the world and making a difference.

Photo by Gage Walker on Unsplash

*The set up and wording of the message was much more professional than I have indicated here. I have summarised and run on the sentences for dramatic literary effect.