Of course, there are legitimate internships which offer college credit or CEUs (continuing education units) in lieu of dollars. In essence, there is a form of payment with ongoing value to the individual. The majority of the situations are jobs for companies that don’t want to spend money. However, they want your skills. You may be reluctant to demand pay or decline because there are dozens of people in the market who will take the chance, regardless how slim, that a paying job might materialize.

Let’s look at where this leaves you though. First, your time and resources are spent without compensation. You can’t look for another job. You can’t spend time with your family. You can’t further your education. And, you spend money out of your pocket for clothes, food, paper, ink, gas, and more. You support their business, but they don’t support you. In addition, you can’t put it on your resume. Why?

If you receive unemployment, it will be viewed as making you unavailable for a real job. You lose the unemployment check if anyone finds out. If you are asked what you made, stating there was no salary makes you look like a fool or devalues your work, depending on the viewpoint of the employer. The other possibility is that a potential employer gets the impression you don’t really need a paying job. Therefore, you won’t have much incentive to work. See how this can backfire?

What about the old school chum or neighbor who wants to start a business and just needs a little help? It sounds like fun. Remember, all of the things I mentioned above apply. You spend time and resources without return. That may be fine in the short term. However, when the time comes to pull out because it’s costing too much or your situation changes, you may find yourself in the position of losing a friend too.

Alternately, you may begin to feel put upon if your business partner assumes you’ll work for free indefinitely. Casual business arrangements often turn into a major headache and develop complications no one expected, like projects that depend on you when you want out, professional bridges burned, lost friendships, and possibly even legal ramifications.

This isn’t high school folks. If you want a hobby, find one. If business is your passion, volunteer for a local non-profit or school business program. If you want to make more money, find a second job that pays. Society is litigious and friendships seldom rise above covering one’s own backside.

In the writers’ world, there are tons of “jobs” that pay only when the work is accepted or want a writer to write hundreds of words for a pittance. The problem is that time is spent producing work that may never earn a dime. Then, there are the job applications with skill tests that send every candidate ten pages to edit. When the “tests” are returned, the project is finished and no one gets hired. It’s an old scam. Spend the time to hone your skills, seek individual writing assignments, and develop a portfolio of high-quality work that fits a market you want to break into.

Other times, a company interviews a well-qualified candidate and offers an “opportunity” to work a few weeks on a special project to see whether it’s a good fit. Everything sounds professional and on the up and up. However, chances are there won’t be enough money to hire you after the time is up. They will be terribly sorry. You’ll be first on the list when they can squeeze it into the budget. They’ll assure you that you have great talent and they’d be happy to provide a recommendation–maybe.

Reread the paragraph above about working for free and how it can backfire. Meanwhile, you may have turned down interview opportunities, spent money for gas, and lost time that should have been spent on your job search. I’m sure someone someplace may have gotten a real job this way, but the odds are much higher that it won’t happen.

There’s no doubt the economic situation is rough, but don’t let desperation overrule common sense whether you are the employer or the employee.

Maybe you don’t expect four weeks of vacation, like you had on your previous job with ten years of seniority. However, you still need to ask about the PTO (personal time off) policy and the how the paid time off is handled. For example, you may not have worked for a company with a mandatory shutdown during holidays, summer, or semester breaks. You may also assume this won’t be a problem, and it might not be.

On the other hand, if the shutdown time uses up most of your discretionary time off and no one else in the family can take off during that time, you’ll be home alone using your time, without any hope of a family vacation later. It’s also possible that your family or spouse can’t travel during the time that is mandated.

Some school districts have a year around schedule that may not match mandated breaks. Be sure to check the school schedules too if you are moving for a job. Some companies assume everyone wants a holiday break. However, holiday travel is expensive, fraught with weather problems and illness, as well as being a time certain industries prohibit employees from taking vacation. Both ends of the spectrum come into these situations. You have to consider your family and your personal needs.

While the paycheck is vital, it’s not likely to make for a happy career if you have no hope of seeing your aging parents or taking a vacation with your spouse for several year.

Here’s a specific example. Company A borrows from the employees’ time to be sure they are paid during an annual shutdown. However, the employees aren’t allowed to carry time over. Therefore, the  employee is penalized by having virtually no time to use that’s discretionary until they’ve worked long enough to catch up, which may be several years. A clear explanation of the vacation policy and benefit is important. It’s easy to forget there are a variety of ways that other industries work.

Interviewing managers are accustomed to their company and don’t realize that you may be totally surprised by these policies. The interview focuses on skills and experience that fit the job. If you’re embarrassed to ask outright and the possibility of a job offer seems imminent, ask to look at a benefit packets to learn more about the company. Check online too. Many companies post a lot of benefit information, but holidays may not be included. However, be advised that that won’t always tell you the entire story.

There are companies that talk a good game and don’t live up to it too. You’ll read that they support flexible working arrangements, are family friendly, and offer exceptionally liberal vacation time. That’s fine unless you happen to be in the department that has a manager that has to have everyone on site everyday, and you need to juggle childcare with your spouse. Or, maybe you get the disorganized manager that keeps everyone working sixty-hours a week, and you just told your child that you’d coach the soccer team, or your elderly mother just moved in.

The best strategy is to ask outright. Very few managers are put off by someone asking to learn more about the company and wanting to be sure that this will be a good fit for both of you. Make it a positive statement and be excited about their company and the opportunity. You can consider the realities at home.

According to a recent blog post by Interns Over 40, a paper published last year by Kate W. Strully, a sociology professor at the State University of New York at Albany, states that people who lose a job experience 83 percent greater chance of suffering stress-related health problems. Such problems include diabetes, arthritis or psychiatric issues.

Job Loss Can It Kill You is an excellent article for employers and employees. Awareness and preventive actions are the first steps toward lessening the chance that a job loss will have unintended consequences.

As an added benefit, this article explains ATS (applicant tracking systems) too. It’s not an in-depth description, but it will clarify some basics about the differences between key words on a site like LinkedIn and key words used in a resume. Sometimes they are the same and sometimes not.

This week, go read the article and give your profile a good testing. Then, polish and revise. Good luck.

Optimizing LinkedIn Article

In this market, you have to recognize that it’s not the employer’s problem that you live out-of-state. The company is likely to have plenty of good candidates. That said, it’s incumbent on the applicant to be available, flexible, and willing to make it work.

You need to do all of that without whining to the employer, who often has doubts about not hiring a local person anyway. Be prepared to be on the work site quickly, if you get the job. The logistics of moving is your problem. You aren’t being hired to be babysat, and it’s not up to the employer to make life convenient for you.

Does that sound harsh? Many people with solid experience, degrees, and good skills are lined up for jobs. Some of the best opportunities may not be local. One person I know got three offers out-of-state, but nothing local came through.

If you are unemployed, you have to decide whether having a paycheck, benefits, and a tight budget are better than being uninsured, on unemployment, or out of unemployment. Start thinking about the possibility of other locations as soon as you need to look for work. You’ll be in a better position to make it work if you don’t wait until your resources are exhausted.

Family matters are a personal issue. Some people can, and will, take a job and simply state that it’s a necessity. Others can’t deal with family pressure when there’s dissension. Know where you stand before you try to make a move this big. If you are asked how the family feels about the move, you probably can’t lie that well.

Always check the cost of living (COL) before looking for jobs in a new area. Can you really take a job at the same salary and move to an area with a 28% higher COL? Price cheap living options in a new job location. Do you have a camper? Check for small RV parks with cheap monthly rates, and look at studio apartments with utilities paid. Then, reduce your current budget to bare bones. Know where you stand. Also, be sure you are a person who can live on a shoe-string and maintain absolute control of the budget. Locate resources before the interview and be prepared to move quickly and make informed decisions.

Also, if a job offers relocation, be sure to ask what that means. A relocation of $7,500 may cover relocation for a single person with a small apartment, but it may not even cover the moving van–much less the incidentals–for a family with large home. Relocation no longer automatically means a full package deal. Remember, it might take a long time to sell a home too.

There are questions you need to answer before you make a commitment. Are you willing to live apart from the family for a year or more? Will the salary allow you to pay for travel home? Can you rent your home and manage the maintenance from a distance? Do you have friends or family who can act as property manager–without straining the relationship? Is the job in an area you want to live? Or, is your goal to be employed in your present hometown when the economy improves? Do you understand that once you take a job out of town it may be harder to get one in town again–especially in the near future? You’ll be in the same position–again, in reverse. Does your spouse have to work? Is he/she willing and able to relocate? These are just some of the key questions.

If you present yourself with confidence, the employer’s misgivings will be greatly reduced. The fact that you’ve done your research and have answers for his concerns further assures him/her of your ability to handle the changes. If you’ve been through successful relocation previously, be sure to point out those successes too.

The fellow with three offers out-of-state took one of those and ended up making more money than he did before he was laid off, even when there wasn’t a job to be found locally. It’s all a matter of what a person is willing to sacrifice to make it work. Any nationwide/international search requires planning, organization, and sacrifice. There will be unexpected changes and challenges.

You may need to pay for the interview travel costs yourself too. Don’t count on softening the employer on that. Don’t interview for anything you don’t really want either.

Don’t be surprised by a change in your job status. It’s smart in this economy to watch the market all the time, even if you feel safe.  Sign up for search engines to send a weekly email with local jobs in your field. Keep in touch with people in your network and make new contacts.

If you don’t want to make a move, at least be prepared. It’s smart. Just ask any Boy or Girl Scout. It’s even smarter in the present economy, because it takes much less change in the economy to tip a company the wrong way.

Here are three key tips:

1. Have a savings account. If that’s not possible, have a list of what you could sell quickly and easily if the worst happened.

2. Know your local resources. I’m not just talking about employers. Where are the church food banks? Clothing help for the kids for school clothes? Is there a pet food bank for dog food? Assess your needs and find the resources now. You won’t have weeks or months to search them out if you need them, and you don’t want those needs to interfere with your job search.

3. Set up job searches online now. Try different services and find out which ones pull the most in your field. Experiment. You can turn them off, or limit the updates once you find the best of the best. But, best of all, you won’t waste time going through all that when your next meal depends on finding a new employer. In the process, you may find the perfect job too.

Good luck.

Need more info? Go to Resume Tips or contact me at penny@pennyleisch.com.