It’s June. A smidgen over a year ago (May 29th, 2009) Advance Photographics closed its doors and I have been unemployed since.
In that time I have written half of the sequel to my alternate history novel, Orleans, and a complete new novel, a murder mystery called The Drowned Doll. I’ve written blog posts for both here and Dangerous Intersection and occasionally for my MySpace page (which is getting more and more neglected in favor of Facebook, through which I can stream this blog). I wrote book reviews for a good chunk of 2009 until two of my review outlets basically dried up and went away.
I’m also now, as I’ve mentioned before, beginning to learn Photoshop in a meaningful way and toying with entering the vast realm of full digital photography.
Along with that I have continued to serve on the board of the Missouri Center for the Book and have become its president again as of this past March. My life is nothing if not bubbling with activity. None of which, however, is paying me a damn thing.
We bought a new bed. After nearly 30 years with a waterbed, age and comfort demand something else, so we replaced the king size freeflow with a high end Serta (queen size) and have thereby also gained much floor space in the bedroom, something we’ve been chafing over the lack of for some time.
Our stove finally died. With a great brilliant spark, the control panel for the ancient monstrosity announced forced retirement, so we must now buy a new stove. This is a mixed thing, both an occasion for celebration and a pain in the butt for the untimely expense. We’re also getting some painting done.
I had to repair the ceiling in my office.
I am attempting to write a new short story. I may have mentioned that some time in the last decade, since devoting myself almost entirely to novels, I’ve misplaced my ability to do them and now I wish to hunt that ability down and capture it again. I have a deadline, which helps somewhat.
Like so many today, my job prospects are dim. What I spent 35 years doing is an obsolete skill (traditional, wet process photofinishing). My admittedly impressive publishing oeuvre does not seem to impress people looking for editors or technical writers. My academic credentials, being nonexistent, limit me in terms of getting interviews. I am in a position wherein I must make my writing work. I must. I want to, there’s no question there, but with four completed novels currently unsold (due to factors of which I have no concept) and no ready ideas on how to move any of this forward, I’m in an awkward position. As each of the novels currently in circulation are attached to series, all of them will entail sequels when they sell. It would seem unwise for me to write yet another novel at this point.
So. I’m open to suggestions. Right now I’m going to go to the gym. Before I go, though, I thought I’d go ahead an post my resume. Just in case anyone may read this who may be interested.
Have a nice day.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Mark W. Tiedemann
P.O. Box 160160 St. Louis, MO 63116
mwtiedemann@earthlink.net
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Strategic Planning               Communications
Organizational Development            Press Relations
Public Affairs & Presentation            Public Speaking
Staff Recruitment               Workshop Management
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Participated in the determination of organizational policies regarding issues of program requirements and benefits, as well as longterm goals.
Organized public events, including speaker liaison, facilities, and scheduling.
Established relationships with other agenices and organizations to facilitate common goals.
Directed activities of professional and technical staff and volunteers.
Spoken to community groups to explain organizational goals, policies, and programs.
Recruited, interviewed, and hired or signed up volunteers and staff.
Represented organizations in relations with governmental and media institutions.
Prepared written presentations, including newsletter material, in support of organizational goals.
Oversaw board meetings, setting agenda, and directing input from members to facilitate optimum productivity, and establishing policies consistent with the achievement of organizational goals.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Published author since 1990. Ten novels, fifty-five short stories in various national publications, book reviews, occasional articles. Bibliography available on request.
Missouri Center for the Book (http://books.missouri.org) . Elected president in 2005, I have worked to revitalize the organization and have successfully increased its board membership, public visibility, and overseen the establishment of the new Poet Laureate position for the state of Missouri. Prior to becoming president, I developed and produced a variety of public programs for the organization.
Advance Photographics: 1997 to the present. Duties include all aspects of traditional photofinishing, with an emphasis on b & w processing, color printing, and copy work.
Self employed freelance writer: August 1995 to July 1997
Shaw Camera Shop: December 1975 to July 1995. Custom b & w photofinishing, all aspects, including lab manager from 1982 onward.
Mark –
This is a ‘for what it is worth’ since I went through a similar stretch a few years ago. All I can say is ‘Focus.’
I don’t mean you – focus the people you are sending resumes to on ONE thing. ONLY. Seriously, the typical HR department that is culling resumes right now are filled with 24 to 26-year-old young women that just got out of college, have zero experience in the business, think anyone older than their father is ancient, and as dotty as their grandfather. ALL we can do is create 5 different resumes, each organizing our skills/experiences on that SINGLE item we want to do. (Each resume HAS to be focused on ONE THING, because if they see more than one thing on it, those HR people get lost.)
Seriously, they ask for degrees in departments / combinations that didn’t exist 10 years ago, and won’t exist 10 years from now, so you already have a strike going in.
Whatever the job is, that is the OBJECTIVE at the top of the page.
Every job on your resume only describes the ONE THING they had in their job app, in their own words. Seriously, you have to: they haven’t enough experience to understand if you say you had departmental or budget authority for a business, that means you fulfill their requirement of ‘two or more years management experience.’
EVERYTHING has to fit what they asked for. EVERYTHING.
YOU re-tell them POINT BY POINT on EVERY item they ask for, or it will not make it.
Skip the early jobs, or the degree date. See the bit about their father and grandfather. Like the days when all of us were the people hiring, we all tend to hire people that ‘look like us’ – while efforts for Civil Rights have made them aware they can’t do it all, but age is a stigma to them.
Realize the internet screws you to the ground – if your zip doesn’t match local zips, they will never see your resume.
Realize if your resume does not have enough jargon to register with the auto scanner, they will not see your resume. (So repeat any buzz words, and add more.)
But you also might have the problem I had. Since you have to CHANGE your main job, you have to be doing things that ARE THE JOB YOU WANT.
Do you WANT to be a speaker/facilitator? Take a class or two that will teach you nothing about it, and make the cons and the MO Book gig write you up as such, and cite those SPECIFIC instances. join an organization and do gigs specifically for them.
Same with Press Relations – though you SHOULD be able to land that without the drastic efforts.
I had to go to work for FAR below anything I made before, so that I had a track record I could show. It sucks, and I hope things go ok for you, but it was a two to three year process to re-boot my life from business management to training/speaking.
Best of luck – but keep writing. Your fans want the new books….
PS: I should add – the above did work for me. I did make it back to my previous level of income, and I got a lot of great experience in between. However, the experience was the pay – I certainly made only a third to a half what I had made for a while. But it was enough to keep things together for a few years – mostly.
But looking back, I expected people to be examining resumes with the smae care I did when I was a boss – and the bottom line is, those days are COMPLETELY gone. Completely. They don’t even scan read them.
And if you can find a back door to get it in front of a real person, I do think it is worth the time to try. The computer assisted stuff is really, really worthless. It does not serve the job seeker well, and it clearly cheats the businesses out of the opportunity to find good people.
Thanks, Russ,
Last year I had a most disconcerting conversation with a gentleman at our local community college. They were looking for an instructor for their photography programs, and in the things I’m good at. By all the stars in heaven etc etc I was a perfect match for this job. We spoke for a good half an hour and everything was going just fine…
…until he asked about my degree. The second he realized I didn’t have one, the interview was over. Peeved, I demanded an explanation. “I can teach these courses in my sleep,” I said. “Perhaps true,” he replied, “but it’s a marketing problem for us. We can’t expect students to pay money to earn a degree the instructor doesn’t have.”
I don’t know how true that is in fact, but at least it was an answer that sort of kind of made sense. We are insane in this country about this degree thing, as if experience of any kind is utterly meaningless.
But I take your point about the resume and will look at that more closely. Again, thanks much.
Oh, and I am working on the books—I just can’t seem to sell them.