Elle Rey📚

              If you have been looking for remote work in the last couple of years, I’m sure you might be familiar with all of these fake scamming job ads. You apply for a job and then get a suspicious email response. I remember getting one every now and then, but I’ve been getting a ton lately. It could be because I’ve been applying to three times as many jobs as before. It’s ridiculous and annoying! Before I would just brush them off, but now because of my current situation it’s just annoying me more than usual. When you mainly get a ton of rejection letters and then you finally get a response from a “company” that seems interested in you, only to be let down when you realize it’s a scam— well, it takes a toll on you. Usually if something seems fishy and a little off, I do some deep diving before responding. Luckily, I never gave them my social or bank account numbers like some of the stories I’ve heard about. It’s really a shame because now they’re pretending to be real companies, so you think they’re pretty legit. You have to look for the little details these days. Usually, as soon as they request an immediate interview on the signal app, Kik or WhatsApp, that’s when I know it’s fake. If it’s not Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Skype then I know something is off.

           Another telling sign that it’s a scam, is the email address. It’s usually long with a lot of random letters and numbers, and it’s not a company email. However, lately they’ve been a little sneakier with their email. It’s getting harder to tell. The “From” email will be different from the “Reply to” email, so that’s something to look out for as well. Now when I’m on Indeed, I try to see if they have ratings from other employees or anything that will give them extra validity. It sucks that we have to be overly cautious and overanalyze every part of an email response, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

          Something new that I’ve been getting lately is rejection letters with referrals. They tell me that they were impressed by my résumé, but they’re going with another candidate— however, they “referred me” to their director (or another company) and for me to send my résumé to a certain email. The first time I got a response like that; I was skeptical but intrigued because I’ve never seen anyone do that. I did send my résumé, but I removed my address and phone number (because I was still hesitant). When I saw another company do the same, I figured it was probably a new scam tactic. Oh, the joys of job hunting!

          I’ve been trying to find something before the month ends so I can prepare for the summer. If you’ve read my Divorce Diaries posts, then you know the summer is when I’ll be officially on my own again. I haven’t had a lot of luck in the job market. I used to talk about it a lot on here, but I kind of stopped because it was getting too depressing to write about. Having a career gap makes it really challenging to get back in the game. However, this Little Engine that Could is not giving up! I know I basically need a miracle to get hired this month, but what’s meant to be— will be. I can only hope and pray that the right job will find me. In the meantime, the search continues! I’ll just try to switch up my job-hunting tactics. Maybe I will try to apply more on actual company sites, since there are too many scammers on these job sites. I’ll also try to volunteer somewhere every now and then to help with the current gap in my résumé. I’ve seen a couple of videos of adults (of all ages) who are currently going through this. Sending virtual hugs to everyone who’s experiencing this right now. If anyone around you doesn’t get it, I sure do. I wish you the best on your journey! Keep going! Keep pushing! You’re definitely not alone!

Peace & Blessings! -Elle XoXo