Kudos for Wasting My Time On Your Crappy Webinar
No, really. Thank you.
So, perhaps I’m a sucker. Or maybe I’m just optimistic in the hope that someone out there has my best interests in mind. With the latter in my head, I joined a webinar that revolved around finding a job in today’s environment while combating ageism.
As I’m in the middle of a job search, but don’t want to get burned out (or downtrodden) in the middle of it, I break up my day into a few parts. Job search, writing (like right now), some woodshop stuff, etc. Helps me look forward to the next thing on my to-do list.
For today, I figured I’d spend the first half — up until noon or so — researching opportunities, sending out resumes, etc. But then a webinar that piqued my interest landed in my Inbox. It was titled: Resume Webinar-Beating Ageism.
I went in figuring I would spend a share of my morning getting some valuable insight, score some tips on how to stand out in the job market today. And there went my morning, for the most part.
What I thought would be about an hour was mentioned upfront to be 90 minutes to two hours. Okay, I’ll hang out as long as it keeps me engaged.
And there were a few things, a few tips of note. But some went directly against other, very reputable career advice and professional recommendations I knew about. I could take these from the webinar with a grain of salt and make my own judgment as to their value.
Not surprisingly, there was a recommended list of words to avoid on my resume, so I’m taking a closer look there. But really that’s just table stakes when it comes to career advice these days.
Pitch Perfect?
But, in the end, this was just a pitch. A pitch from an independent career or HR professional to try to drive business for his company — which was likely just him alone. It felt sort of time-share sales-esque by the time I gave up on it.
How much time did I give it? Two hours and forty five minutes. And it was still going strong. At first it was me seeking out nuggets of advice that I might be able to use in my search. Then, it became about determining the legitimacy of this offer/program. Was the webinar actually a recording? I couldn’t tell as supposed questions from the viewers were visible to the webinar host alone.
He kept saying he would get to all of our questions, but after that long of time had passed and knowing that questions would be answered in order received, I still hadn’t seen my early questions come across. And he would periodically interrupt the Q&A to read through the names of the people that had apparently signed up for his program.
Oh, I think it’s important to mention all of the names he read aloud, whether they be questions coming from the audience or new customers buying into the program were ALL names that one might use if challenged by someone and you didn’t want them to know your real name. You’d readily come up with: Jim, James, Thomas, John, Sally, Steve, Doug, Gary.
So, I closed the webinar down and scolded myself for playing the rube.
And I got mad too. Mad at the guy for really just throwing out the line, hook and bait. Nothing altruistic about what he was doing. Nothing like just wanting to help people find good jobs like the Kevin Kline character from the movie, Dave. Just a shill. And mad at myself for the perceived waste of time.
Despite the few tips that I may have gathered, it really wasn’t time well spent.
Making Lemonade
But that lands me here. Writing this. As suggested by my smart wife — turn it into something positive by writing about it.
I wasn’t sure whether I’d post it anywhere (like here) or perhaps just take the perspective and put it into words, perhaps share it on a blog, anonymize it maybe, etc. Just turn it into a valuable experience.
It helps now that I’m also trying to freelance write, so this falls into other valuable portions of my day that I’m trying to cultivate. And, if like me you’re starting to come up against ageism in your job search, then I cannot stress how fulfilling it is to make it work for you, not against you.
Lesson learned. Buyer beware. Fool me once. Pick a cliché. How about lemonade out of lemons?
Proceed, With Caution
So, be on the lookout. Don’t do as I did. Or maybe learn from the above? If it seems like a too-good-to-be-true offering (even on legitimate platforms), it likely is. I know there are millions of scam or close-to-scam artists out there and it’s getting harder to identify the smart ones, that’s for sure.
Now I’m glad and not mad. I did get something out of it. Just not what I had originally thought.
Sounds good to me.