Find Work in the Neighborhood

It's not an easy time to find employment, especially if you're young and lacking in experience or your personal circumstances require you to stay close to your home area.

Whatever your motivation for work is, working for neighbors can be an excellent way to earn money, experience, and even to gain some new friends. Even so, approaching neighbors for work can be a bit intimidating because the sting of rejection is more direct and you'll be seeing them around. To successfully find work in the neighborhood, these steps explain approaches that can be easily followed and applied in your job search.

Steps

  1. Pick a route. Choosing a direction, Form a Neighborhood Watch, or block to search is the first step of the process. Generally, to save on gas and to locate neighbors who are most likely to recognize and trust you, it's best to search areas closest to your house. Gradually expand your search radius until opportunities present themselves.
  2. Be selective. Generally it's best to hit every house, but by paying attention to the state of the Make a Nice Front Yard and looking for things needing doing, you should be able to tell if that person is the type you'd like to work with or not and if there are likely opportunities for work. Just be aware that people with well tended yards generally already have someone working for them, be it a kid, husband, or another neighbor. While it's a good idea to check anyway, don't get your hopes up too much. However, do think laterally – perhaps the yard is tidied regularly but the pool needs cleaning, the dog needs walking or a child inside needs tutoring or babysitting.
    • Don't endanger yourself. If something about the place makes you uncomfortable, then you might just want to go to the next house. That includes intimidating dogs.
  3. Apply for the scouted-out job with the same professionalism you'd use for an advertised job. Your first meeting with a person is like an application. It presents the basic information that will either get you work or not. People look for and respond to certain obvious qualities like friendliness, an outgoing attitude, and work readiness. To meet these qualifications, present an enthusiastic, firm, and open attitude and carry references with you.
    • Language is another important factor. Not everybody can speak English, or they might prefer a bilingual person. Think about how you might make an approach where you can't get across everything easily in English; perhaps a visual Design Fliers Using Adobe Photoshop explaining your skills, or perhaps a demonstration of what you can do.
  4. Interview. Generally the interview comes next and is given just after the "application." While it's likely to be fairly informal compared with a typical job interview, still treat it with the same professionalism. People check for attitude, schedule, expected pay, and skills. The more open your schedule is, the more likely you will receive work. The more willing and ready you seem to work, the more likely you will be hired. The expected pay is important because not all people can afford to pay a very high salary, especially not in the context of neighborhood jobs; you should be aware of going rates and seek to either undercut or over-deliver to ward off competition.
    • People also want to know what you can and want to do. Most people are willing to teach, so present yourself as a learning-ready person that will do anything. People love that attitude.
  5. Provide yourself with job security. It's best to search for more than one person to employ you. You never know how things will work out with that particular Keep a Client. Sometimes, you won't get much work from a person, so having multiple clients will provide you with the option to earn more money than you'll get with one client. Also, some clients pay more than others. Whatever the case, it's also an excellent way to build more skills and experience to go on an actual résumé or for work performance.
    • Stay professional in all that you do and word of mouth will help you to gain more clients within the neighborhood. Be timely, courteous and respectful of other people's property at all times and they'll grow to ask you back and will be happy to recommend you to others too. (And even it they feel territorial about you, that's good because you can ask for more money!)

Tips

  • Sell your other abilities. Usually you will start low, but that does not means that you don't know how to do other things. Try to pick up some small talk and introduce the subject. Maybe you are car washing for the moment but if you know how to fix a computer you may find a chance to multiply your work options and "get promoted" around the neighborhood.
  • Look around your area first. This makes getting to work more efficient.
  • Bring a pad & pen/pencil. This way you can write down addresses, numbers, times, etc.
  • At the same time, you might want to pick just one or two charities, and make it clear that those are the ones to which you are donating your time. Otherwise, every group may want you to do free work for them. You can always explain that your volunteer work is a only supplement to your income-producing activities, and that you have already chosen which non-profits to work with this year (or season).
  • While it may seem odd to suggest working for free, you can always offer to do some free work for a church, neighborhood center, or other non-profit organization. If you do a good job, word will get around and others may want you to work for them. Also, you can use your volunteer work to demonstrate your willingness and ability to work hard.
  • Always be ready to do any job that is presented to you. People love flexible employees. If it's something you haven't done before but know you can learn as you do it, let them know this and charge them less as you learn.

Warnings

  • Be careful. People have dogs that may bite. Some people are over-protective of their property and unwelcoming to any stranger – just respect that. Some people may be aggressive – they might be into drugs and worse. Exercise some vigilance when going door to door.

Things You'll Need

  • Something to keep records and schedules

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