Photo courtesy of MyTwoCensus.com.
Last week, one helpful reader gave us a heads up that the 2010 census was struggling to hire qualified census takers and provided information on how to sign up for the required exam. This authentically broke writer wasted no time in calling the number provided in that post. The friendly woman who picked up the phone gave me an appointment to take the test at Metropolitan Pool, not far from my apartment in Williamsburg. Here’s how it went down: 
Photo courtesy of MyTwoCensus.com.
So we’ve been meaning to post about these census-taking gigs that pay around $20 an hour, and just today a thoughtful and generous tipster writes in to tell us that Brooklyn is currently facing a shortage of census takers. He also tells us how to apply. Kind tipster, please take it away:
“I am currently working for the 2010 Census, and the local office based on Fulton St, which covers the neighborhoods reaching from DUMBO to Clinton Hill & Prospect Heights—Red Hook to Sunset Park (and everything in between) is currently facing a shortage of applicants for Enumerating jobs in this region.
Perhaps overly disturbing 'Hawn of the Dead' photo courtesy of freakingnews.com.
There’s not a whole lot we can add to this intriguing posting on the Craigstlist gigs board today:
A School of Visual Arts thesis film, Zombies Are Our Friends, is currently looking for an actress to stand in for one of our leads during a zombie fight scene. The shoot will take place March 11th – 14th in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Actress must be between 5′4 – 5′6 and fit into a size 2 – 4 costume, have a fair complexion and straight dark brown hair to the shoulders. Also must be willing to fight zombie extras. Meals and transportation will be covered. It’s a fun shoot and we could really use the help.
Incidentally, if you’re more the “bored 12-year-old Chinese boy” type or an Italian-American woman in her 40s who’s comfortable with nudity and wants to be in a film called “The Christmas Meatball” (Aunt Snooki?) here’s a list of more highly entertaining unpaid film gigs.
A few of the city’s unemployed have landed themselves on one high-profile jobs forum: the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. The forum’s an on-air and Facebook-based project called Help Wanted, launched last week, and centering around five listeners who wrote in to the show with their stories of recent unemployment and search for jobs. The project’s giving these five (and more to come) a venue to share their out-of-work experiences, and to elicit real help and advice from anyone listening or following online. The first show, which aired Feb. 11, featured Naomi, a recently laid-off Manhattan attorney. Then this Monday, the focus was on Alyson, employed, but dissatisfied with her current job in the fashion industry. There’s also Maryli, Ginger and Jim for now, and show’s looking for more stories to fuel the ongoing project.
Safak Aydemir's hand-beaded necklaces.
Stroll down Bedford Avenue on a nice day and the life of a street-vendor can look pretty appealing. So free, so independent, seem those hawkers of books and sellers of handmade mobiles you pass on the sidewalk. You start to wonder what it takes to make a living like this—whether street-vending just might be a viable career path. We’ve certainly wondered all this, and now, after badgering a few street vendors and hard-working public servants, the idea doesn’t seem so far-fetched. For all the enterprising New Yorkers out there with a folding table and dream, the many strings attached and city regulations are no barrier to engaging in this barely tolerated form of commerce.
So you think you can take pictures? So do tens of millions of other Flickr poolers. Next month, aspiring Man Rays can find out if they have what it takes to make it in the increasingly competitive, decreasingly remunerative photography field at the powerHouse Portfolio Review.
Like a speed-dating version of art school, the review allows a photographer at any level of accomplishment to have her work critiqued in five 20-minute sessions with different professionals in the field on Sunday, Feb. 28.
Elmo, drowning in debt. Photo by David Wise.
Times are tough in the Elmo household. Mrs. Mae Elmo, mother to the beloved, oft-tickled Muppet, is out of work. According to the site Daily Finance, the down-and-out Elmos (is that a last name too?) will be at the center of an upcoming Sesame Street special about the recession’s impact on families, in which they’ll be tightening purse strings and will cut back on luxuries like eating out and going to movies. But Elmo’s mom needn’t be unemployed for long, what with the handful of terrific jobs we found for her on Craigslist today, all a puppet’s hop from the Sesame Street set at the Kaufman-Astoria studios.
(Image intended as generic representation of Haiku, not as Japanese-language content.)
Who says poetry doesn’t pay? Most poets, probably.
But some lucky wordsmith is going to get a $75 Visa gift card (more than twice the record amount ever paid for a poem) by winning a contest for the best political haiku on the governmentality blog. Blogger Allen McDuffee, a Windsor Terrace resident who spent eight years in DC working for think tanks and political consulting firms, said his contest was inspired by this comment, on a post about Sarah Palin’s healthcare views, from reader Henrietta:
Are you one of the people expected to line up at Trader Joe’s at Court Street and Atlantic Avenue today for a job application? Don’t wear a business suit, make sure you’ve got a brand-appropriate hobby like ice-kayaking and know your portobello ravioli from your dried mango with chili. So says a Trader Joe’s Mole, who supplied us with inside info on what the store will be looking for in new hires and how it’s all going to go down. All you, Mole:
The store will be accepting the first 70 applicants both today, from 5 to 7, and tomorrow, from 3 to 5. What they will probably do is take your completed application, bring the 70 people upstairs and briefly screen each one. Then they’ll review everyone and call certain people back for follow up interviews. No one at the store is sure how many people they’re looking to hire right now (one of the bosses said “it depends on how busy we are”) but there’s no one on the crew doubts that we could use lots of extra hands right now, what with a wave of departures recently and our new 10 p.m. closing time. None of the interview questions are stumpers: They’ll ask you about your past work experiences and what you favorite products are at Trader Joe’s, etc.
Brooklyn Trader Joe's, photo by Pete Jelliffe.
We don’t have tons of info on this, but we heard on Twitter (from TraderJoesBK) that Trader Joe’s at Court Street and Atlantic Avenue is accepting applications from 5 to 7 today and 3 to 5 tomorrow, but only from the first 70 people in line. Whether that means 35 applications today and 35 more tomorrow, or 70 each day, we’re not sure. But the thing here is that if you’re interested (hello 10 percent discount and HEALTH INSURANCE FOR PART-TIME EMPLOYEES!) show up EARLY and don’t be surprised to see American Apparel-sized lines at the store. Will supply more details as we get them…
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