ECTMSRHOPHM Volume 6

East Coast Transplant in the Midwest Seeks Repatriation to the Homeland; or, Please Hire Me!

So, as the job search continues, my sanity diminishes, and my stressload increases to epic proportions…I find myself still captivated by blogs and internet news sites. Event with HUGE deadlines looming, I’m still keeping up with what’s going on in the world.

And, I wonder…how do I stop from doing this???  I know I need better focus on my workload, and getting more job app’s in, yet I can’t break myself from the habit of spending hours a day researching what goes on in the world.

But, while I deal with this addiction, I thought I’d present you all with at least something positive to come from my nutsiness…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

As I ponder where I’m at (23-almost 24, about to graduate, etc etc etc…), I realize that so few others are going through what I am going through.  Many of my peers that graduated with me/before me/right after me are having MAJOR issues with the job market.  Most still live at home, are struggling with jobs that they absolutely hate, or don’t even have jobs.

I am both happy to be where I am, and also vaguely wondering how things have become so different amongst my peer group.  Look at that article, folks…I think it expresses so much of what I have been trying to understand and comprehend lately.  I’m one of VERY FEW people in my social circle that is doing grad school, and probably contemplating further education down the road.  And I wonder…why?  Friends of mine are smarter, better writers, more knowledgeable in their fields…yet, not everyone is ready to buckle down for a degree.

We’re all so close in age, yet in such different places.  I have so much of my life planned and mapped out, while others do not.  And neither party sees any major issue with his/her decisions.  And while that’s really friggin cool, it becomes problematic when folks decide to lump us all together in one group.

Needless to say, if I’m having this internal monologue just concerning my friends, what’s the implication for how we will have to adapt to the huge variety of students that will be coming our way within the next few years?

…better figure out what to do now before things change too drastically.

What this has to do with a job search, I have no idea, BUT I’m going to do everything I can show those interviewers that blog-addiction is a good thing.  ;)

-Epix

Thank you for your consideration #7

A compromised position.

Given the economical climate and all, I’m sure I am not the only one deviating from their original game plan.  It’s a crappy reality that graduates are not all going to be able to get jobs, and even less a full-time job, and even LESS a job in their field. I accept this.  

For the second time, I begrudgingly accept this.*shakes fist at sky*  The first time when I was looking for my first real full-time job straight out of college and was starting to get interviews, but then 9/11 occurred.  Not only was the nation in shock, but business was not always conducted as normal (no flights, new concerns, new priorities) and the global stock market dropped sharply effecting the US economy and hence many employers. The national budget changed and poured money into military and defense. And funding for non-profits was shakier than usual. However, I ended up landing a job. I made 21,500 for a high stress, high demand job (I was on call over 300 hours a month assisting victims of violent crime). I quit after 8 months. That’s when I went on to work a series of odd jobs between bouts of unemployment. During this time I consider nearly any job. I applied and was rejected by Jamba Juice (it still stings...I love their smoothies, and I’m sure I could operate a blender!). 

Now again, I find myself newly-degreed (well, come this May, Lord willing!) and in a shaky economy. I am throwing my job searching hunt far and wide. Am I still looking for my original vision of an ideal position? Yes.  But, I am also applying for jobs that are not the type of position that I want but ARE in type of environment that I’d like to be in. The goal with this is to get a foot in a door, work my way to where I belong, or at least have a relevant item to list on my resume. And, I am also applying to jobs in places that kind of sicken me (I never saw myself as the corporate type) but that have a position where I could at least utilize SOME of the skills or knowledge that I’ve accrued while pursuing my degree.  These are my new (albeit, lowered) standards.

I’m sure my 19 year old self would consider me a sell-out for this realism and compromise.  I can’t think about that too hard. Sticking hard and fast to my original vision of a career when I entered grad school doesn’t seem wise.  Steadfest? Okay, sure. Persistent? Yes. Stubborn? Yes. Wise? No.  Time to do what my liberal arts training taught me to do; Consider different points of view and get creative.  

ECTMSRHOPHM Volume 5

East Coast Transplant in the Midwest Seeks Repatriation to the Homeland; or, Please Hire Me!

So…

I applied for my first job.  I buckled down this weekend, received advise from everyone and their mother, and got my resume and references finalized.  I also did a Cover Letter for a school that looks REALLY promising.  *fingers crossed*

Now, for those not “in the know,” using asterisks around a phrase is the online way of saying you’re doing something.  Such as *typing this blog entry out,* or *suffering due to a non-working heater in my office,* or even *waiting to graduate.*

See how it works?  J

Anywho…I know a lot of folks at this institution, and I was prodded, by someone there, into applying in the most subtle way possible.  “Epix, apply.”

 I think I got the memo.

So, the cover letter’s done…everything was sent in, I’m all nervous, and I keep checking my e-mail like it owes me money.  *GIMME A JOB ALREADY!*

Yes, it’s early.  Yes, yelling (typing like I’m yelling-see above examples) won’t accomplish anything.  But I just want it to be May already!  I do want to go through this process and experience the ups, the downs, the everything’s…I just don’t want to deal with the sleepless nights and work overload from being in my last semester in grad school.

In short, anyone wanna hire me?  J

-Epix

Thank you for your consideration #6

The thrill of the hunt.

When I read a job description for a job I think I’d like (and am qualified for), I get a small (albeit short lived) high. Even if the job is in an undesirable location, just knowing that jobs like that are out there gives me hope. Hope among the endless repetitive job descriptions that I’m either under- or over-qualified for. 

As I’ve been intensely job searching, many of my friends and coworker are aware of my search. They hear every bit of news whenever I got a response, they urge me to apply for jobs that I don’t feel that I’m 100% qualified for, and they cheer when I get a callback.  As a consequence of pouring my energy into job searching and letting others know that I’m on the market, I’ve become the source for all things job search related. I have people emailing me resumes to review, cover letters to edit, asking how I find all these jobs to apply to…. I’m thinking that if I can’t find a job in my field perhaps I should make a fulltime job out of job-hunting services! (I do love editing cover letters). Anyways, I was surprised that some of my fellow job seekers did not know about my ULTIMATE, FAVORITE JOB SEARCH WEBSITE:

http://www.indeed.com/  

It’s a big, comprehensive job search site like Careerbuilder or Monster, but less of a….err, monster. Its google-esque and very intuitive and user friendly. You can also search using Boolean terms (i.e. x AND y NOT z).  I have two favorite features about this site.

1)    It remembers which jobs you looked at and marks them in a different color text. This is a simple but awesome feature and keeps me from reading the same ads over again. I can’t tell you how many times I start reading a job description’s details only to realize that I’ve already read it a few days ago, or even already applied to it. Similarly (providing that you allow cookies on your computer) the home page will show your recent search (so you don’t have to retype or try to remember all the different titles that your dream job goes by!) AND it will show how many new jobs have met your search criteria since you last checked in!! This makes finding the newly announced jobs so much easier and is a huge time saver.

2)    It goes beyond searching job title and city. You can just as easily search by job duties, skills, or description. For example, say there is a certain skill that you offer, but the accompanying matching jobs have vast and varied titles…making searching by job title difficult because nearly every employers calls this position something different. Frustrating, oh yes.  With Indeed, instead of searching by job title (which may or may not be the same title of the actual jobs that I really want to find), I typed in an industry specific computer program that I had extensive training and experience with. Boom. Indeed pulled up a list of jobs that had this program as part of the job requirements or desired skills. And this search, too, is saved and updated when new matches are added. =)

2.25) Side note:  you can easily pull up ALL job postings from a specific employer….allowing you to see which departments they have been hiring in and do some extra research on them.

Sign up for a their job agent alert. Take the work out of job hunting through endless advertisements. Save your elbow grease for landing that interview. Job searching, simplified.

Thank you for your consideration #5

You can call if you want.

 ...but there ain't no one home. I wish they didn't do the telephone (interview). Sing it, Gaga! "Stop telephonin' me!"

Phone interviews. My prediction: another soon-to-be relic, much like the hard copy resume printed carefully on thick off-white paper, signed in ink, and mailed in a hand addressed envelope. Sure, phone interviews might stick around in certain fields or professions. And granted, they are practical for screening candidates who live states or countries away. But, in my personal experience, telephone interviews are going by the way-side. Good riddance, I say.

My last two in-persons interviews skipped right over the phone interview step. I had someone called me, ask if I was still interested and scheduled a date and time to interview me. Why can't it always be like that?

I felt confident about the two in-person interviews I've been on these last 3 months. However, my last phone interview was horrible.  Even compared to the first in-person interview that I had....which was over two hours of being grilled and drilled with questions from one executive and then a group of 3 other staff members. It was rough, but other than a few stutters and two sweating hands, I think I handled it beautifully.

On the flip side the last phone interview was BAD. My words were all jumbled together. Once I got so flustered that I asked if I could start my answer over (and immediately felt juvenile). Some of the questions were ridiculous...”Do you believe you are in the top 5% of employees?”  Seriously, is this a trick question?!? Psychology tells us that most people have a cognitive bias about themselves, and as a result overestimate their abilities relative to other people. In other words, most people think they are in the top 50%, but that’s impossible for everyone to be above average. And this woman is asking me if I’m in the top FIVE? Even if I thought it was, I think it would be erroneous to say so. So, I didn't.  Other questions asked included..."Should a supervisor pay more attention to an under-achieving employee compared to a high achieving one?" and "Should productivity be rewarded monetarily?” Um, what? I was not applying to a supervisory job in corporate America.  I answered the questions honestly yet somewhat reservedly. Even as I spoke I knew my answers were not what they wanted to hear.

To no surprise I got the "we are pursuing other candidates that more closely meet our needs" email.

So, gotta burn off some steam and move onto the next application. Tomorrow. For now, I think I need to take a breather, or in other words, " I'm not takin' no calls, 'cause I'll be dancin'!

Thank you for your consideration #4

"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me." -Batman in Batman Begins, 2005.

The dreaded question while unemployed and job hunting… So, what do you do?  Between Fall 2002 and Fall 2003, I was unemployed. I underwent the rite of passage for Gen-Xers of moving to my parents’ basement after having a full-time adult job and my own place. While job hunting, I took on a variety of jobs. Odd jobs. Odd terms of both inconsistent and just strange.

During this time, I dreaded that question. What do you do? It was inevitably the follow-up question after names were exchanged. I took this question seriously. Does my employment define me? If so, then I REALLY needed to refine my potential career path.  I am not a cog in the wheel, a mindless drone. But nearly every job (perhaps other than a doctor in a 3^rd world country, a missionary, a fine artist, or caregiver for special needs orphans) seemed like giving in to ‘the man’ and losing oneself to the machine of modern life in a capitalist society. What’s a good-hearted idealist to do??  As a life-long volunteer, I didn’t have a problem with grunt work or physical labor.  However, I did resent a (often sickeningly) low price put on my precious hours of life, energy, and effort.  One hour of my sweat, sore muscles, and deadening of my mind and creative capacities was really worth 5.35/hour? Even at $50 an hour, that seemed like prostituting myself. To do things I see no worth in, in hopes of maybe making  a near-living wage…this was no way to live.

What do you do?  Among my jobs as an over-qualified 20-something? While I submitted applications I worked as a receptionist at a lumber company, various data entry and filing jobs thru a Temp Agency, a dancer at an entertainment company, a picker/packer at a fashion designer’s warehouse, Life Portrait Model at an art league, Standardized test grader (I never thought that actual people had to grade the show-your-work math sections and writing section) and any house/dog/baby-sitting gigs that I could find.  Another day, another half-dollar.

My answer?  Whatever it takes.

For those who are disheartened at a society that judges people based on their job, I leave you with this quote: “I see the strongest and the smartest men who have ever lived... and these men are pumping gas and waiting tables.”  -Chuck Palahniuk, 1996. Fight Club, Chapter 19. 

ECTMSRHOPHM Volume 4

East Coast Transplant in the Midwest Seeks Repatriation to the Homeland; or, Please Hire Me!

Hello folks!
Epix here, apologies for being so MIA this past week. Definitely been swamped, and have had the pleasant misfortune of frying (yet another) hard drive. Seems like Epix and technology will never have a happy marriage, so much so that my boyfriend has officially banned me from touching any of his electronic things. :(
That said, not having a laptop at the moment sure is making this job search difficult. Luckily, I could sense impending disaster as my computer got slower and slower, and backed up all my files on an external hard drive. I can access everything, thank Jeebus, but I have no computer easily at my fingertips should a stroke of inspiration come to me at 2am some random weekday night.
Thus, Epix is thinking of getting an iPad…and wishing Gen 2 would just come out already! *insert geek rant here*
Alrighty then, back to Student Affairs.
I find it strange that this semester seems less stressful…yet, I know I am struggling with time management, both academically and in making sure that my job search materials are finished and ready to send out. Classwork gets in the way, duty calls get in the way…hell, even this vicious snowstorm makes life difficult (when, due to budget cuts, grounds-folk don’t shovel sidewalks, Epix is likely to fall down and hobble around for the following days).

I’m working on my first cover letter as we speak. It’s….well…I’ll be honest…
My first draft 100% absolutely, completely, and utterly sucks.
It’s pretty terrible.
But, it’s done. Now it’s just a matter of going back through it and finding the hidden gems and polishing them to utter brilliance (I totally had some “diamond in the rough” Disney Aladdin imagery going on there. You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s that scene where Jafar, the villain, is explaining that he needs Aladdin to open the Cave of Wonders for him and…well, nevermind…).
Anyway, I’ll check back in when this puppy is finished and ready to go.
Happy February to you all!
I’m excited to see what sorts of program begin popping up this month to honor Black History month, yet always get a bit sad when I realize that many RA’s never want to go further than a generic bulletin board. Alas, exhaustion strikes us all.

-Epix