Employment

Well, I applied for my first job here today. It took me nearly 4 hours. First, I had to re-write my resume and cover letter. I realize I haven't updated my resume in 3 years. Well, I'm sure I have, but apparently I didn't save it. Also, I wanted to change my resume, and make it more skills-based, rather than employment-based... It just makes more sense when I am applying for jobs that are not in the education field. So then I wrote a cover letter to go with it...

Side-note: The job posting was on a website. I was reading the qualifications, experience, and skills required as I was writing my resume and cover letter, making sure to include all of the things they mentioned in the ad.

When I finished writing the resume, I clicked on "apply for job" or whatever it says... and it brought to me another page where I could upload my resume. Then, it automatically picks out your relevant skills, from your resume! Not flawless - I did have to add some it missed, mostly due to a difference in wording... But then you have to rank them, and include years of experience! For example, one of the skills I had listed was "teamwork", and then you have to include years of experience. I think I picked 15 years - I'm sure teamwork was something I worked on in highschool! "Communication skills" was a really difficult one! I put 29 years - I figure I have been communicating in some form or another for my entire life. Maybe not what they're looking for, but what do they really expect?! It was HARD! And then, when I was trying to search skills (you can't make them up, you have to find them in their relevant skills database!) I would backspace on the keyboard, because I didn't find what I was looking for and wanted to try a different word, and I would hit backspace too many times, and it would actually take me back in the browser, and then I would have to start all over again! It was an incredibly frustrating experience. I have decided that I should probably not pursue a career in career advising, or job placement, or whatever - I HATE THIS!!!

I hate the process of reducing my skills and experience to 15 ranked skills. I am a much more well-rounded person than that. I have more than 15 skills and experiences. The website said to pick your strongest 15. Unfortunatly, some of my strongest are probably not relevant to this particular job, so I left some out... Ugh.

Ian is Mr. Joe-Cool when it comes to job hunting. Jobs are handed to him. He doesn't even have to look for them. And when he goes in for interviews, people just love him. I helped him write his resume, but I don't even think he needs it. I think he's very lucky, not that this happens to him, but that he doesn't have to look and try so hard. It's hard to be turned down repeatedly. He's waiting to hear about a job right now. We've been sitting here checking his email all day, waiting for the offer to come in. Nothing yet. It is very hard to wait, especially considering he needs to decide on another job by today, or he'll lose the offer... We have our fingers crossed.
Oh yeah, we're going to go look at an apartment to rent, too! What an exciting day!