Looking for a job is the worst. I don’t know that there is anything that makes me feel so badly about myself. The entire process is set up to make you feel like crap. No wonder most people hate their jobs. By the time you find anything, you’re so desperate you’ll take it.
How do you translate life into a one or two page resume? How do you get across in a one page cover letter enough information to show who you are and all the good things you will bring to the position?
I’m sure there are tons of articles out there from professionals answering these questions. But everyone reads the same stuff, makes their resumes and cover letters meet those guidelines. So it’s back to everyone’s materials looking the same.
How do I get across that my resume is a mess because I moved home to be with my dying mother? How do I sell my best traits: being a real people person and that I’m crazy smart. The application process is not set up to allow me to say this.
Who hasn’t sat in a job interview and just straight up lied? I certainly have, and I hate it. That is not me. How good am I at Excel? To be honest, not great. But it’s 2017, so I just Google it. I had a job that involved a lot of work in Excel. My boss would call me into his office and tell me what he wanted me to do. I’d take extensive notes, assure him I knew what I was doing, go back to my desk, Google it and get it done. He never had any complaints about my work. The fact that I called out the hugely inappropriate behavior bordering on sexual harassment that happened frequently in the office that he had complaints about.
I’m trying hard to network. Talk to people about what I’m looking for, talk to anyone about my job hunt. I have high hopes that this is going to be a better way to find a job. I’d love to end up somewhere I know a bit about first. What is the work culture like? Because just as much as the applicants lie in the interviews, so do the interviewers. I want inside information.
I don’t know what the answer is for a better application process; I just know the way it is doesn’t work. Who knows, maybe it just doesn’t work for me. Maybe there are other people out there who hear back from every job they apply to, who are getting interview after interview. People who aren’t sitting at home wondering if they’re gonna end up taking some awful job just to have a job. That sounds extra awful. I know I’m so lucky to be able to not work for a bit, but I just continue to be baffled by a system that is not set up to help employees or employers.
ethel isn't really my name 