Liz Gets Herself a Job Part 1

A while ago (around the time I realized I hadn't done an actual post in weeks) I reread some of my posts inlcuding this one which referenced this page. One of the articles on this page suggests writing a series to "fight blogger apathy". Briefly, I'd like to attribute my "apathy" to simultaneously finishing an internship, three classes, and having to look for gainful employment.

Which brings me to the series: Liz Gets Herself a Job

Here's how things have gone so far. I've applied to like a million jobs at a million different places. I can remember most of the places I've applied because I save the cover letter I send to each potential employer. At the end of the day I can go back and count how many I've got. The problem is that some of the larger employers require applicants to fill out an online application which leaves no such paper trail. (I'm wondering how many times I've applied for some of the positions at Fairview and HealthEast).

I've sort of got this down to a science now. I have a formated resume saved as a word document. I also have a plain text resume which looks very plain but is perfect for copying and pasting into all those online forms. Because of a particularly pesky online form I now also have a plain text resume limited to 50 characters per line. I also have a saved copy of my work history with just job titles, address and phone numbers, names of supervisors and dates of employment.

There are still a few wrinkles in the system. Each time I apply for a position I write a cover letter which usually involves copying and pasting the last cover letter and changing some names and details. This is where I have the most potential to screw up. Especially when in one fateful letter I mentioned the name of the company a second time in a place I usually don't, copied the letter into a new document and forgot to take out the reference to company A in the letter I sent to company B. Woops. Even not counting that letter, I've still sent out a bunch of resumes.

Tonight I applied for a position at Fairview and one at Health East. This weekend I think I applied for about four positions (not including the woops cover letter).

I've had three interviews. Company A (not the same company A as before) I haven't heard from, but at this point I'm assuming they've hired someone else. Company B was an interesting interview. I walked into this suite in an office building and thought "I literally would not fit in this office". I need more room to move around and make noise. They also weren't paying very much. I didn't want to work there but the rejection still stung. Company C I haven't heard from but they said they will contact people during the middle of the week so that's ok.

Here's the thing I've learned about Minnesota. Jobs are required to be posted for 3 weeks (thank you EEOC) and sometimes companies extend the posting. If I apply for a position at the beginning of the cycle it could literally be a month before I hear from anyone. I'm pointing this out more to myself than anyone else. I've decided that talking about this will help me be realistic about the process, although I'm not totally convinced this won't just make things worse. Whose idea was this?

Keep checking back for part 2 of the series.