Drive to Succeed

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers.

I took my second course's final exam and passed, so that is one more thing off my plate, and a lovely new certificate to add to my resume. I am figuring out which courses to take next, so I am by no means done. I spent a large part of last week going through the research needed to figure out which staffing service I wanted to sign up with, along with applying to jobs on my own. I was able to narrow it down, and I signed up today. I was contacted by the staffing service and I have an appointment for an interview with them tomorrow morning.

I like jobs which are laid out logically, but have an element of unpredictability to them. The core of the job does not change, but the circumstances around the job can change depending on whom I interact with in order to do said job. To an extent, temporary assignments do this in spades, and depending on the type of temporary job you get, could be a stepping stone to a full-time, permanent position in which you fit.

This is how I found the last permanent job I had; I was a temp for the customer support department, and then the business was bought out by a different company, and at the end of my temp contract they hired me permanently, and after a couple years I was able to earn a promotion into a different department, where I stayed until I was laid off as the company went bankrupt.

I want to succeed and do a good job at whatever job I am handed. I want to be seen as somebody who, after almost 20 years in the workforce, is somebody people can depend upon both as a team player and an individual.

I hope that, whatever it is that drives you, Dear Readers, you are acknowledged for it. Now if you will excuse me, I have an interview to prepare for and clothes to pick out.

-A.M.W.

Where Did Summer Go?!

True fact: If you had asked me earlier today when was the last time I'd updated this blog, I would have sworn to you that it was only two weeks ago. Instead it's been over 5 weeks, and I have no idea how the time went by without my notice. It is true that I've been busy; between trying to find a job and working my internship, plus trying to have something that resembles a personal life, I seem to use up all my time every day doing something.

I realized today that Labor Day is just around the corner, and since that is the day I always equate with Summer being officially over (mainly due to the fact that I've lived so much of my life in academia), I feel like I've lost a lot of time somewhere between July and now.

Things of note since my last post: I received my degree in the mail, so I am now officially Alice M. Weaver, M.S., and an alumni of Colorado State University's Graduate School. I have tweaked my resume several times, for all of its incarnations (Administrative Personnel, Communications Specialist and Technical Communications), and I'm still working on the resume that I use to apply for government positions.

I've finally found some good jobs on the website of the temp agency to which I am a member, so I'm hoping that one of those that I've applied for will bear fruit. I'm also still in the running for a position within the nearest hospital in town; my fingers are fervently crossed that I get an in-person interview!

Work at my internship has changed a bit, and I still enjoy working there. It's nice to have a little shake-up of responsibilities, as it keeps the job fresh and entertaining.

I will keep my head up and my thoughts positive and hopeful as I continue to search for work.

Cheers,
AMW

Internship Acquired & Countdown to Degree

I am now an intern at Beet Street in Fort Collins, Colorado. I am primarily writing articles for newsletters and blogs for the Arts Incubator of the Rockies (AIR) initiative, but I get to help with other things in the office as well. I finished my first "week" on the job (I have a 10-15 hour work week) yesterday, and it feels fantastic to be useful again.

http://www.beetstreet.org
http://www.airartsincubator.org

In other news, this coming Thursday I am defending my thesis. I have a Prezi just about finished and I have plans to make cookies as refreshments are generally served with the presentation. So hopefully this time next week I will have attained my Master of Science in Public Communications & Technology.

Things are definitely looking up!

Cheers,
-AMW

Post-Holidays Update

Hey Everybody,

Sorry I've been radio-silent (blog-silent?) for two months; between the holidays and such, I've been super-busy.

Good news: I have ALL of my data for my thesis collected, and I've already input all the information into chart form. I have 26 pages worth of charts! Once I have all of my appendices printed out, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have about 75 pages of content, not including my actual thesis. I'm also on target for defending my thesis and getting my degree this semester!

Bad news: Unemployed again. The part-time job I had finally gotten by my last post was great for a week-and-a-half, and then there were timing and scheduling issues within the company and I was laid off. I was paid for my time, and the boss told me that she'd love to have me back when she got the call center back up if I was still available. I still haven't heard from her, even though I did call this week and left a message telling her I was available. I also haven't been able to garner an interview anywhere else, either.

So, I have my work cut out for me, but I know I can finish my thesis on time and get a job; I just have to keep believing in myself.

-AMW

The Part-Time Two-Step

I start my new part-time job on Monday, the training portion of it anyway. I will be working customer service, mostly calling to set up appointments for people. The pay is good for the work involved, and it leaves the majority of my days open because I'll be working in the evenings, so I'll still be able to work on gathering data for my thesis.

However, a part-time job, no matter how nice, is not a way to make ends meet in the long-run. Looking for full-time work in my field is the goal, and the part-time job is a stepping stone to get me closer to that goal. This doesn't mean that I will shirk any responsibility while working at the part-time job; it just means that I need to remind myself not to get comfortable, since I have a laundry-list of things to do in order to obtain my goal.

The one perk of having employment is that suddenly a lot of people see you as more employable. I already have one or two people waiting to hear from their bosses before they hire me for short gigs in contract work for proofreading and whatnot. Dad also says that companies love to poach workers from other companies as well; so being able to state that I'm currently working is a definite plus on a resume.

I'll be staying in Fort Collins for the next couple of months, at any rate, and I won't have to move back to Michigan now that I'm employed. I'm looking forward to finally working again and being in an office setting. I'll be able to stay long enough to finish my data collection, write the rest of my thesis and defend it, so I'll be graduating officially in Spring 2012. After that, I'll see where the job offers take me (and if they take me early...well, at least I'll have my data collected by the end of this year).

-AMW

Unacknowledged Blues

Twenty years ago, if you applied for a job and didn't get it, the company would send you a letter that acknowledged your attempt for employment, but they weren't going to pick you at this time. Of course getting these letters in the mail wasn't fun, but at least the company took the time to acknowledge your efforts and your existence.

This year, I've noticed a trend in people trying to get a job: they're happy getting rejection letters or emails. I know why this is as well: a lot of companies have stopped sending rejection letters because they cost time and money (even more so if the letters are mailed rather than emailed). I am here to state that it is bad enough to be rejected for the jobs you apply for; it is somehow infinitely worse to never hear from the company in response. A written "no, but thank you for applying" is polite and at least acknowledges you exist. A wall of silence not only says "no", but also says "you're not worth acknowledging".

I understand that in this economy, we must tighten our belts and cut things that seem to just waste money. I understand the silent "no" to the initial application for a job. However, I can say from experience, for the people who get interviews and follow up by contacting the company a week afterward, that wall of silence is deafening. It is one thing to ignore the existence of a person via their application; it is completely another to ignore their existence after having met them.

We wait for a phone call or email to validate our attempts to gain work, but we also wait for somebody to acknowledge our existence is more than our resume. We are people who are actively seeking employment; we have bills and pets and families to take care of by working to earn our keep. It seems cruel to ignore a population that wants to work and has garnered enough attention from a company to get an interview.

Like I said before, I understand the monetary reasons for it...however, I don't agree with it. How does a company expect to keep good public relations when it won't relate to a section of the public and what they're going through? It doesn't make sense from a public relations/human resources perspective.

I'm interested in hearing from others, either about their own job search, or if they're employed, then on this scenario:
You interviewed with two companies, and Company A gave you a wall of silence, and Company B sent you a rejection email/letter. Two months later, they each call you up and offer you a job; same pay, same benefits. Who would you work for, and why?

-AMW

It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know

The title of this particular blog is about something that has irked me for quite some time: using relatives/friends/acquaintances to gain your dream job.

The adage of "It's not what you know, it's who you know" has always bugged me, because it should be the other way around. Do you want the guy with a degree in accounting to be doing your PR, just because he's LinkedIn buddies with ten contacts you happen to have in common?

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Nooooooooo.

You want somebody who has trained to do a job to do that job. The guy with an accounting degree should be in the accounting department, and the person you find with either a degree and/or sufficient experience in PR should be doing your PR.

My dad and I had a pretty good conversation about this bizarre turn of events where people have gotten jobs through friends/acquaintances/networking, turned said jobs into careers, and never used the degrees they worked to obtain. I understand getting a job through acquaintances/friends if you need a stopgap to pay the bills, and networking to attain that dream job. But when I earn my Master's Degree in Public Communication & Technology, I don't want to be wasting my time flipping burgers! I want to use what I learned to help the business I'm working for, in a marketing, journalism, PR or technical writing capacity (since all are under the umbrella of the degree).

I would love to start my career by getting in with a company in a low-level job and working for a Marketing Director or a Lead Technical Writer. I would prove my worth and my skills, climb the ladder to a higher position, help the company with marketing strategies or better written/formatted user guides. That is where I would be happy, because I'd be right in the thick of things and taking on challenges.

I do admit that networking is useful, and I'm not bagging it entirely because it has helped a lot of my friends get good jobs/internships. However, I'd like HR departments and Hiring Managers to consider that while the whole six-degrees-of-separation thing is a way to meet people who could be qualified, it's the people who are qualified who should be getting the jobs, regardless of who they know on Facebook and/or LinkedIn. Doing a job right means it's what you know, not who you know, that matters in the end.

That's my two cents, at any rate.
-AMW

'Tis the Season(al Help Time)

Over the past two days, I've filled out over a dozen applications for part-time and/or seasonal help. I have another two paper applications on my desk that I'm taking a break from filling out so I can get this post up (a day late, sorry, I was filling out applications all day yesterday and it slipped my mind). I also have business cards from three places, because they only take online applications.

I had been worried about how I was going to pay to get to Michigan for Christmas, so I could see my parents, but now I don't have to worry about it, because I won't be going. To my benefit, though, if I'm employed I'll at least be able to give them gifts this year.

So as we go out and start shopping for presents for our loved ones, I would like to entreat everybody to be nice to the people in the stores. Some of them may be a little slow at the cash register, or they might not know the layout of the store as well as some, but that's probably because it's their first week on the job, after being unemployed for several months. They're going to try really hard to help you, because sometimes getting in during the seasonal help time is the only chance these people have to getting a steady part-time (or possibly full-time) job. Give them a little hope by giving them a thank you and a smile; it doesn't take anything away from you and it gives them a brighter day.

Trust me when I say that the bright days are worth more than you know.

-AMW

If you can't be an Intern, you can always Volunteer

Scenario: You've done all the paperwork, sometimes months in advance, and you have sent in everything a company has asked for...but you still didn't get the internship. Getting an actual job doesn't seem to be in the works, because your resume is a little flat. So how do you fill it up so hiring managers take a good look at you?

One of the best ways to beef up a resume is through volunteer work. This is something I've been told by, well, lots of people through the years. It's a way for your resume to look current, and a lot of volunteers who do really good work can get their supervisors to write recommendations for them.

I think if I don't get a job soon, I'm going to start volunteering at a couple places in town. I know there is a cat rescue that can always use an extra pair of hands (and my previous vet experience should really work well there). There is also the LAMBDA center, which I'm going to look into a bit more before making a decision.

Hooray for backup plans!
-AMW

Nice & Reliable Transportation

I have a car; her name is Stacy. She's a 1999 Chevy Malibu, and despite being well over a decade old, runs pretty well. In a world where one of the most important questions on a pre-interview application is "Do you have reliable transportation/your own car?", I have always been glad that my car runs well.

Sure, she has a rust spot, and the back seat windows won't roll down anymore, and because I have to park outside it seems like her natural taupe color is perpetually a little darker because of the dirt, but I try to keep her nice. For the majority of the time, she looks good, and that's pretty important if a potential employer sees your ride.

However, from the driver's side, Stacy doesn't look good today. I was running errands and had the front windows down because it was finally warm enough again to have them open. When I got back home, I rolled up the windows. The passenger side window went up just fine...the driver's side did until I heard a horrid *chunk-chunk*, which I think might have been the motor for the window giving up the ghost, because the window stopped moving...an inch to inch-and-a-half before it would have closed.

I just got back inside after cellophaning/taping the gap so bugs and rain (but mostly bugs) don't get into my car. Thankfully I had some heavy-duty clear packing tape (I refuse to duct-tape my car), so Stacy doesn't look too much like a reject. I probably shouldn't worry about it, because the gap is so small compared to what it could be, and from several angles looking at Stacy it doesn't even show, but I can't shake the feeling that if an employer sees Stacy as she looks now, I'm going to be judged negatively for it.

In brighter news, my writer's block is gone, I have complete outlines for both a children's book and a young-adult humor/parody book, I have conducted one more interview for my thesis, and I have a job interview this Monday with the city I live in! *crosses fingers* It's for an actual technical writing job, which makes me all sorts of happy; this could be my foot in the door to a great job for a great city.

-AMW

Application Forms and the Joys of Being Labeled as Over-Qualified & Under-Experienced

I understand the need to get as much pertinent information as needed from an applicant. I do, really. However, the excessive amount of forms that everybody wants me to fill out for something as simple as a cash register position is ludicrous. Yes, I know that part of the whole application process is for legal purposes so everybody is on a level playing field. Yes, I also know that one's ability to fill out the application is also an indicator of how well an applicant can follow direction. My question against all the extraneous paperwork is this: how is it any easier on the Hiring Manager to look through a hand written application when the same information is right on my nicely typed and well formatted resume? I am annoyed by this particular set of hoops and red tape, it is true.

I have also been told by several people that I am in the interesting position of being over-qualified and under-experienced for pretty much everything I apply for, due to the fact that I am currently in the process of attaining my Master of Science degree, but my writing portfolio is not as large as it ought to be.

The above statement annoys me greatly, because I do have a great amount of experience. I have about five years worth of retail experience, over two of which I was also in a management position that handled the schedules of other people and oversaw inventory (including working with vendors and ordering supplies). Also during those two-plus years I was in charge of creating pamphlets and other advertising-type things, including a website (it was these PR type things that got me into graduate school in the first place). I also have a year-and-a-half of teaching and grading experience, which means I am willing and able to be friendly with lots of people and share information in an easy-to-understand manner, as well as being able to proofread/edit lots of paperwork (which any teaching assistant can tell you, because nobody can have 50 to 100 students per semester and then tell you s/he isn't a great editor/proofreader). So technically, I do in fact have the experience, but a lot of people do not view it as valid experience for the jobs to which I'm applying.

I have applied thus far to be everything from a manager of an EZ Loan office to a cashier at Barnes & Noble and have received no word back from any hiring entity. I have also attempted to get contract work for technical writing, but getting my foot in the door has proven to be a bit tougher than anticipated.

A foot in the door is all I need, but apparently all I have to show for trying at this point are stubbed toes. I guess now I need to invest in some (metaphorical) steel-toed boots.

-AMW