mscleanslate

For the first time in about a week, I got some job-related news. It seems that another position has come available at The Evil Empire and the agency wanted to know if I was interested. Due to the overwhelming lack of response (even rejection) lately, I eagerly signed on the dotted line to be thrown back into the shark tank to see if I might get a nibble. I may come out of this with some teethmarks, but maybe I’ll also come out of it sporting a paycheck. Which would, right now, rock my socks off! (For the record, I am actually not even wearing socks right now… but that isn’t because of a paycheck, it’s just because I never put any on today).

I was going to do more than I actually did today around the house but I was sortve expecting a package (because when I looked online it said it was “out for delivery”) so I didn’t want to get to running the vacuum or something and then miss the FedEx guy (who is like “The Wind“… you remember “The Wind” from the episodes of M*A*S*H, right?)

I’m really trying to have a good attitude. I’m just tired. And every day, I am more concerned that maybe I CAN’T really get a job and that if/when I do get one, I’ll have lost my skills. I know it sounds absurd, but it’s how I feel.

I hope something comes along soon. And that it is something good, not just something for which I will “settle”. Time now to sleep.

I got an email from one of the job boards today that informed me that 13 of the listed positions preferred that candidates have a degree. And you know, I don’t have one. But I’ll tell you something else… if the best job I can get with a degree is “Receptionist” or “Administrative Assistant”, then I don’t see the point to getting a degree. Silly me, I thought getting a degree was supposed to keep you from having to do the lowlier jobs.

The New York Times recently had an article that had this to say:

One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.

The article went on to say that the school make big promises and don’t deliver and that the education provided isn’t adequate to get a high-paying job.

The reality, for me, is that given my age, racking up a ton of student loan debt probably doesn’t make a lot of sense. I watched the struggle my mom had, graduating from college at 50+. Sure, she had the education but she had to fight tooth and nail for jobs because they wanted someone younger to fill the openings. She was working for people she could have given birth to who were not, quite frankly, very well prepared for working with older, more mature workers (she had a boss who tried to tell her exactly what to do with her day, in 15 minute increments… my mother had probably 30+ years of work experience at that point and knew time management skills, thankyouverymuch).

I was thinking last night that I finally know the answer to “if you could go back to any time in your life, when would it be…?” I’d go back to the summer I was 19. I’d suck it up and stay with my Grandparents. I might have been able to score a scholarship or at least have gotten through community college. I don’t know that my life would have been better. I wouldn’t have had any friends my own age but maybe, just maybe, I could have done something extraordinary with my life. And just once in my life, I’d really like to do something to make my Mom proud (I have come to believe that there is NOTHING I could do to make my father proud).

13 of the positions listed may prefer a degree. Zero of them should require it. All of them should be happy to hire someone with 20+ years of actual experience. But that’s not the way things work so I’ll just keep on looking and eventually, I’ll find something, right?

Another Friday and I am no closer to being employed. Got a rejection from one pending position (2 weeks after a decision was promised). There’ s another position still pending that I have very little hope about due to the interviewer’s attitude during the interview. Not a peep from the agencies who had contacted me 2 weeks ago. Oh.. and another position that I haven’t heard “for sure” about but since I cannot report to work at 5AM (due to my transportation situation) and can’t work weekends (again, a transportation issue), it’s pretty much a given that I am not going to get that job.

So, what now? I have applied for a bunch of other jobs, but there seems to be about a 3 week “lag time” between applying and actually hearing from people and I have nothing on deck for next week.

I am contemplating going to a “job fair” next week just because maybe doing something different will help.

Honestly, I’m rather worn-down and feeling hopeless. But maybe I just need to get some sleep.

Still no word from what seems to be the main hope for employment. I do have an interview tomorrow that will be quite a trek but we shall see how it ends up going. It would be quite a lengthy commute every day.

I got sent a list of “Screening Questions” by another potential contract position today. If they go strictly by “things I have already done”, then I have to be honest and say that I likely won’t even get an interview. But, honestly, I do have the capacity to learn new skills, especially computer software skills, pretty quickly. Still, it’s only fair that they might want to hire someone that they don’t have to train and I understand that. Still, I can now at least try to pick up the skill so if I am asked about it in the future, I will be able to say that I have studied it and go from there.

I am certainly working on honing my follow-up skills this week. I am pretty sure that the main position I am waiting to hear about is not going to be decided in my favor. I need to let it go and move on.

That’s about all there is to say at the moment. More when there is more to tell!

I got the call today that I was hoping I wouldn’t get. The one telling me I did NOT get the job I so desperately wanted. And, even though I KNEW that would be the outcome, it did not stop the tears.

The other job that I’m supposed to hear about? The one that I went and interviewed for last week? The people who were supposed to decide by Friday? Still not a peep. But, lo and behold, I found the job posted as a brand new position today by another agency. So, I know that I’m not getting that job. How do I know? Because the job description I found was verbatim for the job description sitting in my email box.

So, large multinational company who thinks itself clever to be gathering up another whole pool of applicants whilst you leave the poor suckers you’ve already interviewed dangling in limbo, I have to say a rousing FUCK YOU and the horse you rode in on. I stand by having called you The Evil Empire in the past. This is dirty pool and I hate that you feel like this is ok.

My heart is broken and my wallet is empty… The only thing on deck is a job that is a three hour (one way) commute. ::SIGH::

Well, here it is Friday night and I have no new news from anyone.

I was supposed to have an answer about one of the jobs today. No answer means that I PROBABLY don’t get that job. She was planning to have someone start Monday morning. Can’t do that if I don’t get the offer, right?

There is another I am supposed to hear from next week, but I know I have next to no chance of getting that one.

I have an interview next Thursday… they are interviewing Thursday and Friday which likely means that they won’t be hiring until mid-late March.

Everything else that is “allegedly” happening? Yeah…. I don’t believe it.

Back to Square One.

Before I went to the interview today, I got the impression that I am REALLY not who the interviewer wanted to hire but all of the people she DOES want to hire don’t bother showing up for the interview.

One of the cardinal rules of interviewing is always be on time. Well, thanks to good ol’ mass transit, I blew that one all to hell today. So much for overcoming her reservations about me and getting a job offer.

As it is, she’s doing a phone interview tomorrow (WTF? I could have saved the freakin’ trip? For real? And it’s really not exactly fair to hold different interviewees to different standards… GRRR!)

Bottom line, I’m not going to get the job. I should have known that from the initial phone call. I busted my ass to make it to the interview. I left home at 11:30 this morning and got home after 7PM this evening… so almost 8 hours… DAMN.

Did I do well in the inteview? I believe I did. She asked some weird questions. She also asked about “reliable transportation” and, well, thanks to today’s mass transit SNAFU I guess it is safe to say I get points off for that…

The “testing”? I have to believe I nailed it… but, it wasn’t anything that was scored or anything, more that they wanted to see if you had certain skills, which I believe that I demonstrated that I have.

Could I do the job? HELL YES! Would I love the job? More than likely, I would. And it is a “real” job not a contract.

Am I going to get an offer? Realistically, I would have to say no. I think the interviewer knew that before I ever got there today. I’m honestly not even sure why she had me come in. But I know that the transit SNAFU probably hurt me a great deal.

And yet… there is this little ray of hope deep within me… Which I almost wish wasn’t there… because when rejection comes and you have that ray of hope, it hurts. And I really, really don’t need any more hurt right now.

(And I really can’t afford the travel that would be involved in the training, even if it’s reimbursed… ::SIGH::)

So far this week I had one interview that was pretty much a waste of time and one that went (I thought) well. I have another one on deck.

Interview #1 said that they’d have a decision within 2 weeks, but it’s pretty much a lock I’m not going to get that one due to my effed up transportation situation.

Interview #2 is supposed to try to decide by the end of the week.

No idea about Interview #3’s timeline except that they’ve been interviewing since Monday and apparently have not found what they seek.

#3 would, for the long term, probably be the best of the bunch. #2 would, for the short term be a good opportunity. #1 isn’t worth talking about.

#2 pays a little more than #3. It has a shorter commute. It is also a contract. #3 is a full-time, regular position.

Would I like to end tomorrow with at least one job offer? Yes, yes I would. Will I? Probably not. Still hoping against hope for a Monday Morning start!

Just found out that the headhunter I’d spoken with yesterday. Whom I had TOLD I had appointments and would not be at home for the afternoon, PULLED ME FROM CONSIDERATION for a job because I could not instantaneously provide her with a completely customized, totally revamped resume IMMEDIATELY (because I was DOWNTOWN, nowhere near my computer) when she called and demanded it.

SERIOUSLY??? You couldn’t have at least forwarded the resume I supplied? The one that I had PROFESSIONALLY WRITTEN? The one that showcases my vast experience? Because you wanted a resume that specifically said I’d set up chairs and cleaned up after meetings?

From now on, I have no choice but to treat anything presented by a headhunter as a “vapor” position. Meaning that, as far as I know, the position DOES NOT EXIST and is being used to bulk up a headhunter’s “desperate job hunter” database.

If I have to manipulate information to highlight inferior skills and downplay the plethora of experience I have, something is wrong.

This, then, leaves me with one marginally viable potential job on the table right now. The rest of what is out there, the positions I was allegedly submitted for by headhunters? They don’t exist.

I am beyond livid.

This is so damned ridiculous.