A friend of mine is looking for a job now and I mentioned to her that, If she needed the help, I could help with her cover letters.
This being a throw back joke to when I was searching for a job last year. I had been meaning to collect these and finally got around to doing it. Both the job specific posts and the much loved Cover letter Saga.
The Job Posts:
The Cover Letter Saga:
Hope you enjoyed!
After 3 ½ months of searching during one of the worst times for a govt. contractor to be searching for a job, I finally landed a position! Sarah also started a new job as well. It’s been a super stressful few months and I am really glad for the emotional support of my friends and family during that time. But hey, that’s done and I have joined the productive society again! I am now working in a local (to Northern VA) hosting company doing Tier 3 Windows support. Should be interesting getting back down in the support weeds. Who knows, it may lead to a whole new variety of twitter jokes.
Sadly, this does bring an end to my series of “Cover Letter” jokes. please feel free to go back and see the hilarity that ensues when you try and add the wrong things to cover letters.
In the month since I went to shoot the LADEE launch, quite a few things have happened. One of the reasons I haven’t written much since then is primarily due to the crappy depression that accompanies something like unemployment. (That and the lack of sleep, irritability, feeling of worthlessness….you get the picture) So lets see if I can shotgun these out.
We started doing a Webcomic over at RetroNickRadio!! It’s really cool and you should go read it.
I went to shoot some Roller Derby!
Two Words….Midget Wrestling. (yeah, that happened)
Sarah and I celebrated our return to work with a trip to Universal Studios.
We got to attend a great concert by Wil Wheaton Vs. Paul and Storm
And finally, two of our super awesome friends were finally allowed to be married in Maryland so we went to wish them well.
The next month should prove interesting as I adjust to a new work schedule (read that as “Actually working again, and not in my Pajamas”)
The emotional roller coaster that is Job Hunting is still ongoing. Some weeks are great with lots of phone calls and emails back and forth. Then there are the weeks where everything is in motion and all I can do is wait. Various interviews, both in person and on the phone, where I get to be the subject of “Stump the dummy”.
It’s kind of exhausting.
The best part about it is the comedy that it generates. I have gotten pings from jobs that are nowhere near what I have listed on my resume. Things like Insurance salesman, car salesman, iOS Developer, and then there is this guy:
“Your resume was selected because it includes words or phrases that indicate these qualifications. In order to continue expanding the sales force, I am conducting preliminary interview meetings for top-level candidates to fill these business-to-business sales positions”
When I asked him what the job description was:
“Thanks for sending me your information (Which I didn’t). I’d love to work out a time for us to meet and go over our position. I cover and hire for all of Northern Virginia, but my office is in Fredericksburg, which is where I conduct interviews only.”
Again, I asked him for a job description and how it fits my resume (which he claimed he had).
“The person I am hiring will be responsible for making personal visits to owners of companies in order to continue or improve upon their existing benefits. This is not a door to door sales position. I will be happy to explain further and answer any of your questions in person if you choose to meet with me.”
After pressing the 3rd time for an actual job description, I haven’t heard from him since. I was seriously very o_O afterwards. Good chance I would have probably gotten raped down in Fredericksburg.
So the search continues. If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen some of my various “Cover letter” jokes. These will continue until I find a job! (And they may get worse so you should pray that I find a job soon!) The plus side to all of this is that I was thinking of rolling the whole experience into a routine and trying out one of the open mic nights.
In the meantime, I am taking things slow. Reviewing the jobs I am applying for and making the most of the time off.
So I think the biggest difficulty I am having with this whole “Not having a job” thing (aside from the “finding a job” thing) is what to do with my spare time. You see, I have a lot of it now.
My left brain is all “Man, I have so many things lined up for us!” where my right brain is more like “Things suck, you suck, this situation sucks!” The downside to this is that it would seem that lately, the right side is winning. This doesn’t stop ol’ lefty from giving it the good college try.
Everything from story ideas to crafting projects to outdoor projects have been flowing through the noggin, but then they hit that right side firewall and somehow aren’t making it through the filter. Instead, right side is cracking the whip with “Search for more jobs, provide..PROVIDE…PROOOOVVVIIIDDDEEEE!!
I try and explain to herr rightenheimer that things are going ok. We have 5 possible leads as well as a billion and a half resumes out in the wild. We have enough in savings to take care of things for a long while, we can afford to take this time off and pick the right job in the right place.
Unfortunately, he’s not listening. So I sot down to write and I make a blog post about arguing with myself instead. (That counts, right?)
Anyone want to come over and punch the right side of my head?
And just like that, I have officially become a burden on society. Didn’t realize it was that easy. So July 12th was my last day on record at my previous job, and as if yet I have had no offers from any of the 50 places I have submitted to. I do have one hopeful that I feel the interview went well, but we’ll see. (If you have any leads, please feel free to e-mail me!
Fear not, Sarah and I have enough socked away to sustain us for quite some time. So, in the meantime I am catching up on my photography and writing (thus this post) and looking into other things to keep me busy. I am not going to fool myself into thinking that I am some future great novelist or think that my Photography can sustain me. Mostly it’s just things to occupy my mind so I don’t go crazy.
In other news, I broke my toe! Yeah, great segway right? On the 4th of July I became a statistic by going into the emergency room with a non-firework related injury! What happened? Well, after our little BBQ and meet and greet, when everyone else had left (except James, who got to witness this delightful event) I went to get an ice cream out of the freezer. On the way back to the family room I was walking down the stairs and slipped. My left foot shot straight into the metal railing and I fell the rest of the way down the stairs.
After screaming in pain for a good 5 minutes, I finally got around to asking Andrew to remove the sock on my left foot. I took a picture of the result, but to save your stomachs, I have decided to use this artist’s rendition of what my foot looked like. As you can see, I tried to make it a little happier. The actual foot looked much, much worse.
After screaming in disgust for a good 5 minutes, everyone else in the room decided that a trip to the emergency room was in order.
Fun fact about me. In stressful situations, I use humor as a defense mechanism. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed. On the way out to the car, I made sure that Sarah grabbed my phone and my iPad (so I have them) but totally forgot about things like, my insurance card, my shoes (at least 1 of them) etc. I needed my phone because I totally needed to post a picture to Facebook and twitter, right!?
When we arrived at the hospital, we didn’t see the normal patient entrance to the emergency room, only the ambulance entrance. I rolled down the back seat window and asked one of the paramedics “Where do I go for this?” with my foot outside the window. He happily pointed us in the right direction.
Thankfully the emergency room was fairly empty and we didn’t have to wait for hours on end to be seen. The whole staff was great and dealt with my “current state” with a smile. I got dosed up on morphine and the doctor straightened out my toe (to much screaming from me).
If you are really interested in what it looked like, the x-ray can be seen here. (warning, it’s not pretty)
That’s been my July so far! My project 365 is still going strong. I think it’s really helped me work on some of techniques, as well as getting over my fear of taking pictures of other people. Turns out that the average person doesn’t mind an artistic picture taken of them!
Here is a link to my Flickr page with all of the latest pics on it!
