I finally found some “part time” work through AmeriCorps, but it only provides a tiny monthly stipend which means that I still need to find work. Since the economy is still in the toilet, I’ve decided that going back to school is probably my best bet. Of course, if Andrew gets some time between fellowship and grant applications to help a sister out as he offered before, I may be able to forego grad school and the debt that will ensue, but I’m not putting all my money on that option. So GREs, essays and scholarship searches it is. At least I don’t have any money so I can be eligible for need-based aid.

Since I cut back on my AmeriCorps schedule from five days a week to two, I freed up some time not only for this newly intensified school/job search, but can now dedicate more time to both the Harry Potter Alliance and my sorority volunteer work. I’m excited to be able to attend more chapter activities and work more intensely on HPA projects since I haven’t been able to do much of either these past few months. I’m more than a little nervous about applying to grad schools, mostly due to the bad luck I’ve had with finding a job, but I’m determined to find a program that fits what I’m trying to accomplish, which will hopefully also be something I can afford.

I’m also going to try and update this blog more regularly, so I’ll hopefully have more news for next week.

Both interviews went well; I received phone calls back for second interviews, so now the question is: do I want either of these jobs? They both certainly have their benefits, outside of being a paycheck, and they both have their drawbacks, other than not being the job I actually want.

How do you make a choice when those are your options?

I’m very seriously considering grad school, or at the very least an amazing opportunity to study peace and social justice for 6 months in Israel, so how do I go and take a job for 10 months? Or 3? I suppose I’m jumping the gun a little bit. It’s only a second interview and who knows what will happen after that. The whole process has the feeling of sorority recruitment to it, but only the bad parts of it, not the meeting people and making friends regardless of the outcome part (to all the people who only believe the bad stereotypes about sorority life: yes, it does happen. I’m sure it doesn’t happen everywhere on the face of the earth, but it happens at my college), because what I really need is another reason not to be motivated about the dismal state of job searching I’m experiencing.

So today I return the phone calls I missed (I told them it was my Dad’s birthday and I wouldn’t be available) and see what happens from there.

Wish me luck?

Interviewing means having to get dressed up, done up, and literally sweat it out while someone grills you (or at least I sweat. Maybe I’m just a sweaty person. I know for sure I am when I run. Ick). It’s an additional hardship I can do without.

When I interviewed for internships during my senior year of college, I got to do them over the phone since I was in Pennsylvania and they were in West Virginia, Massachusetts, DC, and California. It was fantastic. You can totally freak out and panic, and interview in your pajamas, but if that doesn’t come across in your voice, there’s no need to worry. It helps keep you calm.

So wish me luck, internet people. While I might have the interview process and be exceptionally nervous about it, and not even want one of the jobs I’m interviewing for, I’m still hoping to get one. I’m definitely trying not to expect or hope too much (like I did before I never heard back from my dream job), but I’m still trying to fan that struggling flame of hope just a little bit.

Great, I thought. While I’m looking for a full time job, I’ll also check out internship opportunities to build up my resume. That worked out great until I kept reading this line:

must be a college undergraduate.

Or similar. Some places phrased it differently, but the idea was always the same: college graduates need not apply. On some levels, that’s fine and even understandable. College kids need to be able to go out in the world and get some experience so they know what to expect and what will be expected of them after they graduate and have to get a job. Or the realize they won’t like doing what their major is preparing them for, so they change majors and try again with next summer’s internship.

Regardless, as a former college undergrad, I understand the need to have these opportunities available to college students. Now that I’m a college graduate, it just makes me cranky.

So while it’s unfortunate that I chose a major to work in a field I thought I would always love to work in, but then reality took over and burned me out over the course of 18 months, does that mean I shouldn’t get an opportunity to change fields? I went to a liberal arts college, where I thought the point was because they force you to take so many classes that you hate and think are stupid (I still don’t get why I had to take astronomy) because it makes you a well-rounded human being and gives you skills that crossover through multiple fields.

Either I was taking the wrong classes (I knew Intro to Sociology was a bad idea), or it’s a load of crap.

Still, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m up a creek with a rotted main, a torn jib, and a busted motor. So I continue my simultaneous search for part time work, a full time career, internship opportunities, and grad school programs.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, she can multitask.

If there are any HR, hiring managers, webmasters and the like out there, I’d like to give you a little feedback: I like sites where you can created a profile and submit materials that way. I just did that on one nonprofit organization’s site and it was fabulous. It was easy, simple, and how things went horribly, horribly wrong.

I applied for the wrong job.

Of course, the same system that enabled my hastiness also allowed me to (somewhat) correct the situation: I was able to apply for the job that I actually wanted and for which my application was intended. A simply click of “Apply for this job now!” (or similar) meant there was no resubmission of cover letter and resume, no e-mailing some other person or department; just click a link and you’re done!

Another fabulous thing this site has: canned response indicating your materials have been received. In this day and age of servers going down, email bounce backs and data going astray, you have no idea if they don’t like you or if they just didn’t get your resume.

HR/hiring/web people: get on that one.

It will be interesting to find out whether I get either job, or whether I get rejected outright for both. Maybe I’ll wait to hear back until I do the entry on e-mail rejection; I already have one case of that with which to start.

And then there’s the brain-numbing, eye strain inducing process of actually looking through all the job postings.

I think we’ve all come to accept that almost everything in the world happens online. Commerce, education, entertainment, even relationships can begin (and sometimes end: jerks that break up with people over e-mail or worse – IM – I’m looking at you) on the internet. Why should looking for a job be different? In some ways, the process is expedited and streamlined by being online. Job seekers have a few websites to cull for employers across the country or around the world, and employers can spend a few buck and increase the size of their talent pool exponentially.

But since it happens online, it inevitably involves a computer screen. After hours of reading through job descriptions and requirements (no point applying for the job with the job description of your dreams if you don’t have the experience they need), you still have to attach the resume and write that custom-tailored cover letter that apparently nobody ever reads. And that adds more eye strain hours to your day. Plus, you now need a brain wave to write this cover letter.

Maybe it’s just me. If you’re staying in the field you’ve been working in, you probably don’t have to work so hard to show potential employers that you can do what they need. There’s no effort to put a positive spin on “I know I’ve spent the past five years working on computerized equipment you would have no idea what to do with and working with programs that have nothing to do with regular computers, but I swear there’s loads of other things I can do, the problem is nobody’s ever paid me to do it.”

For that, I need a major brainwave.

So as it often happens, I spend all morning or all afternoon looking for jobs, but won’t go to apply for them until the next day. I’ll spend 4 or so hours (at least) looking for jobs, sometimes using a little of that time working on some volunteer tasks I have, find three MAYBE and have to figure out how to translate my eclectic skill set to demonstrate I can fill their company’s needs.

And then I come here, to whine to the apparently one other person who probably hates all this crap too because they’re unemployed. I mean, you’d have to be putting in some hardcore internet surfing hours to stumble upon this little gem of a blog.

Well, lone reader, I apologize if your rage is increased by my ranting an complaining. Personally, I think we should join together in solidarity against The Man keeping us down. Unless you already are The Man in which case bummer for you for getting canned despite being part of The Establishment.

Until next time, my fair reader. Don’t let the job search keep you down.

To me, interviews feel just like standardized tests. I hate standardized tests because I don’t test well. While the outcome of interviews isn’t generally the same as my standardized test scores, the process feels the same.

Of course, it seems I’ll be taking standardized test before I’ll ever get an interview. I finally broke down last week and ordered 2 GRE prep books (and a copy of Catching Fire. I think the saddest part is I almost want to jump into the prep books as much as I want to read Cathcing Fire) to prepare for the potentially inevitable fact that I’m going to have to wait this recession out by going back to school and digging myself a giant debt hole from which there’s no telling if I’ll ever recover.

However, going on to pursue further education does seem like a more noble pursuit while occupying space in my parents’ house than sitting online all day in the vain attempt to secure a job for which I have only seven months formal experience.

I suppose I’ll just keep getting that free experience through volunteering while I wait to see what happens on both the job and school fronts.

See what I mean?

I know I should be treating my job search like a job, and I really am. Well, I’m trying to. Even with turning off the Twitter alerts and ignoring Facebook, I get sucked in the black hole of constantly checking my e-mail.

Now, before you judge me, I do have a legitimate reason to keep on top of one of my e-mail accounts. I’m waiting for some time-sensitive information (THIS WEEKEND time sensitive, and it’s already Friday), and I am working on a few (non-paying) projects, and have just started one that will earn me a small fee.

I suppose *this* is also a bit of a distraction, but there’s only so much crap my employed friends can take, and there’s only so much pity from them I can handle.

There’s also the issue of there being a few jobs out there, but are they jobs I want to take for the sake of having a job? That’s the reason I stuck with my last job so long, despite the fact that it was a decision that nearly killed me. I’m willing to take the entry level position, or even if I can find a long-term volunteer assignment (HA! Like I have time to take on more of those) or an internship, since I need more experience in order to segue into the nonprofit field.

So how to ignore the crap I shouldn’t be applying for because I don’t want to do it and focus on searching for a job that I do want and might be able to get?

I hope I figure it out soon, but I welcome any suggestions you might have.

Essentially: How to learn the crap you should’ve been adding to your resume in college 101.

Stay tuned, things should get interesting.