job searching is making me peaky [imaginarycircus]

I got an email back from a small local college saying that I wasn't in the running for the teaching/admin job they had -- but I could apply to be an adjunct. I guess I could draw up my CV and start applying at the dozen or so local colleges and universities to be an adjunct instructor. But oh god. I will never make enough money to get buy unless teaching a class is an extra thing I do on top of another job. And it takes so much time.

Blergh. I have been looking for a job for five months. I even tried to get temp work. I have never had trouble getting temp work before.

I'm on hold after a third interview with a very nice non-profit org. They have to interview other people now. And I so want to get discouraged. I want to feel sorry for myself and get drunk at 11am and go to the movies. And then eat chocolate cake and feel disgusting and ill. But I am not going to do that.

I'm going to write up my CV, and apply to be an adjunct. I'm going to sweep through google reader and see what jobs have been posted. Then I am going to go back to combing university websites, local magazines sites, local publishers. Maybe even local literary agencies. And I think I have to go to the coffee shop to do it, because the construction across the street is making my walls shake a bit. It is subtle but annoying.

I'm imagining my wind-horse soaking wet and shivering today. Maybe I can shrink him and put him in my pocket to keep him warm and dry. I dunno. I think I am getting carried away with that horoscope.

I had dinner with a friend last night who read this long article on hermaphrodites and she told us all about it and I can't stop thinking about writing a story about a person who impregnates themself. And I planned another 50 word story and two comic panels for the website who bought the last one off me. Maybe they will buy this one too? I don't know.

*flouders* I know I chose not to go to law school or business school or something because all I wanted to do is write. I tell myself this would have been easier in NYC because there are so many publishers and agents. I surely could have gotten some job. But we probably would have had to have moved to NJ to make David's commute easier and neither of us wanted to live in Jersey.

I'm not very good at the scheming and searching unless I know exactly what it is for. I had a lot of fun planning my wedding once I knew the parameters. Job searching feels like herding cats. I love cats, but I don't want to corral a whole mess of them together.

Oh thunder and lightning! Perfect for walking...

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The key with the non-profit is to continue to keep yourself on the top of the pile. If they have to interview other people, chances are it is because of the whole "must do a comparison" thing due to an internal recommendation. Which I hadn't thought about before. But which is still yuck. If they gave you a timeline, stick just inside of it -- i.e. if they said five days, give a call on the morning of the fifth day. And it wouldn't hurt to send a thank-you e-mail to your second interviewer, either. :o) Just continue keeping yourself top of mind.

I know it's so much work, trying to find and apply for jobs, and frame yourself into a two-page document that will make you seem perfect for the role. And it feels hopeless, when the whole world is out there and it's so incredibly huge and overwhelming, and you feel like a speck on a flea on the back of a hippopatomus, just before she sinks herself back into the mud to not move for several days. But what you are doing, and what you have done, is actionable and progressive.

*love*

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Oh, I was planning to email you today and ask for Linda's email address, and ask if you thought sending real card through the actual mail would make more of an impression? (But of course environmentally that is not so friendly.)

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I think real cards make a good impression. Environmentally? *shrugs* Not sure.

Definitely stick with e-mail for Linda. By the time anyone in this department gets around to opening mail, you'll be a year older. (The nature of a totally virtual department...) E-mail is basi: firstname.lastname@the same extension as my work address.

*love*

Cool! I will email them both today to say thank you. I tend to do that after any interview I hope will lead to an offer. :D

Job searching sucks, period. You would have been miserable had you gone to law or business school. Better to have to search a little longer but work doing something you enjoy more.

I like that horoscope - I don't think you are getting too carried away, you are doing just what he said. Maybe your horse needs some wind-oats.

I guess that is my problem. I don't think I will get a job doing anything I really love right now. I feel like I might get a job I feel good about doing, and hopefully with cool coworkers -- but that is the best I can hope for.

It is pretty windy here. :D

Oh, I've been meaning to send you CDs as I promised I would ages ago, but we still haven't come across the big spool of them we have in our storage space stuff. :/ But I didn't forget!

I guess that is my problem. I don't think I will get a job doing anything I really love right now. I feel like I might get a job I feel good about doing, and hopefully with cool coworkers -- but that is the best I can hope for.

I'm doing the job search right now too, and that's what I've resigned myself to as well. I want to get a job doing something wonderful, but it's either work two part-time jobs in my chosen field (non-profit work), or getting something completely different that'll pay the bills. Jason has also decided to start grad school in Planning in the fall (it's worth the schooling for the automatic $10K+/year in pay, plus he knows what he wants to do, so he should go first- I still could go 20 directions) the pressure to get a job that is stable and can support both of us is higher than ever :/

Ugh. Having to work to pay the bills is annoying. Especially if you are at all idealistic and poor.

Unfortunately, we're both of those things. I still see wonderful entry-level jobs into non-profits, but it's taking tons of motivation to apply for them, because I don't want to be rejected anymore :(

I've been searching for nearly 6 months and applying for 4 or 5 so I know all about rejection.

I don't think you will get a job doing something you really love - that is very very rare - but at least you won't get a job that you hate. Because you could have done that without grad school. And you will get a job that will allow you to write. I do believe that.

I hope so. I just hate this constant searching and waiting for something like this. Of course I feel like my entire life is on pause right now. I'm waiting to hear from interviewers, doctors, editors... And so I am not really focussed or writing in any kind of focussed manner.

OMG the little girl at the table next to mine is having a grand old time rubbing her hoo ha. EEK!

It's hard to be focussed when so much is unsettled. It won't be that way forever!

*dead* How old is she?

I hope it won't be like this forever because I will have a nervous breakdown.

Between 3 and 4, I think. She was wearing tights, but omg. So funny. Thank god they left. The little girl got surly and whiny after her mother told her to stop.

Agreed. Everyone every where that is looking seems so frustrated and discouraged. I fell into a major depression when it took me 7 months to find a job. It made me so angry that I couldn't get temp work because I had two degrees, yet with two degrees I couldn't find any other work. It really sucks. But it seems like it is such a trend, no matter what field, unless you are a construction worker or a cute waitress.

I used to be a cute waitress, but I can't do that work anymore and I am not as cute as I once was. :/

I'm kind of surprised at how competitive the waitstaff field has come. Not that competency is a driving factor, but the cute + youth factor seems to be.

I did enough stints as a waitress once upon a time, and bartending too. The bartending was the worst, because it was for a men's 'Elk Club'. I could go on for days about how horrible that job was.

Your link to the bookstore article makes me a little sad. I wish I could run off and run a cute, unique bookstore of my own. I used to day dream that a lot. It would have beautiful cobalt tiles that look carnival glass and old movies playing on the weekends, and story hour for all ages and, and... it's a very nice day dream.

Oh yes. I can see that. I would hang out there as long as there was coffee.

ha! There would be a coffee fountain ;)

It took me ages to find a job too and it is depressing, feeling unwanted and ground down by the constant search and ongoing rejection. I think people used to be hired for their potential and now it's all about what experience you have, as if you could never learn something new. Which is so incredibly stupid.

AND, it feels like it's all who you know, and nothing else. I used to think who you know would give you a great edge, but now it feels like it's the end all and be all.

well, I just don't fit in anyone's neat box. I don't have formal editorial or journalism experience. I'm fairly analytical and technical for a creative person, and a writer. My background is a weird hodgepodge. Jack of several trades, master of none. Not enough teaching experience or a published book to get me real university teaching jobs. And I have to get myself on a good weekly writing schedule before I stab my eyes out. OMG the child sitting next to me is screeching. AAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEE

I never fit in anyone's neat box either. Too much this, not enough that, and few people able to imagine that having done a hodgepodge of things could be positive. What worked for me was indirectly getting into where I wanted through contract work - so being an adjunct might work for you to move eventually into something more permanent. That's one option, there are always others. It will work out!

*smacks the child next to you*

Except adjuncts get paid about $3,000 a class if they are lucky. And I don't think I could teach more than three and have time for anything else so it is not an option. I can't get by on $9k a year.

That is ridiculously low! I'd say keep it in your back pocket for now - as

anam_cara says a lot of the time it's who you know. It might be better to do a semester as an adjunct (could you teach two classes during the semester?) and see who you meet - the contacts might be worth it long term.

But it also depends on what you want to do next, if you want to teach more or if you want to have a "whatever" job that gives you time to write or if you want to do something else.

My plan is to get a job I can stand to do for the next year or so. To keep writing and trying to get short stuff published and finish a full length manuscript. If possible I would like to pick up one evening class teaching writing somewhere. Then if I can find an OK place to teach once I have published a novel that might be OK. I don't forsee being a full time teacher any other way and it is a long shot that I would a) publish a novel and b) have it be well enough received that some school would offer me tenure. That is like a some day kind of maybe thing.

I just applied to be an Ed Asst. at Houghton Mifflin. I don't imagine I will ever hear from them because the job was posted on January 3rd. But there are very few Ed Asst. positions in Boston.

That sounds like a good plan and realistic about the near future. Ooooh an Ed Asst might be a cool job. You never know.

And you never know about the novel and teaching. I have a good feeling about that. :D

Take the weekend off from even thinking about jobs and all that. It's always a good time to watch cheesy movies.

oh, and regarding the hermaphrodite story, that instantly reminds me of a Dean Koontz book that I read and didn't particularly like. It was something like two siblings had a child who was a hermaphrodite, and then the hermaphrodite had three kids on its own and each had special powers.

Oh god. That story is terrifying. And my story wasn't going to have incest unless you count sex with yourself incest.

I wouldn't count it as incest, but I'd feel like a child born of it would be. I know that doesn't make sense, but that would be my gut reaction.

How about this- they clone themselves into twins, one male, one female, a split clone so to speak?

Except one would be a child and yeah that is what I was wondering. I was wondering if it would be an accidental conception or on purpose and whether you would get a male or female child. I don't know what the genetic possibility would be. I mean if the hermaphrodite were genetically male or female. Will have to look it up.

Infertile, can't happen. In humans anyway.

Actually I read that it is possible, but hasn't happened in a scientific journal.

imaginarycircus

job searching is making me peaky

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