This week will forever be referred to as The Week of Application Domination. After a few sad months of getting my hopes up as I applied for one job at a time, I decided to go for it and apply for all of them at once. Because, it’s March. Then it’s April. Then it’s May. And I’m starting to get terrified that I won’t have a job by the time Scripps asks me to move out. However, Application Domination came with a few interesting consequences. I’ve included a checklist to help you know if you’re life is being consumed by your job search. I’d love to provide suggestions for how to escape this domination, but I’m pretty sure the only escape is getting the job. So if this list describes you, congrats! And my fingers are crossed for you, because that’s the only thing left to do…

• You have at least 5 different versions of your resume: I have HR operations, HR recruiting, Communications, Business, Business and Communications, Blogging, Social Media Expert… But really, they all look the same. (Though I’m convinced that one sentence change makes all the difference.)
• Your desk is covered with company brochures and business cards.
  

  This isn’t overwhelming…

• You try to apply for the same job for the second time because you forgot that you already applied for it. (Yes. This really happened.)
• You already know what jobs you’ll apply for during senior year because you’ve come across them as you desperately search for something you can do THIS summer.
• You could write a networking-email in your sleep.
• You spend what little downtime you have searching through your favorite companies’ career page to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
• The rest of your downtime is filled with the most mindless of activities:
  • You’ve taken every Buzzfeed Quiz. Even the weird ones.
  • There’s nothing on your Facebook newsfeed that you haven’t already seen.
  • For that matter, there’s nothing on your LinkedIn newsfeed or Tumblr dashboard that you haven’t already seen.
• You daydream about getting the call or email saying you got the job.
• You only want to talk about jobs and the companies/internships/ideas you’re in love with.
• Your friends are forced to take drastic measures to attempt to get you to talk about something else… “Did I tell you about the new technology they created to make the process more efficient?” – Me. “Yeah, it is surprisingly warm out today…” – Everyone who is sick of hearing me rant about the companies I love.
• You’re able to recommend jobs for other people because you’ve come across so many during your search: “Oh, you want to be a project manager?! Have you tried A, B, or C? I know D and F have internship openings as project managers!”
• You know how to find any program director, recruiter, CEO, etc. by using a combination of LinkedIn and Google.
• You jump every time you get an email. “WHAT IF IT’S AN ACCEPTANCE?!”
• You feel kind of lost once you’ve applied to everything on your list because you’re not sure what to do when there are no applications to send. Because now you’re supposed to just… wait?!?!?!
• You search again. You try new sites. You refresh ClaremontConnect. You continue this until you find another job, then you choose 1 of the 5 resumes, and start again.

I’d continue to make the list, but I’m going to scroll through ClaremontConnect again. New jobs could’ve been added since I checked this morning. Here’s hoping one of those emails is an acceptance so this madness can end soon!