‘Twas the Night

‘Twas the night before the interview,

And all through my house

Not a creature was stirring

Except for my mouse (computer, that is).

I know one of the most important preparations for an interview is a good nights rest, but I just couldn’t seem to fall asleep.  The perfect cocktail of excitement and nervousness got me out of my bed and Google searching “Helpful Interview Tips” and thinking back to past interview experiences.

At school I did a few mock interviews in the CP&R office.  I’ll admit that it was super uncomfortable to see myself being played back on video in the office, but it was one of those things that has been invaluable to my job search.  It’s always helpful to think back about those difficult questions like, “what are your best and worst qualities?”  Although each interview and interviewer is going to be different, it’s always great to have answers difficult questions hidden away in your back pocket.

Another good thing to store away in your arsenal is a set of questions to ask your interviewers.  Whether it’s about the company in general or the position, it’s in my experience that interviewers always appreciate your interest in both.  Awhile back, one of the websites I love, SavySugar, posted tips called “Ask your job interviewer This, not That” and I bookmarked it in hopes of one day actually having an interview. http://www.savvysugar.com/4138449 Turns out, it has come in handy!

My interview clothes were hung from a hanger with care,

In hopes that the next day I’d have time to do my hair.

I was nestled all snug in my bed

While interview questions danced in my head.

The next morning I arose with a clatter

I had to get ready for my interview chatter!

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Down the Rabbit Hole

There are many names that you can call me, but promise-breaker is not one of them (and hopefully the rest are on the more positive side…).  A couple of posts back, I made a promise to be bolder in my networking practices.  This is a promise that I am proud to say I have kept, and to great results!  Let’s start from the beginning.

In the beginning was the word, and the word came from Mom.  She went to a family party where she talked to a cousin who said that her stepdaughter, C, worked for a great company and that I should get in contact with her about possible job opportunities.  I waited a couple of days to email C so that my aunt could make sure it was okay for me to contact her.

When I got the go-ahead I sent her an email saying that I was interested in learning more about where she worked and about the opportunities there.  C sent me a speedy reply that she would be happy to talk to me, but first I should look at the job listings on the company’s site.  She gave me a few departments to focus on because she said that they more frequently hire recent graduates.  The departments that she told me to look at were pretty specialized, ones that you would need a specific education for, say, a business or economics degree.  And let’s face it; unless a company is looking for a post Franco Spain-centric historian or someone with the ability to read (skim?) tons of books in a short period of time… my education doesn’t really point me to a specific department.  This isn’t to say that I didn’t learn anything useful in my years at Scripps.  In those four too-short years I learned a lot more important things than how to analyze numbers or the market, but the things that I did learn don’t really point to a particular career path.

So I took a look around the website at the other job listings and I found one that piqued my curiosity, an admin position.  My history/Hispanic studies major doesn’t really point me towards this job either, but I’ve had a lot of experience doing admin work.  In past summers I’ve worked as a personal assistant and have worked in admin positions at different organizations and businesses.  In other activities I’ve also gained a lot of organization and planning skills that I felt would help me as an admin at the company.  I felt that it would be a great job for me, so I emailed C and told her what I was thinking.  She emailed me back and said that she thought they might be looking for someone with a little more post-graduation experience, but that she would like to get together and talk in person.

We picked a day and I met her for lunch and an informational interview of sorts.  She told me about what it was like working for the company and a little bit about the position.  Then she asked me about my experience in the area of admin work, and I told her about my previous jobs and that I felt I was ready for the responsibilities of the position.  She said that after talking to me and hearing what I had to say that she felt that I could be a good candidate for the position and she would pass my resume on to the appropriate people.

The next day I got a call to set up an interview for the position.  Stay tuned for more.

Dear Hiring Committee,

Please let me start off by saying how sorry I am for the tardiness of my application.  I saw the job posted a few days after your originally put it on your website and I knew immediately that I wanted to apply.  And then I read the worst words known to the avid job searcher: “To apply please send resume and [dun dun dun…] COVER LETTER to the director.”

I mean you do know that cover letters are the most time consuming things ever, right?  If you’re like me and you aren’t applying for a bunch of similar jobs you really have to write a new cover letter for each job you are applying to.  They always tell you that you should make each cover letter unique which means I have to find a new Whitney Houston quote or fun fact to use as an introduction which I then have to relate to my own experience.  It’s like a cruel version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Not only do you have to write a new introduction, you also have to take the job qualifications and the description and write about how you fit all the requirements and are the absolute perfect candidate for the job.  For me this is the most difficult and intense part of writing the cover letter.  It’s one thing to write about yourself in blog format where you can make sarcastic remarks and quote People.com; another to write about how you’re perfect for a job without using the phrase “really, really awesome.”  Cover letters seem so stiff and formal – two things that I am not.  I never feel like I really infuse my own personality into them, but instead I just write what I think they’ll want to read.  I think the skill I lack is “backdoor bragging” which is inserting complimentary statements about yourself in ordinary conversation.  Fellow 30 Rock watchers know what I’m talking about.

Cover Letters really are a long process for me.  I usually take a day or two to write something that I’m okay with and then I utilize CP&R and send it to Valinda or Julie to read over.  They get back to me that day or the next with their always helpful edits and suggestions, and then I take another day or two to make my changes and sometimes I send it back to them once more.  All in all, it takes me anywhere from 3-5 days to write a cover letter.  Then I’m spent.  I don’t even want to see the words “cover letter” for the next few days.  I realize it is an inevitable part of the job search, but it’s just not the part that I most enjoy.

Anyway, despite my cover letter about hating cover letters I think I’d be really really awesome for the job.  I’ll write again in one to two weeks.

Sincerely,

Heather

Enclosure

P.S. I’ve been networking!  I promise!!

P.P.S. Check out this website for 10 easy to fix cover letter mistakes: http://www.savvysugar.com/5040874.  They also frequently post relevant tips on job searching, interviewing etc.

P.P.P.S. Always remember what a great resource CP&R is!  They all really care about your job search and they give very helpful comments on cover letters and resumes, and don’t forget about mock interviews!  Don’t we all just love seeing ourselves on camera?

Social Networking Not Just For Your Average Tom, Dick or Harry (Mark or Craig?)

In this week’s top ten celebrity quotes on People.com (please remember, dear reader, that I am unemployed and have a lot of time on my hands) I came across this gem: “’I would rather have a prostate exam on live television by a guy with very cold hands than have a Facebook page.’ – George Cloony, explaining his aversion to social networking.”

Well what do you know?  George Cloony and I have something in common – we both have an aversion to social networking!  Oh Facebook, I wish I knew how to quit you.

At some point in our lives we’ve all heard the phrase, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”  I can only wish that it wasn’t true.  In my opinion, networking is just about the most awkward thing.  Ever.  Many will verify that I’m not a particularly shy person, but when it comes to networking I might as well carry around two walls with me everywhere so I always have a corner to stand in.

Although I feel awkward networking, I know that there are those who do it like it IS their job.  My mom happens to be one of them.  Let’s face it; the woman is a networking machine.  She has no problem what so ever with asking people what they do and then asking if they know of a job for her unemployed daughter.  I’m grateful for her networking prowess and sometimes it works in my favor, but for the most part it makes me want to hide in my build-a-corner.

Recently I found out that it’s not just my mom, but perhaps parents across the nation.  The other day I answered the phone and it was an old friend of my mom whose daughter just graduated specializing in the same thing my mom does.  He wanted to know what my mom knew about the field (re: does she know of a job opening?  Can my daughter work where you work?).  Another friend of mine is working at a company that her dad networked her a position at.  I’m at least glad to know that I’m not alone.

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(F)un-employment

I recently went to a family reunion.  At said family reunion I got asked the “What’s next?” question a grand total of 17 times.  Boy, if that didn’t make me feel the urgent need to get a job (or at least some sort of sign to wear that reads: [f]un-employed*), I absolutely do not know what will.

After I tell people that I’m just at home looking for a job, the next most popular question usually has something to do with either what kind of job I’m looking for or what I’m interested in doing.  This particular set of questions is even harder to answer.  To tell you the truth, I honestly don’t have an answer.  Not even a snarky one!  But, I think it’s imperative to my job search to start to answer this question.  In order to do so I think I will employ one of my favorite pastimes: list making!!!

I think I will start with what characteristics I would like in a job:

– I want my job to mean something.  I don’t just want to sit behind a desk shuffling papers, I want to help other people.

– It would be great to somehow work with kids.  At first I thought that the only route to working with children would be going down the teacher path.  I even applied for Teach for America and went through the whole interview process.  In the end I was not offered a job and I was devastated, but I thought everything through and I came to the realization that working with kids does not necessarily confine me to being a teacher.  There are many different opportunities to work towards the empowerment of youth.

-Ideally I would work and live in the bay area.  The bay area is where I’ve always lived and it’s where my heart is.  Plus, the weather is perfect for me!  It has some semblance of seasons, but not to the extremes (both extreme heat and cold scare the living daylights out of me, and don’t even get me started on snow!).  I say “ideally” because I don’t want to limit myself.  If I were to have a wonderful job opportunity in a different location then I would definitely consider relocating.

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