Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Job hunt chump


A simple road
Originally uploaded by Puss.In.The.Hood

It's unprofessional to include any form of begging in a cover letter, right? Yes, I suppose you're right... But jeez, every time I send another job application somewhere, I am sorely tempted to include a dash of "Please give me something to do this summer - I don't care if it's worthwhile or not, I will pretend it is and do a great job because I feel useless and uninteresting without a job. :("

I suppose I just haven't hit on that magical formula for my own cover letters yet. Right now I think they're good, but I'm too focused on impressing with my hook instead of promising them I'll do a great job, which I should probably do...

I'm into formulas. I'm sure I've said it before, and you probably just got deja vu. As an organized person (when I put some effort into it - not like lately, with my Moleskine planner gathering dust in the heap on my desk), I consider patterns and order to be the most important part of being successful in what I do. In high school, I figured out the magic formula of getting an A, and I put it to use and got those As. I couldn't really tell you what the formula is, because I didn't discover it outright, but I fell into a rhythm that worked for my individual self, and with the rhythm came success.

Of course, right now, what I do is not entirely useful, because I am not bogged down with my usual course load, and my brain is deteriorating. But the work I am doing is just as frustrating, and I haven't yet found the rhythm to do it as well as I do schoolwork. That work is the job hunt, and it is making me angrier every day.

It makes me angry, for example, that I can't seem to get more than one interview after hours of pouring my thoughts into cover letters and convincing myself that I want these jobs. Some of them are really great, and I get super into writing my cover letter, and I get my hopes up that maybe this will be the one. And then I never ever hear from the company. Are there really that many other people as qualified as me - with my unique skills of translation, childcare/educational background and research achievements? Pardon my arrogance. But seriously?? I can't get an interview for BABYSITTING??

Something is wrong, and I don't know if it's me or them.

Stumble Upon Toolbar

3 comments:

Cherry said...

I totally feel your frustration. I've received, on average, 1 interview per 25 resumes sent out.

Alex said...

Man! I hate it. Not to mention that in addition to resumes, I'm usually also sending out cover letters! It takes a lot out of you.

Emma said...

it's them! they just don't understand how super cool you are and all that you can do! we should throw shoes at them!