new formula

okay, now that people are starting to get jobs, i need to really up the ante.

i applied for a job as a guidance assistant at a local high school. i am seriously serious about this job. i know i can do it, and do it well. all i have to do is get an interview. my new formula for application included: physically printing out a copy of resume, cover letter, and references, then putting them in a really nice resume folder, putting that into a really nice envelope, and sending it via snail mail. i think that will get more attention than email.

also, i reworked the ol' cover letter to sound more assertive. i told the vice principal i would call him next week, instead of just asking him to consider calling me back.

we'll see what happens, but i think i would really enjoy that job. it's a lot of one-on-one contact with kids doing study skills and helping with homework, and basically doing the stuff that guidance doesn't really have time to do. one-on-one is where i shine! hopefully THIS one works out.

i've been calling the other places i apply to, but every time i call i either get voicemail or the response that they don't accept follow up calls because of the high applicant volume. it's hard to get an edge on people when there are hundreds of others applying for the same jobs as you!

uncertainty abounds

what's today? the 15th? that puts us smack in the middle of July, and only about two weeks away from move-out-of-dover day. here are some things that are floating through my mind, at the mome:

1. i hate moving. i'm not the only one. i read some statistic about how some ridiculously large number of people rate moving as their number one most hated thing. i would consider myself a member of that group. i mostly hate it because it involves a lot of cleaning of stuff you don't normally see (stuff that gets shoved under your bed, for example, or dust bunnies that accumulate behind desks and under side-tables). i'm going to have to do a lot of dusting. the other reason i hate it is because as of now, i have nowhere to put a lot of that stuff.

2. leading to my number two thought for the day: i'm bummed about moving back home. it's great that my parents are welcoming me and all my stuff, and it's awesome that i have my room still and that my parents will feed me and house me and they love me. but...there's a lot of tension that is involved with living with your family--tension you don't usually notice until you stay there for more than a week. that, my friends, is tension i don't want any part of. it will be great to save up for things like cars, dental work, and loan payments, but at the end of the day, i think i'm going to be pretty stressed. and there isn't a bathroom in the basement.

3. i'm beginning to think my resume must need help. i mean, i'm a highly qualified professional, and i've been sending my resume out like crazy. i need to make some follow-up calls (even though a few places i've called don't "do phone calls"), but i'm starting to feel like maybe my resume is going to the bottom of the pile for some reason. i need to investigate.

4. the weather is gorgeous, i'm going away for the weekend, and i still feel kind of like a failure because i graduated in may and it's been almost two months and i still don't have a job. i know it's a bad time to be looking for one, and i know i shouldn't expect every place to want me, and i also know that sometimes it takes many months. i'm just impatient because...

5. i'm so freaking bored. i enjoy doing nothing, typically. i don't have a problem watching tv all day. i like lounging at the beach just reading a book. i've been making a lot of ice cream and looking into a lot of new recipes. i visit farmers markets. but when everyone else has a job, or isn't around, it gets kind of lonely doing all that stuff by yourself. and i spend time every day researching new cars and cell phones, looking at clothes online, etc., etc., and you can't get that stuff without money. so, i'm trying to make whatever i have last as long as i can, and that means doing a lot of nothing. and that's...boring.


that's all. i've just been feeling a little down lately. but at least the sun is out! and at least i'm going away this weekend! so that's nice.

another win! but then, maybe not.

so interview went well. i have to say, the atmosphere at nashua community college was somewhat more...grim...than i had anticipated. i knew two year schools would be different, but i wasn't quite prepared for the "we'll hire just about anything that breathes" mentality that the woman who interviewed me (the head of the humanities dept.) seemed to have. after telling me for some time about how they used to have five required papers in college comp., but now they only have four, she asked me just TWO questions: 1. what do i do when there is a kid in my class who obviously doesn't want to be there? and 2. why do i like teaching?

that was it. i answered her, and she seemed satisfied. she looked at my undergraduate transcript and noted, "ah, i see you took a british lit class! you could probably teach it here, then." well yes, i am an english lit major...i took MANY british lit classes. most notably in my graduate career, not really undergraduate. she didn't even bother looking at my UNH transcript, even though i gave it to her. the fact that i had a b.a. seemed to be reason enough.

anyway so i "got the job" and can have two sections of college comp and two of brit lit if i want them...BUT here's the rub: each 4 credit class pays 2200. each 3 credit pays 1700. meaning i would be making somewhere around 8,000 dollars for the semester, which works out to be about 16,000 a year. and benefits are naturally not included (this i already knew). i can't take this job if i want money, which is, after all, what i want. second job? sure. primary career? absolutely out of the cards. '

but i already knew that about adjuncting. whatever. it's another interview under my belt, i guess.

interview postponed

as the title suggests, my interview has been postponed until monday morning. good, because i need to hem the pants of the suit i bought the other day. and find brown shoes to wear with it. bad, because heck, i just want to get it over with. and maybe have a job.

i helped alexa moved a lot of her stuff out of the house yesterday. that was kind of sad. now our house looks a lot less house-y. :( she was the one with all the decorations!