Is 67 Questions Too Much to Ask?
Yes, it is.
Things aren't always sunshine and roses in Loch's world. I try to be cheery and optimistic despite the negativity that seems to be raining down on me on a daily basis. That being said, the following is a rant about how frustrated I am right now.
I spend the first couple of hours of my mornings looking on the region websites to see if there are any new job listings. I have applied to those same sites and only just recently realized that the jobs pop up at the individual ISD websites first. I can't even begin to know all the possible school district sites in Texas or even just around Dallas. I've just been adding town names to ISD in a google search. This makes my morning search so much longer. I went through it in a couple of hours this morning and found one that I hadn't applied for yet.
I'm not joking when I say it takes HOURS to fill out these applications. I have a notebook to keep track of all my information that they've asked me for. It never fails that every time I fill one of these out it asks me a new question that I have to track down the answer for. Today's was "what is the address of your high school"? Who cares? But I googled it, wrote it down in my little notebook, and then went to fill the info in. I think I timed out 5 times at least lookin' up information and would have to redo the page I was on. I also had to rescan and resize my documents because my PDFs were too big. I've had to convert my documents to different file types for several different applications.
I had to put in 5 references this time. Two were my mentor teachers, two were my seminar/liason instructors, and one was a friend. I always leave friends as a last ditch if they ask for five. Another site I applied to first actually showed me which references had replied back to the verification email. That one only required three, but only one of them had ever replied. What do you think the odds of me getting that job?
Hate is a strong word and I don't like to use it. I HATE that I did all this work (especially later in life), spent all this time and money for another college degree, only to now be at the mercy of references for my entire future. I didn't even get a chance to ask one of the above people for a letter of recommendation before she offered to write one. She went on and on about what a glowing recommendation I was going to get, how there weren't enough adjectives to describe how wonderful I was. As much as I wanted that recommendation, I suspected I wasn't going to get it while she was saying it. She hadn't answered a single email in the entire time I worked with her. I am left with two letters of recommendation and many sites request three. It makes me look bad because other people can't be relied on to do what they say. I'm not the kind of person that would keep pressuring the subject either. I let it go and I suspect I'm suffering for it now.
So about the 67 questions: After hours of filling out the application, rescanning and resizing documents, converting files, uploading, and then taking a test, I could finally submit my application to the school district. My friend that I used as a reference sent me an IM sayin' he just got something from the school district. He opened it and said it was 67 questions where he had to rate me on a scale of 1-5. I thought he was joking. He sent me the link. Sure enough there are 67 questions and all with little red asterisks that indicate they are required fields, but they were't just rating questions. Every other one is an essay question. Just looking at it made me cry. No one would fill this out. Not even once, much less every time I apply for a job.
All that work, all that time, all that money, and it's all for nothing if I can't even make it through the application process.
XOXOX,
Loch
Things aren't always sunshine and roses in Loch's world. I try to be cheery and optimistic despite the negativity that seems to be raining down on me on a daily basis. That being said, the following is a rant about how frustrated I am right now.
I spend the first couple of hours of my mornings looking on the region websites to see if there are any new job listings. I have applied to those same sites and only just recently realized that the jobs pop up at the individual ISD websites first. I can't even begin to know all the possible school district sites in Texas or even just around Dallas. I've just been adding town names to ISD in a google search. This makes my morning search so much longer. I went through it in a couple of hours this morning and found one that I hadn't applied for yet.
I'm not joking when I say it takes HOURS to fill out these applications. I have a notebook to keep track of all my information that they've asked me for. It never fails that every time I fill one of these out it asks me a new question that I have to track down the answer for. Today's was "what is the address of your high school"? Who cares? But I googled it, wrote it down in my little notebook, and then went to fill the info in. I think I timed out 5 times at least lookin' up information and would have to redo the page I was on. I also had to rescan and resize my documents because my PDFs were too big. I've had to convert my documents to different file types for several different applications.
I had to put in 5 references this time. Two were my mentor teachers, two were my seminar/liason instructors, and one was a friend. I always leave friends as a last ditch if they ask for five. Another site I applied to first actually showed me which references had replied back to the verification email. That one only required three, but only one of them had ever replied. What do you think the odds of me getting that job?
Hate is a strong word and I don't like to use it. I HATE that I did all this work (especially later in life), spent all this time and money for another college degree, only to now be at the mercy of references for my entire future. I didn't even get a chance to ask one of the above people for a letter of recommendation before she offered to write one. She went on and on about what a glowing recommendation I was going to get, how there weren't enough adjectives to describe how wonderful I was. As much as I wanted that recommendation, I suspected I wasn't going to get it while she was saying it. She hadn't answered a single email in the entire time I worked with her. I am left with two letters of recommendation and many sites request three. It makes me look bad because other people can't be relied on to do what they say. I'm not the kind of person that would keep pressuring the subject either. I let it go and I suspect I'm suffering for it now.
So about the 67 questions: After hours of filling out the application, rescanning and resizing documents, converting files, uploading, and then taking a test, I could finally submit my application to the school district. My friend that I used as a reference sent me an IM sayin' he just got something from the school district. He opened it and said it was 67 questions where he had to rate me on a scale of 1-5. I thought he was joking. He sent me the link. Sure enough there are 67 questions and all with little red asterisks that indicate they are required fields, but they were't just rating questions. Every other one is an essay question. Just looking at it made me cry. No one would fill this out. Not even once, much less every time I apply for a job.
All that work, all that time, all that money, and it's all for nothing if I can't even make it through the application process.
XOXOX,
Loch