Job Applications
I applied for some jobs today, just for the hell of it. I will consider these the practice job applications, and continue applying for additional jobs as I see them. I'm not going to hold my breath on any of these jobs, for a variety of different reasons. It's been a long time since I'd applied for jobs, and I need to get back into the swing of it if I want to have a change of scenery anytime soon (which I do).
-A bunch of my cover letters were "off" in some way. The first two had the date listed as "January 5, 2010." I sent another one saying that I was "especially interested in pursuing a career in the non-profit sector" that was, yes, for a corporate job. D'oh! I realized the address on my resume had the zip code from my last address. Not that anyone would spot that unless they are intimately familiar with the geography of Charlotte and know exactly where my street is.
-I really hate on-line job application forms, where you upload your resume and then type all the same information into their database.
-Why do almost no job listings give an indication of what the pay is? I know I sometimes joke about job listings here at the university that have these really broad pay ranges in the description, like, $33,000 to $45,000, but at least that gives you a clue. Since I'm already working, and looking to...."trade up" so to speak, I'm pretty much only interested in jobs that pay more (or at least about the same, if it was something I really wanted to do). Of the 5 jobs I applied for, none of them said how much they pay. If it turns out the pay is a lot less than what I make now, I don't want to waste their time or mine applying. I did list a desired salary range in the cover letter, so, presumably, if the job pays less than what I'm looking for, I'll simply be put in the "no" pile, but still...I would rather just not apply in the first place.
-Career Builder gives me a headache. I am usually pretty decent with websites, searches, that sort of thing. The jobs just seem to be scattered around in various categories. I pulled up Customer Service, which contains everything from hotel housekeepers to database designers. I combed through and did find a couple of interesting jobs. Is CareerBuilder the main place where people go to look for jobs? Do people still use Monster.com anymore? Are there any other sites that I should check out? I'm just looking for general mid-level jobs, in the areas of education/admin/marketing/etc, not any specialized field or industry.
All these things remind me why I've avoided it altogether and stayed put for the last 6+ years. I've applied for a handful of jobs here and there, mostly in other departments at the university and the random job I applied for at St. Pete Pride, and then blew off the interview, but not a full-scale "job search" per se.
For the past year or so, ever since the economy has been so horrible, I've felt like it's pointless to even bother looking. For each job I apply for, they're going to get tons of applications...what's the point? Complicating this is that if I were to get one of these jobs, I would feel bad that I'm taking a job an unemployed person could have gotten instead of me just wanting a "change of scenery". I know that's silly, and there's no reason I should feel that way...maybe just because I have lived with a (soon to no longer be) unemployed person for almost 2 years.
-A bunch of my cover letters were "off" in some way. The first two had the date listed as "January 5, 2010." I sent another one saying that I was "especially interested in pursuing a career in the non-profit sector" that was, yes, for a corporate job. D'oh! I realized the address on my resume had the zip code from my last address. Not that anyone would spot that unless they are intimately familiar with the geography of Charlotte and know exactly where my street is.
-I really hate on-line job application forms, where you upload your resume and then type all the same information into their database.
-Why do almost no job listings give an indication of what the pay is? I know I sometimes joke about job listings here at the university that have these really broad pay ranges in the description, like, $33,000 to $45,000, but at least that gives you a clue. Since I'm already working, and looking to...."trade up" so to speak, I'm pretty much only interested in jobs that pay more (or at least about the same, if it was something I really wanted to do). Of the 5 jobs I applied for, none of them said how much they pay. If it turns out the pay is a lot less than what I make now, I don't want to waste their time or mine applying. I did list a desired salary range in the cover letter, so, presumably, if the job pays less than what I'm looking for, I'll simply be put in the "no" pile, but still...I would rather just not apply in the first place.
-Career Builder gives me a headache. I am usually pretty decent with websites, searches, that sort of thing. The jobs just seem to be scattered around in various categories. I pulled up Customer Service, which contains everything from hotel housekeepers to database designers. I combed through and did find a couple of interesting jobs. Is CareerBuilder the main place where people go to look for jobs? Do people still use Monster.com anymore? Are there any other sites that I should check out? I'm just looking for general mid-level jobs, in the areas of education/admin/marketing/etc, not any specialized field or industry.
All these things remind me why I've avoided it altogether and stayed put for the last 6+ years. I've applied for a handful of jobs here and there, mostly in other departments at the university and the random job I applied for at St. Pete Pride, and then blew off the interview, but not a full-scale "job search" per se.
For the past year or so, ever since the economy has been so horrible, I've felt like it's pointless to even bother looking. For each job I apply for, they're going to get tons of applications...what's the point? Complicating this is that if I were to get one of these jobs, I would feel bad that I'm taking a job an unemployed person could have gotten instead of me just wanting a "change of scenery". I know that's silly, and there's no reason I should feel that way...maybe just because I have lived with a (soon to no longer be) unemployed person for almost 2 years.