I should’ve figured waiting a couple weeks to try again with applications would’ve led to a drastic reduction in available jobs. So, I’m partially kicking myself, but at the same time, I was waiting for word (or a lack of word) to let me know if I should keep trying.
I forgot that it’d be better for me to keep throwing applications out there no matter what. But I held off in hopes of getting a social media presence established, too. Well, I have a small one to prove I’m not some bot messing with potential employers’ servers or whatever (LinkedIn being easier to manage, and FB kicking me out probably because it thought the name was fake…oh well). I put enough job history in that thing to at least be researchable, so hopefully, this time around will be a bit easier.
And I’ll keep throwing applications out there til I get a job and an official start date this time around. It’s just gonna be from a smaller job pool for sure because the summer jobs are full now. That issue with my old phone really messed things up badly for me when it dropped a few calls that might’ve led to a new job over a month ago.
But what’s just as annoying and confusing now are two things I’m just gonna have to try not to stew over before going back to the job search:
- “Entry Level” is b.s. Those jobs are either written by HR folks who have no clue what the job really entails and they’re throwing a lot of requests at the wall and hoping something sticks in a candidate. Seriously, the supervisors for the positions being advertised should be writing the job descriptions so HR doesn’t waste everyone’s time. OR, more likely, “entry level” on job boards is code for “we want you to have a decade’s worth of experience, but only want to pay you like a total newbie.” Ugh!
- Uploading your resume/Linking to online career site that has it already. It’s an exercise in insanity because you think that one of those sites you have to write out your work history and job description for will import it right, but nope. The wrong fields are filled out or wrong dates, and you have to go around and double-check how your info ended up in there. Probably takes more time than it would’ve taken for you to just cut and paste from a word document. And you have to do that every single time.
Job searching is definitely a full-time thing in and of itself. I’m scrutinizing positions right now because there were some that I thought I might be a fit for, but going to the employer’s link it’s a whole different description (or perhaps the position was filled, but the career site didn’t get the notice yet). I’m having to be extra careful scrutinizing. One of the ones I applied to today needs me to do an assessment, but I’ve gotta wait til I’m sure my webcam is working right, just in case it’s needed (and knowing my luck, it probably will be). So, that’s a tomorrow thing, but it makes me wonder how many more I’ll have to do, too.
Oh well. Just gonna be one of those weeks, busy as hell while trying to improve my life for the better. Concentration hasn’t improved much today, but hopefully tomorrow will be better. I hope this brain fog goes away, because it’s hung around too long.
The Chatty Introvert 
I hate to say this, but many companies are unhiring new employees that haven’t started their jobs yet. Even tech companies are laying off people.
That said, I’d work LinkedIn. That’s where I go to hire tour crew.
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Yeah, I’ve been updating in little fits and starts. I just can’t figure out what to say or post or anything like that. So much of it feels like corporate butt-kissing and I just can’t fake sincerity very well, so I’d rather not write anything if I have nothing to say. I try still, but not on a site like that.
But yeah, I was wondering about the way things are now and what I can do. I’m determined to stay on this financial diet until I’ve got a good nest started, even if I managed to get thousands a month in payments. Other than gardening supplies, there’s no real reason I have to buy ANYTHING else as it is, so that impulse spending will be curbed. I gotta whittle down the debt and I need a job with more hours (and slightly more pay) to do that.
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You should be authentic. That’s been the trend for a long while now. Write in semi-formal ways and you’ll be fine.
I was just listen to yet another podcast. The jobs that are getting cut are mostly in the digital worlds like Netflix and so on. Safe companies are Microsoft and Apple.
As long as you are working on your debt a day at a time (or something like that) you’ll eventually be good.
Say, do you know how to manage music tours?
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Nope, anything related to teaching youngsters is about it. But after the week I’ve had, I’m super close to burning out, which is a big reason why I want to learn to do new things and work elsewhere (and I just need a helluva lot more hours to make ends meet).
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Oh well. Thought I’d ask. I’m going to need one come spring. It’s hard work and I often say that it’s not good for human beings. But, it pays well. So many teachers are leaving teaching now. Y’all have never been treated well by school administrators, but after lock down it only got worse.
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I never got my classroom (which I wanted when I was young, naive, and stupid enough to try anything for the kids). But it’s bloody hard to teach ’em when they just want info handed to them on a platter. They don’t want to explore or think; and it doesn’t help when their parents don’t think education is terribly important, either. I do tutoring because at least you know the parents are mostly on board (and often the kids are, too). But sometimes that’s an uphill battle, especially when 9 times out of 10 the reason a student gets things wrong is they don’t follow the directions. They just want to speed through and hope for the best, and then get mad when I give them corrections to do.
I wish I still had a t-shirt my grandma gave me, and I’d wear it every day: “Of course I don’t look busy. I did it right the FIRST TIME.” They’re so used to half-assing it because schools have to take your work no matter how late that they don’t know how to just take a few more minutes to get it right. It’s why I’m getting more burned out every day, and my temper’s getting shorter.
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So, what do you want to do? If you could do anything. And, do you want to live where you do?
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I want to be a writer and write articles, stories, novels, whatever I can. My inner grammar nazi would love to be a remote proofreader (hence the classes I paid for and will start working on in a few days) and work at home as often as possible. That way I can work on my garden, grow my own food, take care of my pets, all that good stuff. I don’t care for the political neighborhood, so to speak, but I have made my house generally cozy and a place I enjoy being at the end of the day. It’s the commute elsewhere that kills me (semi-rural and all, every trip is 10 miles minimum to get anywhere worth it) and I have an aging car. Writing and editing from home is my dream, but it’s gonna take a lot of work and more skills to get there, I know. Cleaning the hell out of my house and re-organizing to make it easier (and get rid of distractions).
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You should write as much as you can because like many things it’s practice that makes you good. Classes help too.
We decided that even though New Orleans is a blue refuge in a very red state, the crime is too much. I know of five businesses who have been around for at least 20 years that closed their doors due to crime.
So, we moved to the farm in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. 82 acres whose only crop is grass. The dairy farmers cut and bale it in exchange for dairy products. Currently we have 60 cuft of cheese. The animals love being there, no leashes and free to come and go. We mostly work from home until it’s time to tour. As far as politics go this is a purple state. Good enough for two liberal people.
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Sounds like heaven. If I won the lottery and had oodles of money at my disposal, I’d love to start up (and get people who know what the hell they’re doing) an organic-as-much-as-possible heirloom produce farm w/ a ton of variety, a homeless shelter, and a food bank with some cooking classes to use up the rest of the produce. Lotta homeless in the next city and the nearest shelter’s about 35 miles away from what I heard.
I am not gonna say things were so great back in the “good old days” and all, but I do think there’s a lot of basic living and survival stuff we could all learn… like how to grow some staple foods, how to cook, can and preserve our own stuff, etc. I know I’m also the kind of person that doesn’t wanna try something new (food-wise) unless someone else is with me or they’ve done it before and know the difference between good and bad. I’m sure I’m not the only one who does that.
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It took a lot of work. It never stops. Even on one of breaks I am working. The only things we grow ourselves are peaches, apples and a lot of flowers. The peach and apple trees were there from way before we bought the lands. OTH, this is wine country. I suppose we could grow grapes.
BTW, you’d be surprised at how inexpensive the farm was. It probably cost less than a house in Houston. We are near enough to DC to go there for a day, but far enough away that the area will never be developed like the I-95 corridor.
We do a lot of that stuff, because her mom and my grandma taught us to do it when we were young. In late fall — early winter, we make a bunch of soups and stews in large batches and freeze. The house smells amazing. The dogs want to know where their’s is. Being of Ukrainian descent I make a killer Borscht that is so thick you could eat it with a fork.
What kind of food do you like or don’t like?
Why do you think you can’t cook. Do you bake?
For both MCC and I we cook as a form of relaxation which means our food is pretty good because we aren’t cooking just to fill our bellies.
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It’s more that it’s hard to be consistent with cooking, and I’m terrible at using fresh ingredients. Plus, it’s tricky taking all the time to cook and you’re only doing it for yourself. Batch cooking is fine, but then you’ve got 4 or 5 meals and a full freezer and it’ll be a while before you cook again. I guess it’s the idea of taking all those pots and pans, the time and energy to cook just for myself that’s a little weird. I can cook some, just not much variety at the moment because of a financial crunch.
When things ease up a bit (like a new job and bigger paycheck), then I can get back to exploring. Til then, I’ll just be glad I’m not overheating my kitchen right now and dig into the frozen smoothies and stuff I’ve got ready to go (hee hee).
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Bath cooking is fine. You don’t have to cook everyday. I think you have to change your outlook. After all, who is more important than you?
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I just wanna feel like I’m actually good at something other than existing. That’s what I’m trying to find right now.
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Everything you need to know about that… Pick one thing you like. Do it 10,000 times. You’ll be good at it.
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Keep on keeping at it, Hon.
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