I'm somewhere in week three of Concerta, and week 500 (or so it feels) of job hunting. Concerta's been helping a lot. I don't even know where to begin; I feel calmer and more clear-headed and far more productive. Little things aren't bothering me like they used to, and if I stay on top of taking it early (like 7am) it doesn't affect my sleep schedule.
When I last saw Sommi he confirmed that it doesn't have rollover effects, and that I can skip it on days that I don't need it. Since I don't mind being a scatterbrain when it's a weekend and it doesn't matter if I get everything done on a certain schedule (And since they're over $3/pop. That adds up fast when you're living on a dwindling savings account and EI hasn't kicked in yet.), I skipped them Saturday and Sunday of last weekend.
I also know that dependency is a threat, and the biggest issue is that things that formerly were pleasurable or exciting won't be that way sans drugs. I was at the Lions game on Sunday, and there was no shortage of cheer or excitement in this girl, so I'm fine so far. I think/hope.
But last Monday and Tuesday were horrible. I felt completely stressed out and disorganized, and it culminated with an awful night at the clinic Tuesday evening. I don't know if it was related to taking the weekend off of Concerta, but for now I'm going to stick with taking it daily for a few weeks before trying a couple days off again. I'm also on a temporary leave of sorts from the clinic for a few weeks. Two hours of volunteering shouldn't be the most stressful part of my week, and some things need to get fixed there before I return.
One of the weird things I've noticed is that I sing or hum all the time. I always sing a lot, like in the car or in the shower, and I often hum when I'm stressed. But this is like all day long every day. Did I always do this and never notice? Or is this new? I have no idea.
Job hunting... well, nothing yet. Still frustrated at the lack of responses (and interviews, and offers), but it's a tough market right now and there's nothing I can do but keep trudging on. I'm investigating a couple of different school options so that I have a backup plan if September rolls around and I still haven't found any sort of meaningful work.
I really want to be working though; I need to put this education to use. I also desperately need a new(er) car, and I need to get out of mom and dad's house and hair. While education is something worth going into debt for, I'd rather it be something I choose to do, rather than feel that I'm forced into doing it because my current education isn't netting me any gigs.
I turn 25 on Sunday. Part of me is excited because hey, birthdays are cool, and I've got an away Lions game and a Rihanna concert to keep me entertained. I keep wanting to freak out because "25" makes me think things like "boyfriend" and "moved out" and "career" and I don't have any of those things happening in my life. When I look at my friends and what they've got going on, all those things are in there and more, like marriage and dogs and car payments.
But I have to remember what I do have going on for me as 25 approaches. I've got 15 countries under my belt, six of which were on a long solo trip. While it's no doctorate, I do have a respectable education from a reputable college, and a bucketload of useful experience to go with it. I've got a good family (that loves me despite all my flaws), incredible friends that I can always depend on, and it's summertime and football season. Really? Life isn't all that bad.
Showing posts with label job hunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job hunting. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Will Work For Cardboard Box
I am so sick of jobhunting. Or moreso, I'm so sick of not getting responses. If I were at least getting to the interview stage, or even just a response, I'd be so much more positive about this. But no replies whatsoever? Absolutely frustrating.
I'm probably also a little jaded, because when I was at Resilience, Ella and I replied to everyone. It takes 30 seconds to fire off a canned "sorry, you haven't made it to our interview round" email, and then the people that took the time to apply for our jobs at least knew that their email was received and reviewed. Then, for those that replied and asked why we didn't want to meet with them, we gladly took the time to let them know what it was about their application that prevented them from being interview-worthy.
On Monday of last week something right up my alley showed up in the Writers/Editors section of Craigslist:
Editor/Office Asst (Burnaby)
Health care company looking for a full time Editor/Office Assistant. Mon-Fri, 8am- 4pm. Primary responsibity is to edit therapists' assessment reports . In addition there may be some opportunities for writing health related articles. Helping with phone, scheduling and misc tasks will also be required. The ideal candidate must have an excellent command of the English language both verbal and written, be very focused, detail oriented, efficient, have initiative, and a team player. English degree an asset. Understanding of medical terminology helpful. Please include hourly wage expectation in your cover letter.
* Location: Burnaby
* Compensation: depending on experience
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
So between my penchant for editing, my Certificate of Technical Writing (not an English degree but a worthy substitute given the position), and my job history working at a company that makes software for doctors and residents, I think I should have been a shoo-in for an interview.
But that dreaded last line: Please include hourly wage expectation in your cover letter.
I hate that. I absolutely completely hate when employers don't post what they're offering for the job, and moreso when they want you to tell them what you think it's worth. It's rude and a waste of people's time to not say what you want to pay. If it's $12 an hour, I wouldn't have bothered applying. If it's $40 an hour, I'm severely under-qualified and I'll let someone with ten years of experience step up as clearly that's what you're asking for. At least post a freaking wage range.
Come Friday I haven't heard anything, so I sent an inquiry email. I got a reply this morning:
interviewing this week. Your salary expectation is hire than what we are offering
I'm going to ignore that she misspelled "higher" as "hire."
ARGH. I'd hope that if what I put for an hourly wage ($20/hour, which isn't unreasonable) was only one or two dollars an hour higher than what they wanted to pay, they'd at least have the decency to reply with an option to negotiate. But because her response seemed to imply that I'd been written off entirely due to my astronomical asking price, I'd guess that they're hoping to find someone to do this for $14/hour or less.
I'm nearly 25, with an education from BCIT and over five years of relevant experience, half of which was working with medical terminology and coding systems, and you're telling me that $20/hour is too much? That'd all be fine and dandy, except that they want someone with a university education too. If four+ years of full-time school doesn't net you at least $20/hour, I'm sure glad I didn't bother with uni.
"Therapist" is vague, but I doubt there's a therapist on the planet that charges less than $60/hour. Speech therapists, physiotherapists, family therapists are all going to charge at least that for their services. And since it's "therapists' reports," there's more than one to cover the cost of having someone edit their reports.
You get what you pay for.
Update: She replied. They're offering $16. Why not just say that from the beginning? I don't get it.
I'm probably also a little jaded, because when I was at Resilience, Ella and I replied to everyone. It takes 30 seconds to fire off a canned "sorry, you haven't made it to our interview round" email, and then the people that took the time to apply for our jobs at least knew that their email was received and reviewed. Then, for those that replied and asked why we didn't want to meet with them, we gladly took the time to let them know what it was about their application that prevented them from being interview-worthy.
On Monday of last week something right up my alley showed up in the Writers/Editors section of Craigslist:
Editor/Office Asst (Burnaby)
Health care company looking for a full time Editor/Office Assistant. Mon-Fri, 8am- 4pm. Primary responsibity is to edit therapists' assessment reports . In addition there may be some opportunities for writing health related articles. Helping with phone, scheduling and misc tasks will also be required. The ideal candidate must have an excellent command of the English language both verbal and written, be very focused, detail oriented, efficient, have initiative, and a team player. English degree an asset. Understanding of medical terminology helpful. Please include hourly wage expectation in your cover letter.
* Location: Burnaby
* Compensation: depending on experience
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
So between my penchant for editing, my Certificate of Technical Writing (not an English degree but a worthy substitute given the position), and my job history working at a company that makes software for doctors and residents, I think I should have been a shoo-in for an interview.
But that dreaded last line: Please include hourly wage expectation in your cover letter.
I hate that. I absolutely completely hate when employers don't post what they're offering for the job, and moreso when they want you to tell them what you think it's worth. It's rude and a waste of people's time to not say what you want to pay. If it's $12 an hour, I wouldn't have bothered applying. If it's $40 an hour, I'm severely under-qualified and I'll let someone with ten years of experience step up as clearly that's what you're asking for. At least post a freaking wage range.
Come Friday I haven't heard anything, so I sent an inquiry email. I got a reply this morning:
interviewing this week. Your salary expectation is hire than what we are offering
I'm going to ignore that she misspelled "higher" as "hire."
ARGH. I'd hope that if what I put for an hourly wage ($20/hour, which isn't unreasonable) was only one or two dollars an hour higher than what they wanted to pay, they'd at least have the decency to reply with an option to negotiate. But because her response seemed to imply that I'd been written off entirely due to my astronomical asking price, I'd guess that they're hoping to find someone to do this for $14/hour or less.
I'm nearly 25, with an education from BCIT and over five years of relevant experience, half of which was working with medical terminology and coding systems, and you're telling me that $20/hour is too much? That'd all be fine and dandy, except that they want someone with a university education too. If four+ years of full-time school doesn't net you at least $20/hour, I'm sure glad I didn't bother with uni.
"Therapist" is vague, but I doubt there's a therapist on the planet that charges less than $60/hour. Speech therapists, physiotherapists, family therapists are all going to charge at least that for their services. And since it's "therapists' reports," there's more than one to cover the cost of having someone edit their reports.
You get what you pay for.
Update: She replied. They're offering $16. Why not just say that from the beginning? I don't get it.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Brain Update
This is day 4 of Concerta, and I'm feeling... all over the map. But better. I'm definitely seeing improvements in focus and I'm feeling way less distracted. I'm also starting to discern between what's a result of dysfunction, and what's a result of bad habit. And instead of "Omg I have so many responsilibities I don't know where to start panic panic paaaaannnniiiiiiiccccc" I've been thinking "Hey, I've got stuff to do. I'll make a list and see what I can tackle."
WHO AM I???
That is so new to me. I've never been that way, and it's so refreshing to have this new clarity. I've accomplished more job-hunting each day this week than I did in all of last week.
One of the characteristics of ADD is a tendency to be argumentative, and can lead to issues with relationships, and that is me to a T. I'm still opinionated and that's never going to change, but there have already been instances where I've surrendered rather than continue arguing, for the sake of my sanity (and undoubtedly those to whom I'm surrendering are grateful too. I know I was right anyway).
There are some downfalls. If I take it too late in the day I find it difficult to sleep at night. My eyes feel like they're bulging out of my head a little bit. Sometimes I feel physically wired, as though I've had a cup of coffee. And of course, there's always the threat of dependency in the long-run.
And now that I'm feeling more aware of everything, I'm getting irritated by new things; the radio used to just be background noise, but now I'm aware of talking and commercials and I keep turning it off because it's too irritating. I've also noticed how much traffic is on our road. I swear I never used to hear cars go by. No wonder my parents complain that the road is too busy.
It's like now that my brain is quiet, I'm hearing way more than I did before.
Last week, pre-drugs, I complained that a day decided it was going to be full of anxiety and insecurity (and not for any particular reason, e.g. PMS). A friend that has been dealing with her own ADD replied and said both her and her brother have ADD, and they've found that they're more inclined to feel anxious when dehydrated. On that particular day I hadn't been drinking any water, and looking back I can definitely see a correlation. (Especially when alcohol is factored in. Hoo boy.)
So I'm taking Concerta, eating well (and staying hydrated), making regular visits to the gym, going to yoga, and doing a far better job of prioritizing my days. I'm still a long way from fixed (I've managed to forget to turn the iron off three days in a row now. Go team), but I can feel a shift for the better.
WHO AM I???
That is so new to me. I've never been that way, and it's so refreshing to have this new clarity. I've accomplished more job-hunting each day this week than I did in all of last week.
One of the characteristics of ADD is a tendency to be argumentative, and can lead to issues with relationships, and that is me to a T. I'm still opinionated and that's never going to change, but there have already been instances where I've surrendered rather than continue arguing, for the sake of my sanity (and undoubtedly those to whom I'm surrendering are grateful too. I know I was right anyway).
There are some downfalls. If I take it too late in the day I find it difficult to sleep at night. My eyes feel like they're bulging out of my head a little bit. Sometimes I feel physically wired, as though I've had a cup of coffee. And of course, there's always the threat of dependency in the long-run.
And now that I'm feeling more aware of everything, I'm getting irritated by new things; the radio used to just be background noise, but now I'm aware of talking and commercials and I keep turning it off because it's too irritating. I've also noticed how much traffic is on our road. I swear I never used to hear cars go by. No wonder my parents complain that the road is too busy.
It's like now that my brain is quiet, I'm hearing way more than I did before.
Last week, pre-drugs, I complained that a day decided it was going to be full of anxiety and insecurity (and not for any particular reason, e.g. PMS). A friend that has been dealing with her own ADD replied and said both her and her brother have ADD, and they've found that they're more inclined to feel anxious when dehydrated. On that particular day I hadn't been drinking any water, and looking back I can definitely see a correlation. (Especially when alcohol is factored in. Hoo boy.)
So I'm taking Concerta, eating well (and staying hydrated), making regular visits to the gym, going to yoga, and doing a far better job of prioritizing my days. I'm still a long way from fixed (I've managed to forget to turn the iron off three days in a row now. Go team), but I can feel a shift for the better.
Monday, April 5, 2010
I don't know how I had a job.
As I am now job hunting, step one is getting my cover letter, references and resume in tip-top shape. The last job I had was a big-girl job, and I remember how pleased I was with the final version of my resume.
Oh, to be young and blindingly naive again.
Part of why I now know everything that is wrong with my resume is because I helped with several rounds of hiring at my last job. With all the atrocious resumes, cover letters, email correspondence leading up to interviews and the interviews themselves, I've got an arsenal of hire-me-NOW weaponry at my disposal.
And it's nice to know that we were much more stringent than most employers were.
Do you know how hard it is to find someone who has both a particular skill set and the ability to spell their own name correctly? Apparently the two are mutually exclusive.
It also helps that during my tenure at Resilience, I took the 12-week Word course through BCIT, as part of my technical writing program. That course was worth its weight in gold. If it had measurable weight. Just say it's worth its textbook's weight in gold.
Highlights from my 2007 resume
-Under Activities & Interests I put "new experiences." What a loser.
-There are upwards of one hundred different styles in the Styles & Formatting sidebar. ONE HUNDRED. Actually, in my continuing quest for journalistic integrity, and in my other quest to stop over-exaggerating everything all the time, I'm actually going to count.
Ok, so I was sort of right and sort of wrong. There are eighty-five different styles, but that is not including the standard ones that are already included with Word. It's well over a hundred if you include those.
Eighty-five.
Do you know how many is a good number to aim for?
Maybe ten or twelve.
So basically what this says is, "I'm telling you in words that I'm proficient with Word, but I'm proving this to be an outrageous lie as soon as you actually look at how I whipped this together. I'm also making it painfully obvious that my good friend Google helped me find a template on some website and that's what I based my resume off of."
Think of it this way: the words are the skin, and the styles are the skeleton.
And your employer has an x-ray machine.
You better hope your bones are in order.*
-I included an Objective.
Now I'm always torn on this one. I don't like the Objective section per se, but I also don't like jumping right into Skills or some other section. I feel like there needs to be some sort of "Hi I'm Sam and I want to work for you!" before I start telling you all the reasons I'm awesome. And I know that's what the cover letter is for, but you can't always assume that a potential employer is going to look at your cover letter first. We'll see what I come up with as I go.
Regardless, Objective is wrong wrong wrong.
-I underlined stuff. In blue. Wtf is wrong with me?
So it's clear I have some work ahead of me. And sadly, the more I read through this, the less I'd want to hire me. I thought I'd have some substance to work from, but apparently not.
*This, of course, is primarily for any position that includes writing. If you're a mechanic applying at Joe's Car Repair, they won't care if you used styles. They might not even care if you use Notepad.
Oh, to be young and blindingly naive again.
Part of why I now know everything that is wrong with my resume is because I helped with several rounds of hiring at my last job. With all the atrocious resumes, cover letters, email correspondence leading up to interviews and the interviews themselves, I've got an arsenal of hire-me-NOW weaponry at my disposal.
And it's nice to know that we were much more stringent than most employers were.
Do you know how hard it is to find someone who has both a particular skill set and the ability to spell their own name correctly? Apparently the two are mutually exclusive.
It also helps that during my tenure at Resilience, I took the 12-week Word course through BCIT, as part of my technical writing program. That course was worth its weight in gold. If it had measurable weight. Just say it's worth its textbook's weight in gold.
Highlights from my 2007 resume
-Under Activities & Interests I put "new experiences." What a loser.
-There are upwards of one hundred different styles in the Styles & Formatting sidebar. ONE HUNDRED. Actually, in my continuing quest for journalistic integrity, and in my other quest to stop over-exaggerating everything all the time, I'm actually going to count.
Ok, so I was sort of right and sort of wrong. There are eighty-five different styles, but that is not including the standard ones that are already included with Word. It's well over a hundred if you include those.
Eighty-five.
Do you know how many is a good number to aim for?
Maybe ten or twelve.
So basically what this says is, "I'm telling you in words that I'm proficient with Word, but I'm proving this to be an outrageous lie as soon as you actually look at how I whipped this together. I'm also making it painfully obvious that my good friend Google helped me find a template on some website and that's what I based my resume off of."
Think of it this way: the words are the skin, and the styles are the skeleton.
And your employer has an x-ray machine.
You better hope your bones are in order.*
-I included an Objective.
Now I'm always torn on this one. I don't like the Objective section per se, but I also don't like jumping right into Skills or some other section. I feel like there needs to be some sort of "Hi I'm Sam and I want to work for you!" before I start telling you all the reasons I'm awesome. And I know that's what the cover letter is for, but you can't always assume that a potential employer is going to look at your cover letter first. We'll see what I come up with as I go.
Regardless, Objective is wrong wrong wrong.
-I underlined stuff. In blue. Wtf is wrong with me?
So it's clear I have some work ahead of me. And sadly, the more I read through this, the less I'd want to hire me. I thought I'd have some substance to work from, but apparently not.
*This, of course, is primarily for any position that includes writing. If you're a mechanic applying at Joe's Car Repair, they won't care if you used styles. They might not even care if you use Notepad.
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