The job search saga, Part I

I just got back from Peace Corps and I use "just" loosely as today is day 71 stateside. I've been earnestly looking for a job for about a month now. I kicked off my personal quest with a career workshop and job fair by the Peace Corps's Career Services Office. I had done some job search work before the workshop, but not very genuinely or consistently. Last summer, while still a volunteer I started doing some online federal applications back in Peru, thinking of them as practice. Toward the end of service I was so busy that I had to stop. Very recently I learned that there's definitely a system for success in the federal application and I started out totally uninformed and on the wrong track. A few different resources helped me get on track. The Peace Corps Career Services is really top notch and my undergraduate's was pretty helpful too. My grad school office probably would be helpful as well, but they're hard to use remotely. For practical advice on applying for on federal jobs I found MakingTheDifference.org to be very, very helpful.

Results have been slow going for me, although I can't really complain because it has only been a month. In December, in my completely uninformed frame of mind USAID actually flew me to Washington DC to interview for my dream job, based on one of those "practice" applications!!! Sadly, but not surprisingly, I think I blew it. I was "not invited into pre-employment at this time." My oral interview was a panel in an odd room and I don think that they could actually hear me. Also, the complete absence of follow-up questions threw me for a loop, but is apparently standard in federal interviews. I think that they were trying to be impartial, but because I was unprepared for it, it just made for difficult communication. Also, it was my firs time speaking professional English in a year so that was challenging. The upshot is that they told me to reapply because they're lowering the bar a bit... uh thanks? Don't worry I have already reapplied :)

We're dealing with the worst economy in my lifetime and I'm looking for the best job of my life. Frankly, I think I'll get it. I'm a glass-half-full kind of girl. I'm 30. I've worked since I got out of college and I got an MA somewhere in there, so my next gig should really be a "career builder." I want to stay there for a good while, I need it to pay decently and I need it to have good mentoring and growth opportunities. Maybe it could also wax my car and wash my clothes, but seriously if the posts are any indication I really do think that there is a job out there. I'll just have to be open and creative. I'm applying mostly to federal positions so it's taking a while.

Quick and unrelated vignette on why Texans are the best people ever: I just got a phone call from my godmother's cell phone. When I answered the call a woman named Stephanie said that she worked at JCPenny's and that another customer just found the phone in a dressing room. She was randomly dialing numbers to speak with someone who knew the phone's owner. I said that I would certainly tell her and that my godmother works at Nordstrom's in the same mall so she's probably still there. Stephanie said, Oh does she work in alterations? Why yes she does. So, they know each other and my godmother's phone is waiting for her at the catalog counter in the hands of her acquaintance, recently turned friend.