Decisions, Decisions

I got a canvass letter in the mail this week for one of the two civil service exams I took back when I was desperately looking for work. Both exams were for technician level jobs with the county. The scores had come out earlier, and I ranked third on both exams (although it was a something like a five way tie on one of them). The canvass letter indicates there are actual open positions that I am eligible to interview for. It is not an offer of employment; it is just to find out who among the eligible candidates is still interested in the position.

I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this so soon. I have been in my current job not even two months now. For the most part, I really like it, and things should only get better come the summer field season. I want to give the job a fair chance: I do not want to quit before I even have a chance to get out in the field.

There is also the fact that my current position is pretty much exactly what I went to school for, or about as close as I could ever get in the private sector. The county does not have positions specifically dedicated to the subject, and there are no federal or state positions in my field either (not locally). All the jobs I have ever worked in my field have been out of state. That was why I resigned myself to the stinky old lab job for so long... there just are not very many opportunities in my area.

The county jobs are both in a somewhat related field, and from my understanding, involve year round field work, of the variety where I would be driving around collecting samples. The work sounds low stress, and it sounds like I would be working independently, both of which are huge draws. Being “on” all day in an office can be challenging for me. I know from experience doing field work alone is much less of a challenge for my introverted personality.

Plus, there are the benefits to think about with the county. The starting salary is comparable to what I earn now, slightly more, but in the hundreds more, not thousands (pretty insignificant). The county position has predictable raises though, based on time in service, so I’d be guaranteed pay increases totaling approximately $5,000 by the end of five years. There are, of course, no such guarantees in the private sector. I could be making much more, or I could be stalled out not getting any raises at all. Furthermore, the firm I work for is fairly small, probably around 40 or 45 people total. There is very little job security with small companies, and they can skip out on all sorts of worker protection provisions. For example, the Family and Medical Leave Act only applies to companies with more than 50 employees. New employer might choose to follow those guidelines, but they certainly don’t have to.

I am so torn. Excepting the last two months since I’ve been working for new employer, I would have been thrilled for this opportunity with the county. Now I just wish it came at a different time. What I ended up doing was indicating that I am temporarily unavailable, until September. This will give me more time to better assess my current job, but hopefully keep me on the list for future vacancies, in case things change. I am now out of the running for however many positions the county chooses to fill in the next several months, and there may not be any more open positions later (the lists are only good for so long).

I hope I made the right decision.

The Letter Is Here!

Last week, I had a second interview with Future Employer. After going through some standard interview questions, I was told that I got the job, and that a letter would be sent to my house to formalize the offer. Of course, one of the questions I was asked in both interviews was about salary requirements. I hate that question. Not answering seems like a cop out: you have to say something. Not having a job didn’t put me in the best negotiating position, so I gave them a figure lower than I would ideally like.

I watched the mailbox like a hawk all week, excited to receive the official paperwork. Nothing arrived, not even by Saturday, so I resigned myself to a weekend in the dark. When the mail arrived yesterday, and contained no letter, I started to get a little despondent. I asked SodaBoy to check the mail again to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. He couldn’t believe I was serious. We decided if nothing came in today’s mail, I would contact Future Employer for a status check.

Today, the mail delivery contained a huge rust-colored envelope. I could not possibly have missed it; it barely fit in the mailbox. The envelope concealed a matching rust-colored portfolio style folder, embossed with the company logo. Inside the folder was my official job offer, my job description, and benefit information. The whole package is beautiful, and seeing it all together make me very proud and excited. It’s real!

And as an added bonus, the salary is significantly higher than what I had requested. I had been expecting the offer to match my disclosed minimum, so this recognition of my value is a nice little ego boost.

Good News!

This morning was my second interview with Prospective Employer. Except truthfully, I can't call them that anymore. How about simply Employer? Yes, that's right... I got the job! Of course I am hugely excited, although perhaps even more impatient than before. See, the system is a little odd there. I don't yet know the terms of the job: the salary, the benefits, or even the exact start date. They are going to send a letter to my house this week to make the formal offer. Nothing is official, not until the human resources people make it so.

I have never been hired under such strange circumstances before. Honestly, it makes me slightly uneasy, but everyone there was very positive and upbeat, and I have no reason to be so paranoid. The interviewer said she wants me to start next week, told me a little bit about two specific projects they will have me working on right away, and took me around the office introducing me to future colleagues. When I saw the two people who had done the interviewing the first time around, they were very friendly and excited to see me again.

I have a lot of hopes invested in this job opportunity. It is a professional position, directly related to my college studies. I had virtually given up all hopes of finding such work locally, and was scrambling to come up with viable options. All previous work I've done in my field has been out of state: in Michigan, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. My last job, in the gas chromatography lab, was not in my field at all, and I only got that because of my general science background. I am so happy to be moving in the right direction again.

Although it is in my field, this new job has aspects of it that will be utterly new. I will get to learn so much. Now I can only wait and see, again! And hope... I hope the terms of the offer are to my liking, though I am so desperate for work now, it is hard to imagine turning them down. I also hope my skills haven't become too rusty in the last four years of disuse. I feel like I should be studying.

A Hopeful Update

Prospective Employer finally called back this morning, and scheduled that second interview I am so desperate for. Huzzah! Next Tuesday, I'll be strutting my stuff once more. I am glad I have the weekend to mentally prepare, because I'd talked myself into the dumps a bit, and while I feel much better today, I'd like to be a little more confident come interview time.

[I had basically convinced myself that I am a total poser lame ass who doesn't deserve gainful employment of any sort of respectable variety. See what I mean about needing a little boost?]

I still have nagging doubts because of the time lapse between my first interview and the call back (ten days). I did email the interviewers a thank you note and link to a writing sample the day after my initial meeting. I received a very positive response practically instantly, assuring me they'd be back in touch soon. Nine days later is NOT soon in my book. I feel like they maybe offered the job to someone else, who turned it down, and now they are falling back to me. SodaBoy has been trying to comfort me all along, saying they were just busy and they would call eventually. Score one for SodaBoy, I guess.

Now to the part where I ask for advice... I only have one suit, which I wore to the first interview. I do have several sweaters that look nice under the jacket. Do I wear the same suit with a different top under it? Or completely separate dress pants with a slightly less formal sweater/jacket piece? Both pairs of pants are black and would look identical to an untrained eye. The interviewers were dressed comfortably in corduroy and plaid. My backup fancywear is still much dressier than office casual. What do I wear?

Feeding the Birds

I am getting really discouraged because I haven't heard back from that prospective employer I interviewed with last week. I guess the interview didn't go as well as I had thought. That's the trouble when you view the world through rose-colored glasses. Only I am not known for being especially optimistic; I must be getting desperate. See, I thought when they said things like they could market my skills and how I had much more experience than other applicants, I thought that meant something good. It wasn't just them being polite and me lapping it up. Or maybe it was. The bottom line is they haven't called back.

So I am feeling a little poopy. Watching the birds is one of the only things cheering me up these days. I got a bird feeding complex for Christmas, a big stand that hold three different types of feeders. There is the house-shaped one that holds black oil sunflower seeds, a cylindrical one that dispenses nyjer seeds, and then the peanut feeder. We couldn't find any unsalted shelled peanuts when we were buying birdseed, so got cracked corn instead. The corn is not very popular; we'll have to look elsewhere for the peanuts. We didn't get many visitors at first, with the unseasonably warm weather, just a few friendly chickadees. Once it got cold, other birds showed up.

It is so fun to look out the window and see a rainbow of species jostling for seeds. We regularly get gold finches, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, chipping sparrows, cardinals, and woodpeckers. The house finches were late to the party, but now show up in droves. I think the blue jays will show up once we get some peanuts. I wish I understood their behavior a little better though. Some days it's a mob scene out there, with every feeder full to capacity and a queue of hungry birds fluttering around the birches waiting for their turn. Other days, it is completely desolate. Today, for example, I have not seen a single bird. Where are they all hiding?

Not Too Proud

As part of my ongoing quest for employment, I took a civil service exam yesterday. Another new experience, but hey: I’m not too proud for job security and good benefits. The exam was for a technician title in an applied science department with the county. The tests will be scored and ranked by performance, a process that is scheduled to take up to three months. I don’t see how it could possibly take three months, since the test was multiple choice. Then again, I may be biased by my eagerness for work. It is the government, after all. I shouldn’t expect efficiency.

Civil service law requires that appointments be made from among one of the three highest scoring candidates interested in the position. I was optimistic before the test, thinking to myself, I’m pretty smart, I should have a decent shot. Now I’m not so sure. More people took the exam than I expected, at least 20 warm bodies. And the questions were hard! Well, not all of them. Half the test was math of some variety, all ridiculously easy. However, the subject related questions were very, very specific. I’m trying to comfort myself with the thought that everyone else found those questions difficult, too.

In two short weeks, I'll be taking another exam for a different technician job with the county. Maybe I’ll do better next time.

Bullets of Banality

Our cat rules. It's snowing out, the big-flaked, fluffy kind that is especially scenic. We haven't had much snow around here yet this year, and decided to take a walk up to the open area to see if Elijah would be as enthusiastic a walker in the snow. Short answer: yes.

We toyed with the idea of buying a tree today, but it just didn't happen. We did go out to run some errands, but I have one of my evil headaches, and didn't have the energy to wrestle with a tree.

We did rule out the possibility of buying a tree at one of the big box stores. Not only do they not have blue light specials anymore, but the store we visited doesn't carry fresh-cut trees anymore either. Only the kind in a box, and they don't even smell nice. Bah!

I did get a box of holiday cards while we were there though. Maybe they will help me get in the spirit. Of course I selected a variety featuring cats.

I also bought a new shower curtain liner. Fascinating, I know. But I am so damn sick of that Chester the Molester of a curtain that is in there now. This new one might not be any better, but I had to try something.

Could someone please rant about how badly sliding glass doors for the shower suck? Pretty please? 'Cause maybe then I would stop coveting them so much. From where I'm sitting now, they look pretty good.

Today was the first day this week I didn't apply for a job. Blame the headache. Yeah, that's right, the headache. Blame this entire post on the headache, actually. I just cannot think straight. It's prolly a good thing I didn't apply for a job.

Takes One to Know One?

Many employers now restrict job seekers to online applications. Like most things, this has both pros and cons. One disadvantage is the web sites often have long complicated forms one must complete, frustrating because of their redundancy to the resume, which must also be submitted. Some larger employers design their sites so the applicant only fills out the form once, and then the data is stored under a user profile. But this is by no means universal. An obvious advantage to online applications of all varieties is they save postage. And trips to the post office.

I wrote a cover letter today for yet another job application, this one requiring snail mail supplication. After printing out the letter and resume, I addressed the oversize envelope and headed to the Post Office, innocently enough. I am always paranoid about getting the proper postage on oversize envelopes that don’t follow standard postal rules. Especially for job applications. Nothing says “hire me” like an application package marked “postage due.”

I should have been aware enough to look at the calendar and plan for a lengthy visit. It is December, after all. Apparently some people are feeling the holiday spirit, and they don’t procrastinate either. The line stretched practically out the door. I myself am not feeling very festive this year: that’s what unemployment will do to a person. I even toyed with the idea of not getting a tree, but SodaBoy talked me out of that particular brand of heresy. It wasn’t too hard, either. I love me some sweet balsam aroma.

While in line, I watched the postal clerks patiently explaining the most straightforward things to the customers: if you use a priority mail package, you must ship priority mail; where this slip says, “name and address,” you must write in a name and address; things of that nature. Those postal workers really get an unfair rap.

I was also reminded of my power for attracting loonies. It’s far too prevalent a phenomena for me to blame the individual crazies, so I can only conclude that it’s me. I must emit some sort of come-hither-and-tell-me-your-woes vibe that only the unhinged can detect. Because tell me their stories they do. Sometimes it’s pretty funny.

Today, the woman in front of me in line felt compelled to inform me that she’d only eaten a donut so far today, and she’s really not supposed to eat donuts. Huh. And that her stomach has been bothering her all week. I foolishly offered a platitude about there being something going around, maybe she got the bug. Well, that just set her off: she had half her stomach surgically removed twenty years ago, she used to party a lot in those days, she’d gone on a real bender for her birthday, woke up in the hospital, she doesn’t party much anymore, except maybe dinner at the Olive Garden with friends, and…

ChattyPostalCustomers are generally quite harmless, so I just smile and nod along. But I am never quite sure why these people chose me to talk to over the rest of the masses. It must be the old cliché.

Confusion Reigns the Job Hunt

I ran into an interesting conundrum in my job search this week. It is often emphasized to us job seekers how important it is to address cover letters by name to a specific person. This isn't always possible, in which case one defaults to "Dear Sir or Madam," the salutation of last resort. The formatting for the greeting on a typical cover letter looks something like this:

          FirstName LastName 
          Company/Institution/Organization 
          Street Address
          City, State  ZipCode

          Dear Ms./Mr./Dr. LastName,

Filling in the blanks in the above formula is not normally the most difficult part of writing a cover letter. However, I hit a little stumbling block in this case, and I’m actually surprised I haven’t run into this issue before. What is the appropriate title to use for someone with an ambiguously gendered first name? I am not culturally aware enough to be able to distinguish gender for most unfamiliar names. Many non-traditional names are also confusing, both those of the hippie variety like River, and those of the yuppie variety like Taylor.

In the case of the job I applied for this week, the recruiter’s name was Chris LastName. This particular instance is especially frustrating, since “Chris” is a nickname, and being the contact person for a job posting seems to require a little more formality. Christophers seem to shorten their names to Chris more often than Christines, but it is not a fast enough rule to gamble by: I have a college friend named Christine who often went by Chris. And the dilemma is not limited to Chrises. How do you address Pat, or Jody, or Terry, or Sandy, or Jamie?

Spoilt from the Git

As I’ve mentioned before, I am not working now, and am busy furiously looking for a job. If it wasn’t for this pesky business about paying bills, I could be quite happy whiling away my hours, but that’s neither here nor there.

[You know, I’ve never really liked paying bills…] Pipe down, Peter, we all know you get that construction job in the end.

I don’t seem to have any particularly sought after skills, at least not for this area. I’ve had former colleagues alert me to opportunities far away in distant lands, but for now at least, I’m committed to finding work HERE. And unfortunately, there don’t seem to be too many local employers looking for someone with my education and skills. I might have to branch out a little.

While browsing want ads, I can’t help but reflect on the various jobs I’ve had over the years, reviewing positives and negatives, things to look for and things to avoid. I’ve had some real doozies, although frankly my worst can’t compare to some of SodaBoy’s stories (ask him to tell you about the shingle sample factory sometime). I’ve actually seen a number of advertisements for vacancies in the field I worked in the for the last 3.5 years, but I know the minutiae of that particular hell, and I am not eager to return there.

Part of my problem is my frame of mind: I have this naive idea that people ought to be able to find rewarding work. I don’t actually believe that, any more than I believe in Santa Claus, but it was how I was raised, a prejudice I must constantly fight to overcome. It might be a kind of sickness to expect to find a good job, one that is enjoyable; that sort of expectation just sets a person up for disappointment. It is called “work” for a reason, right? Nobody calls it “fun.”

Another part of the problem is that I have worked some really fantastic, fun jobs. My first job ever, as a matter of fact, was fabulous. I think it ruined me. I guess technically it wasn’t my first job, as I’d been babysitting various neighborhood kids for several years by then. But it was my first payroll job, the first time I paid income taxes. It was the summer of 1988; minimum wage was $3.35/hour. I turned fourteen a week before the cut-off date for eligibility: applications for positions on the State Conservation Corps were restricted to teens aged 14-18.

The SCC was modeled after the Youth Conservation Corps programs of the 1970s (which were in turn modeled after Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps). We punched in at the central services office for the parks department, and rode to the work sites in a monstrous 15-passenger van. We worked in several local parks, doing trail improvement projects at Second Home Nature Center and Upland Woods Park, constructing gabion nets along the creek banks at the local fish hatchery. There was an educational component, too, five hours a week dedicated to first aid, tree ID, canoe safety. The work was physically demanding, but it was a diverse group of kids, and we were outdoors all day having fun.

I returned to the SCC in 1989, and got a 20 cent/hour raise, but the program was discontinued after that, to my great sorrow. I doubt I will ever again find a job where the absolute worst thing about it is wearing my hard hat. Of course, I can’t pay the mortgage on minimum wage, either.