The roller coaster of unemployment is still pluggin’ along. After applying for a few jobs my sister was perfectly suited for – and getting NOTHING in response, I was starting to get seriously angry.
There’s one job for the city, the office is only a mile from our house, that she applied for. There was a lengthy application form to fill out, but we sat down on a weekend and very carefully went over it. She’d taken some free classes at the unemployment office to learn tips and tricks to writing resumes, cover letters, filling out forms, stuff like that. They taught her about using particular words and how to make sure your resume is custom written for each job description you’re applying for.
Seems like no-brainer stuff, but she learned a lot of little hints that were pretty helpful.
So after spending a weekend working on this application, even going so far as to meet with a former co-worker for lunch who happens to be in the human resources profession who gave us some good advice, she applied for the job.
It closed on February 11th, and naturally we tried to be patient, but all last week we both expected her to get a call for an interview. She was perfectly qualified for this position, right up her alley, as they say. The office is a mile from our house, so of course we were going over that in our heads – how nice that would be in the summer, she could walk there, there’s a Starbucks between here and there. Winter commuting would be no problem, we figured she could walk and I could take the SUV.
You try not to, but you can’t help it. As soon as you apply for a job, you start to work things out in your head. The commute, the area, what it will be like, the Ins the Outs, the Pros and Cons.
We thought it might have been providence that we even found out about it. They didn’t advertise anywhere except on their own web page (which can be a good thing, or a bad thing). A coworker of mine happened upon the listing out of the blue, and printed it out for me. Minimal listing can be a good thing in that, it means less competition. The fewer people who find out about the opening, the fewer who apply. Also, it can mean they’re legally required to “open” the job, but they already have someone in mind to fill it.
There’s a chance they’re just not exactly in a rush to fill it, and will take their own sweet time.
But while we wait, and wonder . . . and start to lose hope . . . Monday evening our other sister calls – – seems a woman she knows had just emailed her and a handful of other friends and contacts about an opening. This woman owns and operates a business and has need of someone to do Billing and manage the office – something my sister used to do and enjoyed. So we sat down immediately that night and poured over her resume, custom wrote a cover letter, then an introductory email wherein we used our sister’s name as reference (since this job wasn’t be advertised publicly, only through friends and contacts) and sent the email Monday evening.
Then we waited.
Tuesday morning, I had the day off so we were sitting around having our morning coffee, preparing for a day of house cleaning and chores, when she got a phone call. It was her – – the woman we’d emailed – – so her and my sister chatted a long while on the phone (I retired to the kitchen so as not to be “in the way”), about her qualifications and the position. She promised to phone her back and schedule an interview for later this week.
Elated at even this slight glimmer of hope, I took my sister out to lunch, and we ended up doing a bit of shopping on a sunny afternoon.
By the time we got home and started in on our chores, the phone rang again, and before we knew it, my sister had an “informal interview” scheduled for 9:00 this morning.
That meeting went well . . . Very well, in fact, but we’re still strapped in on the ride. She’ll get a call later (either by Friday or some time next week if the office gets busy) to come in for a more formal, all day interview, where she’ll be asked to spend the entire day going through what would be a regular day with the staff, to see if everyone’s personalities get along.
That’s become more and more typical of interviews, it seems. Going in for hours to sit with everyone, make sure personalities mesh. Shouldn’t be a problem, my sister can get along with anyone. She’s very pleasant to be around, and picks up on new jobs really quickly.
So we have hope, at least.
And I’m hoping Fate already emptied his bladder on someone else’s shoe.
The Velvet Zebra 