What's Next?

I'd like to think that for all my efforts I would be hearing about a position soon but it seems as if in todays' world things just don't happen as fast as they used to. Imagine that! While the world is faster than ever, I seem to have been kept waiting for a long long time. Huh.

Firstly I'd like to point out once again the totally unprofessional practice of not acknowledging a job applicant...whether with good news or bad. I think this is what makes the waiting so much longer. That said I did have a wee but of luck in the past 2 weeks as I had 3 job interviews.

The first interview was with the Department of Homeland Security...by far the most interesting position yet. It would mean a good job with a decent pay and with a real future. A place to grow and stay forever grounded. I like this in a job. It's something rare today and also something I've never had before. It's been 2 weeks and still I haven't heard anything but I'd like to think that being the holidays things will be put off for a time.

The second interview was the job I had been hoping for, albeit a temporary one. Unfortunately that job was completely different from the one I had applied to! The job description led me to believe I would be working with the students from RISD doing community projects. It turned out to be totally administrative. Not what I had expected at all.

The third job was in my own city...for the position of Animal Control Officer. That interview was a bit strange. Firstly, it felt like a cattle call. One interview was scheduled after another. We candidates were sitting in the hall pondering our fates together. Huh. When it my turn I had my pen and notes in hand and was ready for interview. I sat in a time office with 3 people. One sat behind me doing God knows what and two people faced me. One was a handsome police sergeant who was very interested in what I had to say, and the other, an old women from the personnel department in city hall. As soon as I sat down she insisted I re-read the job description and placed it in front of me. I told her I had already read it before I came in. She insisted again. At this point I showed her my copy of the description and repeated that I had already looked at it...just before coming into the office. She asked me to talk about myself and about why I was interested in the position. I explained I was drawn to it because it involved education and outreach. At this she said it was not part of the job so I pointed it out in the job description. Huh. Then I talked about educating the public about where to bring pets in an emergency. Again she said it wouldn't be my job to do this. Thankfully, Handsome stepped into the conversation and told me education and outreach is part of the job (albeit a small part) but they had only begun to figure out the programming of it all. Of course, I told him, I was bringing my expertise in project development to the position and he liked the idea. The women eventually apologized to me. I think she was a bit embarrassed. She was so concerned that I understand the position at hand that she never gave it a good going over herself! I had a feeling that they had been interviewing for quite a while and that a good amount of the candidates didn't know what they were walking into and she was just plain exhausted.

That's it on the job front. 129 resumes/cover letters/applications thus far.

Huh.