4 things: job search, everyday life scheduling, pepper update, writing woes

[edenfalling]

1. I haven't been having any luck applying to office-type jobs, so I have decided to widen my net to retail management-type jobs. I mean, that's more or less what I've been doing for the last several years -- on a small scale, and unofficially, of course -- but what the heck, making decisions about inventory and telling people what to do is still making decisions about inventory and telling people what to do. I guess we'll see if I have any better luck with that tactic.

(And holy shit, management jobs pay a lot more than I was making. No wonder there was no way I could get an official job title to match what I was doing. The going rate for managers is at least ten dollars more per hour than I was making -- and that's for "unspecified other managers" rather than any of the fancy specialized upper management types. *blinks rapidly, throttles back retroactive fury*)

On the other hand, on Friday I am attending a "meet the employer" workshop with a representative from Cornell, to learn what they are looking for in employees and applications, so maybe the office-type job thing will work out after all. And that is really more the kind of thing I want to be doing with my time, so... who knows! Truly, job hunting is a great mystery.

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2. Some upcoming stuff: On Monday my parents are dropping off their spare car en route to Minnesota; I will then get to keep it through mid-October. (This will, among other things, make getting to any potential interviews much simpler.) On Wednesday, I have made an appointment to give blood. And on Thursday and Friday, I will be driving to and from New Jersey to visit Susan before she has her birthday and I fly to Minnesota. (I mean, assuming I don't get a job. If I get a job, the vacation is obviously cancelled.)

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3. I did put my bonsai pepper outside last weekend. It was promptly uprooted by animal vandalism. I got it back upright and in the dirt before it could shrivel, and brought it inside to recuperate, but one of the leaves was badly mauled and it has not been noticeably growing over the past few days -- I think it has put all its energy into recovering from shock. I gave it some Miracle Grow tonight and maybe this coming weekend I'll be able to try it outside again. (The next time, though, I am putting it in the middle of the pepper phalanx instead of on the exposed outer corner. It needs protection more than it needs extra sunlight.)

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4. I haven't been getting anywhere with my writing lately. My brain is hung up on finishing my unexpected love Cotton Candy Bingo ficlet and won't let me switch to anything else... but I can't come up with any kind of functional ending for the ficlet in question. It needs an arc, a movement from opening through middle to closing, but I don't know how to either adjust the beginning or find some way to bring the development back to the beginning that currently exists. It is very frustrating.

Oh well, maybe tonight?

Comments

[heliopausa]

Rats! for the job-hunting going stickily for the time - may the great mystery unfold to glorious clarity soon.
I really enjoy your pepper-logging! :) Is the identity of the Vandalising Beast known?

[edenfalling]

Nope, unknown. I suspect most of the digging attacks were from squirrels, and the decapitation attack was from a cat, but there's no way to be sure since I haven't seen the vandals in action. And then just two days ago, one of the big peppers was both uprooted and snapped off at the base of its main stem, so who even knows what was going on there! (Heck, it might have been a human for all I know.)

I think the main way animals were getting onto the table on my deck was by walking across the garage roof and jumping down, so I leaned a window screen (which fell from the upstairs apartment last year) against the garage wall to block that access route. Hopefully it will help.

[branchandroot]

*rueful* Yeah, not actually listing you under the title for what you do is an unfortunately common skeevy tactic. I would say go ahead and talk about how you have "experience as an X Manager", since it's certainly the truth! Job-searching is so frustrating, the way you always wind up having to work around these things.

[edenfalling]

An awful lot is in the way you phrase things, and what skills/job elements you play up versus others you gloss over. *sigh* I hate the constant subtle tweaking and rewriting of resumes and cover letters.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Good luck with all the interviewy things. Cast a wide net. You seem to have many transferable skills.

[edenfalling]

Thank you. The trick is making potential employers realize that instead of tossing me aside for lack of self-marketing skills (and/or lack of a college degree).