Can you hear me now and other frustrating parts of applying for a job out of state?

I guess you just have to be prepared for this because it is an inevitable part of the job application process--but that doesn't make it any less frustrating!

I had been searching for paralegal jobs in Pennsylvania (specifically in the Philadelphia area) but to say that I have been unsuccessful would be putting it mildly.  It got me thinking that there was really nothing tying me down here so why not be open to job opportunities in other states?  I have dreamed of living and working in Washington, D.C for a loooonngg time so I started applying for jobs in Washington, D.C and Virginia.  I assumed that most employers would be curious about someone from Pennsylvania applying for a job in D.C so I decided that I would address that concern right up front.  I stated as clearly as possible in the first few sentences of my cover letter that I currently resided in the suburbs of Philadelphia but that I had responded to the job posting because I was specifically interested in the job.  I also mentioned that I had  researched the area and planned on relocating to Washington, D.C.--which was the truth (as long as I could find a job). 

Well, I admit it--I didn't hear back from like 98% of the places that I submitted my resume to--se la vie!  So when I submitted my resume responding to a job posting for a paralegal in Washington, D.C I really wasn't expecting too much.  Imagine how excited I was when I checked my e-mail a few hours later and I had an e-mail from someone at the law firm!  It was an e-mail from the Director of Operations.  My excitement deflated and quickly turned to frustration as I skimmed the e-mail.  It said. "We received your resume.  I noticed you were from out of state.  Were you planning to relocate here?"  The e-mail went on to inform me that the company did not reimburse for relocation expenses.

There was a part of me that was trying to be understanding.  The Director of Operations must be shifting through stacks and stacks of cover letters and resumes.  In sorting through all the applicants it could be easy to overlook what I had said in the cover letter about wanting to relocate to the area.  The other part of me was extremely frustrated.  It made me feel like she had obviously not read my cover letter AT ALL.  Apparently it had been a huge waste of time when I had taken the time to draft a cover letter that clearly states in the first few sentences that I was planning to relocate to the area.  It wasn't like the information was buried somewhere in the cover letter--it was one of the first sentences in the first paragraph of my cover letter.  So I was sort of frustrated when she asked if I was planning on relocating.  It left me wondering--had I been unclear in some way about my intentions to move or had she just not read my cover letter at all. 

I also recently had a telephone interview.  I figured I would write about it because in today's job market some times people looking for jobs aren't finding anything in the "local" job market and are considering other, out-of-state opportunities--so it makes perfect sense to do a phone interview before having someone take all the time and expense of traveling from another state.  I have had a few telephone interviews before but this is the first phone interview with such a large, nationally-recognized firm with offices across the country.  I got the interview using "my trusty" send resume and do follow up phone call method.  It had worked and I got an e-mail response from the office manager scheduling a preliminary phone interview with 2 attorneys in the office.  I was nervous, especially since I really didn't know what to expect.

Well, let me tell you when they say preliminary, they mean preliminary!  The whole interview took about 15 minutes--just a basic introduction to the office and a few questions about my background and experience.  There were two attorneys who conducted the interview but one of them really did all of talking.  At the end of the conversation the attorney told me that the hiring process takes about two weeks and I would be hearing from someone in the office.  I couldn't really tell if that was just a polite brush off--the law firm equivalent of, "don't call us, we'll call you."  Or if I really will hear back from someone in the office in a week or two.  That's one of the drawbacks of the telephone interview--you can't read people's body language or make eye contact with the person conducting the interview.  But the next day I sent a follow-up thank you e-mail and crossed my fingers, hoping for the best.

But at the very least it was a good experience and good practice.  It reminded me that I willing to put myself out there and be open to a variety of different job opportunities.

Maybe there's a reason...

Yesterday I talked a bit about the benefits of following up after submitting a resume by having a face-face or a phone conversation with someone in the office.  However, there was a time when I was a bit overzealous and I think my plan for a face-to-face backfired.

I had seen a job posting on Craigslist for a receptionist at a local law firm.  The posting gave a fax number to send cover letter and resumes.  There was also a note on the bottom of the ad that said, "No phone calls please."  I had an idea that if I looked up the fax phone number on Google I would be able to get the name of the firm.  I found the name and address of the law firm and it happened to be right up the street from where I volunteered at the legal clinic.  I thought to myself, "Well it says no phone calls but it doesn't say anything about stopping into the office in person."  I thought I was being all clever and resourceful.  So one day after I finished volunteering at the legal clinic I went over to the law firm.  I walked over to the reception area and the girl at the reception desk asked if she could help me.  I thought of just asking if I could speak with the attorney but then I figured the receptionist would just ask me what I wanted to speak to the attorney about anyway.  So I thought I would skip that step in the middle by telling her why I was there.  I gave her my name and told her that I had submitted my resume in response to a posting for a receptionist position (of course I have to say I felt incredibly awkward talking to the receptionist about the receptionist job).  She was really snotty about it (which made me think there might be some hard feelings about the fact that I was there asking about her job).  She just said that the attorney was reviewing all of the resumes.  I didn't want it to be a wasted trip so I asked if there was any way to see if the attorney had received my fax.  She said, "I have no idea if she got your resume and she's on the phone right now so I can't ask her.  I didn't want to keep pushing it.  I didn't know if the current receptionist was leaving on bad terms or what the situation was so I decided just to thank her and I left.  As I was leaving the office and going down the walk the office door slammed behind me.  I turned around and saw the receptionist I had just been talking to storming out of the office.  I watched her get into her car and tires screeching (literally) she raced out of the parking lot.

As I walked back to my car and watching her burn rubber, screeching tires down the street, I hoped I didn't cause any office drama, I thought to myself, "Sometimes, maybe there's a reason they say no phone calls please."

There's a (job) app. for that...

After weeks (actually more like months and months and months) of applying for countless positions that were posted on Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, USAjobs.com, Indeed.com...(the list goes on and on) and hearing absolutely nothing back I was getting frustrated and discouraged.  Every time I sat down in front of the computer to send out my resume my stomach would be tied up in knots.  Then I had a conversation with an attorney who was once on a hiring committee at a law firm.  There was a small group of us standing around talking about getting a job in the legal field and he said, "Almost everyone looks the same on paper so some times having a face-to-face conversation with someone can make a big difference."  This made a little light bulb go off in my head.  When I was applying for these jobs I was qualified and I had experience--I just had to make myself stand out from all the other applicants so that my resume didn't end up at the bottom of the pile.  I decided I needed to make sure that the people doing the hiring at least knew my name and I had to do this by being more proactive.  So here's what I started doing--when I responded to a job posting I would print out the job description.  On the paper with the job description I would jot down the date I submitted the resume and jot down any information about the office I thought would be useful, like the name and e-mail address of the office manager.  Then I wrote down the date (in about a week) when I would plan a follow up phone call to make sure that my cover letter/resume had been received and see if there was any other information they might like me to submit.  I hope a personal phone call would help me stand out (in a positive way) from a stack of other applicants and resumes.

Now I have to be honest--this approach certainly doesn't always work (because if it did I would have a full time, legal job right now).  And sometimes a job posting specifically says, "No phone calls please."  And then of course, I wouldn't call and I just had to assume that someone had gotten and read the resume I sent.  And sometimes I would call and just get put straight though to voice mail, I would leave a message and never hear back from anyone in the office ever again.  I know--it's disappointing (and I think sort of rude)!  But most of the time when I called the people I spoke to were actually really helpful.  Most often I would start by talking to the receptionist and I would ask to speak to the hiring attorney in the firm, someone in the human resource department or the office manager.

This follow up process has led to a few promising leads.  There was one job I applied for where I submitted a cover letter and resume online to the companies human resources department.  I waited a week and called the office and explained to the receptionist that I had responded to a job posting and would like to speak with someone to follow up on my application.  The receptionist was really helpful and she transferred me to the office manager.  When I spoke to the office manager she told me she had started reviewing job resumes but that my name didn't sound familiar.  She asked me how I had applied for the job and when I told her I applied on the company web site she suggested that it would be better if I just sent my resume to her directly.  Now I had an actual personal contact in the office and I sent her my resume directly.  The next day she sent me an e-mail that she had reviewed my resume and had forwarded it to the hiring attorneys at the law firm.  A few days later she contacted me to schedule a telephone interview.  Without that follow up it is very likely that my resume would have gotten lost in cyberspace forever and I never would have gotten an interview scheduled.

In another case I applied for a posted job and again made a follow up phone call to the office.  I spoke to Rhonda, the office manager of the law firm and she told me she had been out of the office when I submitted my resume but that she had gotten what I sent and she would make sure to forward it onto the attorney.  When I signed onto LinkedIn a few days later I noticed that one of the attorneys in Rhonda's office had viewed my LinkedIn profile.  So, it seemed like at least Rhonda had made sure that she passed on my resume to one of the attorneys in the office.

I really believe taking the extra step of personally contacting the office and speaking with someone after submitting a resume is important because it can keep your name fresh in the minds of the people who are looking at a whole bunch of applicants and might get them to take a second look at your resume or at least make sure it gets directed to the right person in the office...so far I haven't gotten a job but I have had a few interviews. 

Time flies (whether you're having fun or not)

It had absolutely been one of those days.  I had checked my bank account balance and had something like 17 cents left in my checking account to last until the next pay day.  Then I checked the mail and I had a stack of bills that I sorted through knowing that I couldn't possibly pay all of them.  I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry or scream or tear my hair out but I couldn't do any of those things because I had to go to work.  So I put on a "brave face" and went into work.

(As usual) I got there pretty early and I was sitting in the break room and there were some other cashiers sitting upstairs talking about when they started working at the grocery store and how long we had been there.  I quickly noticed a common theme in all of our cashier stories--everyone thought they would just take the job at the grocery store for just a little while but they had ended up working there for years.  Rich had started working at the grocery store at the very beginning of his senior year in high school...now 5 years later he was a senior in college and he was still there.  Maria started working at the grocery store when she was a sophomore in high school.  It was her first job and she had just sort of stayed.  Now, a little over two years later she had graduated high school and still working at the grocery store.  Ben said he had been there for six years.  He had been going to college for criminal justice but for a variety of reasons he wasn't able to finish school and has been a cashier working nights ever since.  He said, 'You better be careful because you don't want to end up being here for six years like me."  I think he felt a real sense of sadness or surprise at the passage of time.  I myself was amazed at how quickly the time had gone.  Like all the others, I assumed the grocery store was a temporary measure for me--it was supposed to be a financial bandaid while I looked ofr a full time job...but it had been a year and counting.  I had been there long enough to have an anniversary and an annual review.  It got me thinking about how easy it was to become comfortable or complacent in a routine--you just stay where you are and end up in a rut.  But I decided that this talk we were having was just the thing I needed to motivate me.  Right then and there I decided to put all of my energy into finding a job that would be more like a career!

After sitting there and listening to everyone talk I knew I needed to get off my ass...it was time for me to stop whining about how hard it was to find a job, it was for time for me stop feeling sorry for myself, and it was time for me to stand on my own two feet and find a career.  And of course I have been looking for jobs but I had just sort of been submitting my resume into cyberspace without having any idea about where it was ending up.  I hadn't really been following up after I submitted my resume and I have been e-mailing a very general resume that wasn't getting responses so I knew I needed to put time in to revising it.  

So over the next week or two I decided I would document the ups and downs, the laughter and tears of searching for a job.  And I would love to hear from you guys too (if you're out there and reading this).  If you have any job search ideas or interview tips pass them on!  Or are you already working at your dream job?  How did you land it?  To those of you out there who are currently hunting for a job (and there are lots of us out there) share your story too!

Wish me good luck on the job hunt--because I know I'm gonna need it!

10 Years Later

One of the things I like about working in the grocery store is getting to work with so many different types of people. Talking with people who are so much older or younger than I am gives me a chance to see things from a variety of different perspectives. Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and I was talking to Billy about what he remembers about the events of that day. He is 17 years old now and was only in first grade in September, 2001. That just seems unbelieveable to me. In some ways it seems like it was just yesterday. I still remember vividly that my college roommate called to me from the living room. She said something like, "Come here quick." I was awake (but just barely) and I was about to get up and get ready to go to my astronomy class (which I found interesting but was really bad at). I was sort of startled by the tone in her voice and I got up pretty quickly and went into the living room where she was watching t.v. We were watching the plane crashing into the first tower. In other ways it seems like a hazy day that happened a long time ago. I asked Billy if he had fully understood what had happened when he heard the news. He sounded slightly offended and said, "Yeah, of course." "Because I was a college student when it happened and I could barely process it." I told him. I remember watching the images and news coverage and I was kind of numb and in denial for the first 1/2 hour or so. I kept thinking there had been some sort of mistake or I had seen a clip from a new action movie. I still don't understand how there could be that much pure hatred in the world--such hatred that the death of thousands of innocent people and mass destruction is planned and carried out. How could Billy or any other 7 year old understand that? It occurred to me that Billy and kids his age all across the country grew up in a different reality. I couldn't help but wondering if they were robbed of a sense of security. I feel like things were much simplier when I was in first grade. I grew up feeling safe and secure--swimming with the neighborhood kids and playing tag. Maybe feeling that way is a natural consequence of getting older--you think times were simplier or things were better and safer when you were a kid.

Finding your voice

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

-Martin Niemoller

Walkin' After Midnight

In the category of, 'this could only happen to me. . ." So it was a usual Friday night.  I worked until midnight.  It was only a four hour shift but it felt like a lot lonnnnggeer then that.  Finally, finally, finally it was midnight and I was out of there--the moment I had waited for all week.  I went (more like bolted) upstairs to the breakroom, punched out, put my coat on and grabbed my purse.  (As I think many of you girls out there can relate to) I have a bottomless pit for a purse.  I put stuff in there and it seems to get sucked into a black hole.

At first when I couldn't find my keys I wasn't too worried.  As I kept digging some more around at the bottom of my purse I got a little annoyed.  Hmmm...I couldn't find my keys in purse.  So I checked my jacket pockets--nope my keys weren't there.  I looked through my purse again and I still couldn't find my damn keys.  Now I was starting to get worried.  They definitely weren't in my purse and they weren't in my jacket pockets so where the hell could they be?  Then, (unfortunately) it dawned on me where they were...they were in my car.  Crossing my fingers that I hadn't locked the car door, I put on my jacket, grabbed my stuff and went out to the car.  I peered in the window and sure enough there were my car keys--sitting right where I had left them, on the driver's seat.  I pulled the door handle...locked (but you figured that out already, right?)

So, here I was...standing in the parking lot of the grocery store locked out of the car.  The night crew guys were standing outside smoking--so I walked back to the store and sheepishly told them I had locked myself out of my car.  I laughed a little about how stupid I was and asked any of them if they had any ideas about breaking into the car.  Nope.  I tried calling a few people but it was after midnight and noone was answering their phones--either because it was Friday night and they were out or because they were asleep.  I left a few voicemails and waited for a few minutes in case anyone called back.  Keith, the night manager, asked what was going on and I explained that I was locked out of my car and waiting to see if anyone I had called would call back.  "Oh."  he said.  He took a quick look at the car and said he wouldn't be able to break in for me.  He also said he would have offered to drive me home but he couldn't leave the store.  At that point I was still sort of holding out hope that one of the people I had called would get my message and call back.  I said, "No, that's ok.  Don't worry about it."  I stood around for a few minutes staring at my cell phone and trying to figure out what to do.  

By this time it was close to 12:30 and faced with limited options I decided I wasn't just going to stand around all night and that I was going to have to just suck it up and walk home.  Keith saw me getting ready to leave and he asked what I was going to do.  "I'm going to walk home."  I responded, much in the same tone I would have used if I had burned myself and he asked my why I was putting ice on it.  "You are not seriously going to walk home."  he said.  "Well, there's really nothing else I can do."  I responded tartly, because it had become readily apparent to me that Keith was not going to do anything to help me.  And I'm as much of a feminist as the next chick but a whole night crew full of guys and not one of them offered to help?  "Well, I guess I could take you home."  he said hesitantly, but he stood rooted to the spot where he was standing and it was obvious from the tone of his voice that he wasn't really willing to leave the store.  Maybe I was just being stubborn because I do think that he would have driven me home at that point if I had pressed the issue but I just knew it wasn't a sincere offer to help.  "No, don't worry about it--I'll just walk", I told him quickly.  And with that I marched away from the store and out of the parking lot with as much pride and determination as I could muster under the circumstances.  "Call the store when you get home and let me know you got there ok."  Keith called after me.  I shook my head, kept walking and resisted the urge to give him the finger.

I walked the approximately three miles back to my house at 12:30 in the morning and with each step I took I became more and more angry with myself for being so stupid and frustrated with Keith for being such an asshole.  I understand he is the manager of the store and he can't just leave the store unattended--that is corporate policy.  But it seems to me that sometimes there are extenuating circumstances.  I also understand that it wasn't his fault that I was a dumbass and I locked my car keys in the car.  But I just don't understand what kind of person lets someone walk home by themselves in the middle of the night.  It took my over an hour and half to walk home--it would have taken him about 15 minutes to drive me there and get back to the store.  If you have the ability to help someone why would you not do it?  Am I being unreasonable here?  Or was Keith an asshole?  Or a little bit of both?  Maybe it was Karmic payback for times in the past when I could have helped someone but I didn't--like the time I could have/should have offered Miguel a ride to work but didn't.

But all's well that ends well...I walked home (good exercise), crawled into bed, slept like a baby and we went with the spare key and unlocked the car door the next day.