Skip to main content

We should be trained to join this circus.



I just finished an article on Resumes from Hell about writing cover letters where she uses a metaphor of a circus.  And while I agree that the job search (and sometimes just the "real-world" in general) are a circus, that's not really my beef with all of this.

Why wasn't I trained for this?

When I went to the Career Services office at my university they would refuse to talk to me unless I brought a copy of my resume that they could draw diagrams on and tell me how to make it better.  That's great, but I was just in here last week and you critiqued my resume, what can you do BESIDES that?

I learned how to write a cover letter the hard way...trial and error.  I still frantically Google search for writing tips everytime I find myself faced with a particularly great sounding job listing where I need to write a cover letter.  Why isn't there a Cover Letter 101 offered in college?  What about a "How to find your dream job 1" while you're wasting your senior year of college taking Ballroom Dancing and Beginning Drawing to stay at full-time while you take your last undergraduate major class.

It was frustrating for me, an Arts & Sciences major who realized 4 years too late that she should have majored in marketable skills if she wanted a job instead of critical thinking (not that I'm knocking my ASC degree...I love it...but my computer coding best friend has a job lined up already and she has MONTHS until she graduates).  And it wouldn't have been a problem if going to the Career Services Office wouldn't have been a fruitless endeavor.  They gave me a resume critique and the university's general internship search Web site and sent me on my way. They asked me what career path I wanted to go on and I'm sitting there thinking "I thought I came here so you could help me figure that out."

Don't get me wrong, I love my university, I love the fact that I got a Humanities degree but its frustrating.  When I see my classmates who received degrees in Computers get contracts before they graduate or those in the business school get interview after interview because their college has the connections and I feel that I'm an inconvenience for asking for help from my Career Connection office.

*sigh* either way I'm still unemployed.  I just hope that someday the university will read this and start up a "How to get a job 101" class, my brother is starting university soon and I don't want him to have to join the circus without warning. 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shoes

Shoes Shania Twain Tell me about it... Ooh! Men. Have you ever tried to figure them out? Huh, me too, but I ain't got no clue How 'bout you? Men are like shoes Made to confuse Yeah, there's so many of 'em I don't know which ones to choose (yeah, yeah, yeah) Ah, sing it to me If you agree There's the kind made for runnin' The sneakers and the low down heels The kind that will keep you on your toes And every girl knows how that feels (yeah, yeah, yeah) Ouch, ah, sing it with me Chorus: You've got your kickers and your ropers Your everyday loafers, some that you can never find You've got your slippers and your zippers Your grabbers and your grippers Man, don't ya hate that kind? Some you wear in, some you wear out Some you wanna leave behind Sometimes you hate 'em And sometimes you love 'em I guess it all depends on which way you rub 'em But a girl can never have too many of 'em It's amazing what a little polish will do... Men ar...
4 comments
Read more

DIY Wood Stencil Sign

I purchased these cute blank signs from Target--here's what the original item looked like.  The original item Then I created a stencil using 631-this is removable vinyl.  I chose removable vinyl mostly because I had ordered a large number of a color I didn't intend to use again and had extra, also it works great for things like ceramics where you're worried 651 permanent vinyl won't remove easily.  The key for me was USE TRANSFER TAPE.  In the past a majority of my bleeding has been from the centers of the letters because I was individually placing them by hand and they weren't sealing properly.  Transfer tape not only removes me individually placing letter centers, but it also gives you a better seal.  Just take an old credit card and burnish your transfer tape FOREVER.   I had to use two layers of transfer tape cause my roll isn't wide enough.  I mean, burnish until you think there can't possibly be any bubbles under that piece of viny...
2 comments
Read more

Crafting Fails

Let's be honest, sometimes things just don't go as planned.  Like when you have this brilliant idea to do screen printing on the cheap and your ink runs everywhere.  Ink bleeding everywhere Or when you melt the fabulous tote bag you were working on.  Melted Mandala Sometimes you just have to admit that you don't know what you're doing and Google it.  And that's what I do.  So look out for some tutorials in the near future of things that I've probably screwed up previously and finally gave in and Googled how to do.   What sort of things have you failed at recently?
Post a Comment
Read more