Tag: job applications

December is a rough month

While I normally love December because of the fact that somehow there’s chocolate everywhere and people try to be nicer to others, it is a terrible time for job applications. Employers focus on their families and friends and crap like that and they don’t post or respond to job openings. I’ve been looking at the same four posts since November 21st.

Strangely there are a ton of posts for unpaid internships, maybe they think we’re desperate in the cold winter months, and they might be right. I saw a post for two hours a week, for a month. Yeah, that seems worth it.

Anyway, the point is that this dark, gloomy month isn’t conducive for ending unemployment. There is good news, January is right around the corner. In January employers are excited for a fresh start and begin looking for new faces to join their team. So I’m going to think of December as a bit of a break. I’m still going to look at the normal sites to see if anything has changed, but I’m not going to worry about it as much.

Enjoy the lights, time with family and the free food at all the parties you’re going to attend. Also if you celebrate holidays were gifts are called for, maybe spend some time online shopping. Stores are far too busy and stressful this time of year. I’m getting off track.

 

Cover Letters

When I see “please attach or copy and paste a cover letter” I read “tell me why you’re better than the 100 other people who applied for this position in 500 words or less, no pressure.” It’s terrifying, and I hate it.

You would think I would love cover letters because I’m a writer and should enjoy writing about myself. Well you would be wrong. I guess that’s it’s nice to send more than a resume and explain why you only worked somewhere for three months, and I guess it’s nice to explain what you really did at a job. So it can be a good way to set yourself apart from everyone else who has the exact same qualifications as you.

But I still hate it. I get it but I hate it.

It’s incredibly nerve-wracking, but you have to do it. I have one stock cover letter that has my basic job experience outlined but I end up going back through and changing everything for each open position anyway, so each application ends up taking 15 or 20 minutes. I always get excited when I see an application that only asks for a resume but that makes me nervous at the same time because a resume is easier to overlook.

It’s a vicious cycle that is seemingly never ending, but there isn’t really a better way to do things. Basically I just have to suck it up and do it but I would rather write a post complaining about how much I hate cover letters than actually write a cover letter. I guess I can’t avoid it for long seeing as I’m getting to the end of this post. Ugh, okay I’ll get back to applying.