Category Archives: Moving

How to Search for a Job

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Or the title should read – “How I’ve Grown With My Job Search.”

Or, “How to Make Yourself Visible to Human Resources.”

Or possibly – “How to Become Obsessed with Fonts, Search Engines, Adjectives and Action Verbs”

Or just – “Getting a Job” would probably suffice.

(Don’t worry – “Bloke Who Brunches” is coming for those of me who are anxiously awaiting, but I did say I had one more post in me!)

My last seven days have consisted of the following actions:

1. Day by day, hour by hour, edited resume by chopped up cover letter – I am chiseling away at the Chicago job machine. Whomever is out there who is about to hire me might now know that I am taking this sharp toothpick to the steel wall that is the job market, but I am and I will succeed in whittling you away.

And you will be proud to hire me as your employee. And boy oh boy, will I be proud to work for you.

What am I applying for, you might ask?

Jobs that I feel are the right fit. That’s the only way I can describe how I go about my search. When I read the description, I assess my qualifications against their requirements, I rework my resume accordingly.

2. My resume has gone on an evolution. Clearly, I tweak it and my cover letter for every job I apply for – I highlight which duties work best with each job. But, the format has changed.

The first few days, I had no responses. So, I looked at my resume, I ran it through careerbuilder.com ‘s resume checker. They suggested adding a brief Profile at the top to describe my assets. (No, not that kind.) They explained that HR might only look at it for a few seconds before moving on, so make an impression!

Sent it off many more times. Nothing. Except a nice letter from YMCA letting me know they had more qualified janitors, but thank you for applying. (J/K)

So, I looked at the resume again. I went back to it. The damn resume. I needed something to stand out – and apart from putting it on pink letterhead and spraying it with perfume à la Elle Woods, I thought a professional digital picture of myself attached to the upper left corner couldn’t hurt. Ya know? Just so they know who this MAL is. Click here to view it in its present form.

Not rocket science, but I’ve had two interviews this week. Neither of them had anything to do with my resume since one was a staffing agency and the other I was referred to by a friend, but still. Perhaps the picture vibes are helping…

3. Cover letter

Again, I stayed professional, routine, traditional in the beginning. Nothing comes through.

So, I think, “You’re a writer, Meagan, not some automaton robot who churns out cover letters. Act like one. Be creative! (And remain professional.)” So I got more creative. I dared to challenge myself to stand out.

How? Well, as soon as I get a job, I’ll post which cover letter got me the job.

4. The Job Search Itself

Apart from buying an ad on facebook like that guy did, the truly great jobs aren’t on Simplyhired.com, Indeed.com, Careerbuilder.com or Monster.com – I mean, they might be, but it’s hard to get seen through that slush pile.

The best jobs are directly on the company’s websites hiding in the bottom corner, are found out by calling directly (depending on the company), using my Linkedin connections, Twitter searches or from a friend of a friend. Trust me, I’m trying it all. My dream job is out there. I’m just not sure where yet. If you know of anyone looking for:

A hardworking, detail-oriented and excellent communicator who has 5 years experience as a high-level assistant in a variety of busy offices. I have a strong background in accomplishing tasks with research and ingenuity in an efficient manner and with passion. Computer and technologically savvy, I endeavor to maintain a confidential demeanor, use my people skills to get assignments fulfilled and understand first, then be understood. I thrive in helping others.

Then, you know where to look! When I’m not looking for jobs – I’m doing this:

The Start

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The shades are closed in our apartment. Our apartment. Did you catch that? And the clothes are put away in drawers, hung on hangers, paperwork is on our desk, bed is made with our sheets and the fridge is filled with our food.

Oh how good it feels to be home. To be in a home that we can call ours – for three to four months. We are here temporarily – until either he or I find a job and we can afford somewhere nicer.

Don’t get me wrong – this is the location we want – on the corner of State St and Division, but we’d prefer a place where it isn’t mostly students living here.

(Side Note: We are on the 12th floor and the building across from us has a man hanging on outside cleaning windows. That is freaky. Just had to mention it.)

Joan, a squirrelly, talkative older woman, showed us three studios on Saturday to choose from. One had a separate kitchen but an old bathroom, one was nasty and dirty and the third one had high ceilings, new tiles in the bathroom, fresh paint and new carpets. I think she showed us the other two to put the third one in good light. Since Labor Day was happening, we couldn’t move in until Tuesday.

Luckily, two amazingly generous friends let us stay at their place over the weekend while they visited their parents in Ohio. They saved us. Their gorgeous two-story place in Bucktown was exactly what we needed to relax in after our big night out on Saturday.

Our big night out with friends from England – one who was dating a girl who happened to be a childhood friend of another friend who lived in Chicago, but they didn’t meet through each other. Make sense? So, we all went – all the incestuous group of us and we headed to a bar called – just guess. Go ahead. The English – I swear to God, the bar they took us to was called The English. I don’t invent this stuff.

Sometimes I wonder if I ever really left England with all these Brits around. I love it – I get the best of both worlds.

The Romanian cocktail waitress served us well, Englishman Matt Hoy kept the shots coming and the random raucous joke while Ella (his American girlfriend) and I compared notes on dating these Brits, the new couple said their first set of “I Love You’s,” we all jumped up and down, Jock and I kept up our American version of overdoing things and I half-heartedly attempted a dance-off with a set of men clearly out of my dancing abilities. Didn’t realize it at the time.

Look, not even a week and we made on the Chicago Scene! (Last time we’ll be doing that for a couple of months – that’s for sure. Now is time to settle, be quiet inside, save money and find a job.)

My next post will be something more philosophical about change, about finding jobs, setting up shop, starting new. Possibly about this cleanse Jock and I have started today.

In the meantime, Matty Hoy – here’s your shout out. (He’s the guy third from left with the dazed expression in his eyes.)

Familiarity and Mind Numbing

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Being back in familiarity makes the mind numb. Makes my mind numb…or perhaps just comfortable. Every day flies by so quickly and leisurely for I know my surroundings so well that I don’t have to think. I know my family and friends inside and out so I can just be. It’s as if the brain cells have literally slowed in their transmissions.

Writing this entry should be so simple, I was up last night thinking about what I was to write and how and this thought-provoking idea came to mind – mainly that I have lost all thought-provoking ideas since my return to my “home of comfort.” Or maybe I’m just tired and needed this break.

Maybe I should trust that this is what I need at this moment. After all, very shortly I will be in Chicago in another new city, finding a new home and a new job. Instead of beating myself up for it, maybe I need to give into it.

I haven’t been back in Baltimore for longer than two or three months in ten years and yet, it is here that will always be home. I’d forgotten how easy it could be to be back home – I’ve lived in unfamiliar territory since my 18th birthday. I got used to that – it’s not an on edge feeling – but it’s more survival instincts perhaps…being on your best form because you don’t know what someone will throw at you, how, when or why.

It’s also when things are unfamiliar and new that the idiosyncrasies of life come alive and creativity flows out fast and with need.

I’m not complaining. This sense of comfort is relaxing, but it’s amazing how quickly coming back home becomes normal and like I never left.

Nearly a month and a half has passed since we left the UK for the United States (the United States because we’ve driven through 15 of them), and I have had so many adventures, but have only really written in detail about one of them.

A family reunion, my 28th birthday party, a wedding, Americana at its finest (there are so many eloquent ways to describe the Americana I’ve seen, but I can’t think of any), a beach in Delaware with my best friend and her family, a funeral this week, partying in downtown Chicago, sipping champagne at the top of the Hancock building, an outdoor movie downtown, Charlie and Eileen visiting, biking with my stepfather and his new wife on the NCR trail – the list goes on. I’m only now processing this.

My neurons are slow.

How am I supposed to find a job in this climate of slow mental emissions – SME they call it?

A comprehensive list of things to do to regain control of ambitions:

1. Google “Jobs in Chicago”

2. Google “Apartments in Chicago”

3. Send off letters to literary agents requesting that they grab my novel and sell it right away because I will make them a lot of money.

4. Google “Literary Agents”

5. Wake up before 10AM every morning.

6. Stop watching “Housewives of New Jersey” marathons, followed by “Intervention” programs and “Hoarders” (oh, it’s even better than they said it would be! Now I just have to try to catch “Teen Moms” and my life will be complete.).

7. Stop being distracted while making lists of “to do” items by children’s television programs.

Now, enjoy some more of these Natalie Dee comics that I just found.

In honor of babysitting my nephew this week:

In honor of random jokes that make me laugh a little too hard:

In honor of being back home:

Reality Strikes, Now What?

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We’re back in Baltimore, Maryland.

Our month long escapade across the roads of America is over. My month long escape from monetary, artistic and logical goals has quickly caught up to me. And here we are.

Here we are in the spare bedroom in the house of my wonderful sister, her boyfriend and my nephew on their blow-up bed. Their very comfortable and hospitable blow-up bed, I hasten to add – but it is nevertheless their blow up bed.

As many travelers know, the traveling is wonderful (if not a bit tiring), the seeing beautiful places is the best and the adventures are what you write home about and never forget – but it’s the getting home afterward that is the killer, and is the part that you forget about. The part that when you’re planning all the incredible things to do in the world that you don’t want to even worry about.

Because what is the point? Of worrying. It will all work out. It always does. (Read this blog post by Alisha if you want to hear her take on it – Bird by Bird. Have I already linked to that in a previous post? My mind is frazzled.)

And here we are back at The starting over. From square one. With three suitcases holding all of our possessions in the world, and our bank account aching for us to make it fatter.

So… I need to find a job.

After nearly two years of working on my own terms, under my own auspices (I just had to look up that word to make sure I was using it correctly – see what a month of driving around America does to the mind!) and making my own hours, it is time to find something to bring in the cash.

Don’t get me wrong, I will still be writing, selling my book and eventually finding a job that I love to do….but in the meantime, hard and cold, and even a little bit pretty, cash is what I need. And I’m not afraid to get my hands grimy.

This lady who lunches is not afraid to hang up her dainty lunching hat and pull up her dirty knickers to get this couple a place to live. (Although before I start getting charitable contributions or letters of sympathy, I want to clarify that we are in no way poor or starving or lacking in funds – we will be if I don’t get a job soon, but we have enough for the general down payments, moving expenditures, food, etc. Don’t want anyone to worry for no reason ;)

Tomorrow I will outline my plan and have something more inspiring to say – or contemplative – or philosophical – or observant….

In the meantime, time to catch up on that much needed sleep. 28 years old catches up to a gal!

Travel and A Book

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Just finished writing fairly long post from jock’s iPhone, which probably wasn’t that long but considering the tapping on one finger – it was long enough.
I left my laptop at home to be more “in the moment” during our road trip. So far it’s worked fairly well besides downloading the twitter app and borrowing his iPhone for that. Anyway, while jock is out running a disgusting distance in the searing heat at way too fast a pace, I’m being in the moment with my blog (dirty word, according to Grampy).

To summarize, 2500 miles in less than 7 days in our 1997 gold Toyota Camry. Traveled from North Carolina log cabin in the mountains with grandparents to dinner with third cousins, (or is it first cousins twice removed?) in Chesapeake, VA, beaching it with my best friend, her boyfriend and incredible family in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

Now in hotel after 14 hour drive through MD, PA, IN, IL. Wedding tomorrow of the beautiful Katie and Jim! Really looking forward to it!

Reading the book, “The Help” because my mom handed it to me on my way out the door. And it’s good. Too good. I realized when I finished my workout today and endorphins were replaced by tears at the end that it was because I was in Mississippi in 1965 and my white boss just told me I could no longer pee in her bathroom, but had to go outside and the boy who cuts my lawn got beat up so badly by his white boss that he went blind.
Intense reading. Makes me want to write something that will transport people.
Now off to pick up two friends from O’Hare.