A friend of mine is looking for a job now and I mentioned to her that, If she needed the help, I could help with her cover letters.
This being a throw back joke to when I was searching for a job last year. I had been meaning to collect these and finally got around to doing it. Both the job specific posts and the much loved Cover letter Saga.
The Job Posts:
The Cover Letter Saga:
Hope you enjoyed!
After 3 ½ months of searching during one of the worst times for a govt. contractor to be searching for a job, I finally landed a position! Sarah also started a new job as well. It’s been a super stressful few months and I am really glad for the emotional support of my friends and family during that time. But hey, that’s done and I have joined the productive society again! I am now working in a local (to Northern VA) hosting company doing Tier 3 Windows support. Should be interesting getting back down in the support weeds. Who knows, it may lead to a whole new variety of twitter jokes.
Sadly, this does bring an end to my series of “Cover Letter” jokes. please feel free to go back and see the hilarity that ensues when you try and add the wrong things to cover letters.
In the month since I went to shoot the LADEE launch, quite a few things have happened. One of the reasons I haven’t written much since then is primarily due to the crappy depression that accompanies something like unemployment. (That and the lack of sleep, irritability, feeling of worthlessness….you get the picture) So lets see if I can shotgun these out.
We started doing a Webcomic over at RetroNickRadio!! It’s really cool and you should go read it.
I went to shoot some Roller Derby!
Two Words….Midget Wrestling. (yeah, that happened)
Sarah and I celebrated our return to work with a trip to Universal Studios.
We got to attend a great concert by Wil Wheaton Vs. Paul and Storm
And finally, two of our super awesome friends were finally allowed to be married in Maryland so we went to wish them well.
The next month should prove interesting as I adjust to a new work schedule (read that as “Actually working again, and not in my Pajamas”)
The emotional roller coaster that is Job Hunting is still ongoing. Some weeks are great with lots of phone calls and emails back and forth. Then there are the weeks where everything is in motion and all I can do is wait. Various interviews, both in person and on the phone, where I get to be the subject of “Stump the dummy”.
It’s kind of exhausting.
The best part about it is the comedy that it generates. I have gotten pings from jobs that are nowhere near what I have listed on my resume. Things like Insurance salesman, car salesman, iOS Developer, and then there is this guy:
“Your resume was selected because it includes words or phrases that indicate these qualifications. In order to continue expanding the sales force, I am conducting preliminary interview meetings for top-level candidates to fill these business-to-business sales positions”
When I asked him what the job description was:
“Thanks for sending me your information (Which I didn’t). I’d love to work out a time for us to meet and go over our position. I cover and hire for all of Northern Virginia, but my office is in Fredericksburg, which is where I conduct interviews only.”
Again, I asked him for a job description and how it fits my resume (which he claimed he had).
“The person I am hiring will be responsible for making personal visits to owners of companies in order to continue or improve upon their existing benefits. This is not a door to door sales position. I will be happy to explain further and answer any of your questions in person if you choose to meet with me.”
After pressing the 3rd time for an actual job description, I haven’t heard from him since. I was seriously very o_O afterwards. Good chance I would have probably gotten raped down in Fredericksburg.
So the search continues. If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen some of my various “Cover letter” jokes. These will continue until I find a job! (And they may get worse so you should pray that I find a job soon!) The plus side to all of this is that I was thinking of rolling the whole experience into a routine and trying out one of the open mic nights.
In the meantime, I am taking things slow. Reviewing the jobs I am applying for and making the most of the time off.
So I think the biggest difficulty I am having with this whole “Not having a job” thing (aside from the “finding a job” thing) is what to do with my spare time. You see, I have a lot of it now.
My left brain is all “Man, I have so many things lined up for us!” where my right brain is more like “Things suck, you suck, this situation sucks!” The downside to this is that it would seem that lately, the right side is winning. This doesn’t stop ol’ lefty from giving it the good college try.
Everything from story ideas to crafting projects to outdoor projects have been flowing through the noggin, but then they hit that right side firewall and somehow aren’t making it through the filter. Instead, right side is cracking the whip with “Search for more jobs, provide..PROVIDE…PROOOOVVVIIIDDDEEEE!!
I try and explain to herr rightenheimer that things are going ok. We have 5 possible leads as well as a billion and a half resumes out in the wild. We have enough in savings to take care of things for a long while, we can afford to take this time off and pick the right job in the right place.
Unfortunately, he’s not listening. So I sot down to write and I make a blog post about arguing with myself instead. (That counts, right?)
Anyone want to come over and punch the right side of my head?
So in the last month or so a huge shake up happened here, and I am not just talking about the earthquake that it VA a few days ago, although that was just weird. For the last few months I have been growing increasingly dis-satisfied with my job. It was supposed to be my dream job and gateway to bigger better things. Turns out it was kind of a bait and switch, (Not the fault of those who got me the job, it just changed drastically after I got there.) and was not what I wanted. Add on that the horrible commute time and we have what My wife and I like to call, “Not paying enough to put up with the crap”. A friend of me saw some of my lamenting tweets and asked if I would be interested in hopping ship. Long story made short, I am now working back in Chantilly/Herndon area!
This also means that I am not in the DC proper area which means that I need to find some other things to take pictures of. Since I am working right next to Dulles, I may try and get over for some airport/plane pictures so keep an eye out for that.
And, of course, we are in the midst of getting ready for DragonCon, so there has been a ton or prep work going on to get costumes and such ready. This year I will only be doing Two costumes! (I know, crazy eh?).
The first is my pride and joy of the year, Giovani Auditori from Assassin’s creed II. Giovani is Ezio’s father. The reason I say it’s a Giovani costume and not an Ezio is that I purchased it from Museum Replicas and they based their design off the Lineage prequel that Ubisoft created before the game. There are quite a few differences between the in game costume and the movie one.
The Second is a very low key costume. Matty Roth, the amature photo-journalist. It’s from the comic DMZ and is a way for me to be in costume and still have the camera on me to take pictures of folks.
We leave for DC on Wed. of next week. Expect lots of pictures and lots of twitter activity!
Click to Embiggen
Yeah, it’s been about a month since my last post and the reason that it’s been forever since a post is because I had some major changes in my life. Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. I found my self looking for some new experiences on the job front and a few friends of mine that work downtown had the best opportunity for me. As of the end of September I am now a Senior Functional Analyst working for, yet another, agency in lovely downtown DC. I am in charge of designing, building, and maintaining a lab environment for a number of different applications. It’s a huge responsibility and a big advancement for my career. It’s also an ass load of more work and because of it my free time has started to dwindle. I am really hoping to continue posting, but it may not be once a week like I had been trying to do before.
So to catch you up on some of the various gadgets and games in the life of Steve, a number of games have hit my shelves in the last month. Shortly after DragonCon an eagerly anticipated game was released. Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions! I am a huge Spidey fan so this was a must for me. I hope to write up a full review on it soon (even though I know it’s kind of late for it). I also picked up Halo Reach. Believe it or not, I have not yet finished the campaign! I have been playing co-op with my friend Lee and haven’t wanted to spoil it. Lastly, just today I downloaded Comic Jumper from the XBLA.
Click to Embiggen
For gadgets I have only one real big toy purchase but it’s something that has been a long time coming. I picked up a Nikon D3000 DSLR camera. Many many years ago I used to be rally into photography. I was the primary photographer for my school newspaper and yearbook, and that was back before digital! I have always loved photography and have been yearning to get a decent SLR. The D3000 is purely an entry level DSLR camera and that works fine for me. Since it’s been a good 20 years since I did any work with F-stops and aperture I am just fine with having the camera hold my hand a little. I am very very pleased with it and have been having a blast taking pictures of damn near everything. It even got me to update my gallery linked here on the site (over there in the right hand side of the screen).
So until next time….
