I have sent applications about 100 jobs,
More than 60% have not responded at all.
25% led to interviews (at least phone interviews)
less than 15% were responses letting me know they were not interested.
WHAT THE HELL?
I heard more acceptances than rejections, but more silence than both of those combined.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Welcome to the wacky world of job hunting.
Oh hello, I didn't see you there, come in.
Please have a seat while I tell you about my journey to look for a job.
It started in September of 2014, I had just left my job with Apple (having stayed 3 months longer than I would have preferred), I moved down to the bay area for a new career.
What kind of jobs was I looking for?
Instructional design jobs.
now before you go interrupting me and asking what those are, I'll explain:
Instructional Design is the art of creating learning objectives that create a desired impact. Ideally the role involves some assessment of what needs impacting, and evaluation to see that the training was or was not successful.
The fact that you didn't know that is an indication that there aren't a lot of ID jobs.
If you did know what an instructional designer is, you already knew that there aren't a lot of ID jobs.
Over time my search radius increased to a 2 hour commute but still no luck. When I had started I was relying mostly on Indeed.com for my job openings.
After a few months, around January I expanded my job search to include customer support.
Still...
...Nothing.
Growing desperate I applied for my old position at Apple (new store). To clarify, when I left Apple it was on good terms, with endorsements from my supervisors and the assurance that I could get a job at any Apple store as a specialist.
Then one of the biggest gut punches in my life happened.
I saw an email that I have not seen before from apple, "we regret to inform you..."
Apple retail was my safety school of a job, and I had just been turned down.
I was horrified, and embarrassed, I wanted to talk to someone, but was too embarrassed to admit to any of my friends (most of whom work for Apple still), that I didn't get the job.
I was left without a job, without my safety net of Apple retail.
I needed to kick my job hunt into overdrive!
I retooled my resume, and wrote a cover letter that spoke to most of my talents and could be edited easily to highlight specific ones (more on that another time), and started hunting like a mad man.
This is that journey.
Please have a seat while I tell you about my journey to look for a job.
It started in September of 2014, I had just left my job with Apple (having stayed 3 months longer than I would have preferred), I moved down to the bay area for a new career.
What kind of jobs was I looking for?
Instructional design jobs.
now before you go interrupting me and asking what those are, I'll explain:
Instructional Design is the art of creating learning objectives that create a desired impact. Ideally the role involves some assessment of what needs impacting, and evaluation to see that the training was or was not successful.
The fact that you didn't know that is an indication that there aren't a lot of ID jobs.
If you did know what an instructional designer is, you already knew that there aren't a lot of ID jobs.
Over time my search radius increased to a 2 hour commute but still no luck. When I had started I was relying mostly on Indeed.com for my job openings.
After a few months, around January I expanded my job search to include customer support.
Still...
...Nothing.
Growing desperate I applied for my old position at Apple (new store). To clarify, when I left Apple it was on good terms, with endorsements from my supervisors and the assurance that I could get a job at any Apple store as a specialist.
Then one of the biggest gut punches in my life happened.
I saw an email that I have not seen before from apple, "we regret to inform you..."
Apple retail was my safety school of a job, and I had just been turned down.
I was horrified, and embarrassed, I wanted to talk to someone, but was too embarrassed to admit to any of my friends (most of whom work for Apple still), that I didn't get the job.
I was left without a job, without my safety net of Apple retail.
I needed to kick my job hunt into overdrive!
I retooled my resume, and wrote a cover letter that spoke to most of my talents and could be edited easily to highlight specific ones (more on that another time), and started hunting like a mad man.
This is that journey.
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