Update on job search

I’ve been meaning to put up a post on my job search for the past week or so. I’m finally getting around to doing it.

So far, I’ve applied for 7 actual positions and sent my resume to 2 other companies that don’t currently have openings but are always accepting them. I have gone on 2 interviews, and I have another interview scheduled for tomorrow.

Of the 2 interviews I’ve already been on, I’m hopeful on one. I actually didn’t feel nervous during the interview. I am supposed to hear back by mid-week to see if I move on to the second round of interviews. As for the other interview, I don’t think the position is right for me, regardless of how the company feels about me. Sometimes you just get a gut feeling about things.

I have contacts at 2 recruiting agencies in town. That is how I found out about the position I’m hopeful on. The other agency is waiting to hear back about a company opening up a position. She said she’d let me know when she heard. And yesterday I was contacted by another local agency that had found my resume on Career Builder. Unfortunately the position they currently have needs ASP.NET experience, which I don’t have. But she sent me her contact info and said she would be in touch if anything relating to php/mssql/MySQL came up.

I’m hoping something that I’ve already found and applied for pans out … and soon. I’m not having much luck finding new positions to apply for. The one I applied for this morning was the first new one I’ve seen in the last week. I’m not sure how long I can wait before I expand my search area (to Grand Forks).

I need to have 2 job contacts a week in order to get unemployment benefits. And an interview with a company for a position I have applied to doesn’t count as a second job contact anymore (it did the last time I was in this position). I understand that they need to have these sort of requirements to keep people from abusing unemployment benefits. But I’m looking for quality positions that I actually want to work at rather than a large quantity of positions. I understand that the more positions I apply for, the better my odds of finding something. But there are only so many positions around here. And each position has a timeline. They don’t hire someone right after an interview. They have a period where they’re accepting resumes, then interviewing, then a possible second round of interviews. That takes time. And having to keep making 2 contacts a week is getting harder and harder to do. I almost have to put my unemployment claim on hold in order to wait for the process to complete to keep the stress level down. And I don’t want to start looking out of town before the in town opportunities are sorted out.

I’m trying to keep my chin up. They say “that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”. This experience should be making me stronger then … hopefully before it kills me. LOL