And I'm off!
Today was the first day of my job hunt. After traveling all day yesterday (16 hours is a long time in a car by yourself), I wasn't ready to spend hours driving around again. So I stayed home and called people.
What I did
Before I left, I started a list of organizations I wanted to contact; in my case, academic advising offices in schools. I'm not contacting them to ask for jobs; I'm exchanging information with them. I'm receiving information on the field of advising, more specifically, on how to get a job in the field. In return, I'm giving them information about someone who has the desire and, I think, the talent to fulfill a future need they might have.
What I learned
I learned something very important in the midst of my calling. There's a reason I want to be an advisor; advisors are people people. Everyone I talked to was nice and friendly and more than willing to set up an appointment for me. Of course, I mostly talked to office assistants, but still.
After one day of job hunting, I have 5 interviews set up. Remember, these aren't job interviews – they are informational interviews. Two of the places are hiring at the moment, one just finished hiring, and the other two don't have any openings right now. But the important thing is that I'll be talking to people in my chosen career, even in my chosen location. This is much better than the last 15 months, where I got almost nothing but rejection letters. Kind've hard to see what to do better with no feedback.
Worst case scenario – after telling a bunch of advisors that I'm interested in working in the field, nothing happens. I will still have gathered very valuable information, and will be able to adjust my future strategy according to the suggestions I hear. No matter what, it will have been a good experience.
One more thing I discovered – with a limited time frame, I've really got to learn how to organize my time and plan ahead. Right now, I'm traveling to opposite ends of the state on different days for single 20-minute interviews. I need to figure out how to fill that time better, like stopping at other colleges in the area. If I master this, I'll tell you how.
How it went
So at the end of the day . . .
Interviews – 5 set up
Cold Calling – 0
Friend reunions – 3 in the works
Mood: Optimistic, a little nervous, enthusiastic
So, what do you do at an informational interview? What kinds of questions do you ask? I've never done something like that.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI'm going to my first one today. I'll tell you what I do after I figure it out myself . . .
Okay. By the way, I think you're brave. Interviews sorta scare me. I'll come back and check later on.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you mentioned learning how to organize your time better. This really is an amazing journey you are on. Not only for finding a job, but for finding little things along the way that will benefit you in many ways- career-wise as well as in your personal life. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! I'm interested to hear how it goes.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to know generally what was said during the phone calls. How do you go about setting up this kind of interview?
ReplyDelete