Need to Work on Connections Next
Nov. 3rd, 2006 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebToday was my last work day before going to Disney World. I finished the monthly stats and monthly course inventory changes yesterday. I cleaned my office, caught up on other things, reported on a possibly broken air conditioning unit.
I was realizing that my job really isn't so bad. I have trouble finding time to do all the documentation I want to do, but all the other job duties are still possible, and my job really is quite cushy in many ways.
At quarter to five, I made one last check that there were no e-mailed questions to answer and no last-minute course schedule changes to process. Then I checked to see if there were any new job openings.
And there was and it was a job I wanted. It was working on a system for creating and converting online courses for K-12 students. Of course it wasn't there when I checked at 2:30 in the afternoon. Of course they wait until I'm happy with my current job and have no time. Still, mine.
Then I read the job qualifications. I don't have some--I have no experience or even knowledge of XML or Flash. Rats.
But then I remembered that I decided to apply for jobs even when I don't have the qualifications. So I read through the notice carefully. My current job actually makes me look good for that job because they want someone who can train people on how to use their system and what the formatting rules are, etc. And I do that sort of thing for the system I'm working on right now. Plus there's a line about how you can switch experience and education so long as it all adds up nicely.
So I updated my resume and pressed the first button you have to press to apply for the job. And right away it says the first thing I have to do is fill out a questionnaire. There are about ten questions in the format "I have experience doing x. Yes or No." And all but about three of them I would have had to have said no to. They were mostly techno-geek questions. Others were worded so I couldn't say yes. I've supervised people before (just barely), and I've trained people to use systems, but I haven't trained people I'm supervising to use systems, for example. If those are their priorities, they won't even look at my resume after they see my answers to those questions, so I didn't bother.
And now I'm starting to think that there are two kinds of people that are sought for the jobs I want. The first kind is people who like teaching, and those jobs require not only degrees in what you're interested in and teaching experience and teaching certification but also specifically several years of classroom teaching experience. I am never going to get that. I refuse to torture little children (and myself) just to get that qualification.
And the other kind is a techno geek with a random set of technical experiences. Technology is like ballroom dancing. No matter how many kinds you know, it's never enough. You always have to learn something else. And although I enjoy dancing enough to go ahead and learn waltz, foxtrot, rumba, tango, Viennese waltz, quickstep, samba, mambo, bolero, night club two-step, east coast swing, and west coast swing, not to mention hints of Argentine tango, salsa, two-step, jive, and club swing, am just not that big a fan of manipulating things online.
If that's at all true, and I think it is, that's yet another piece of evidence that I'm going to have to get my next job through connections.
I was realizing that my job really isn't so bad. I have trouble finding time to do all the documentation I want to do, but all the other job duties are still possible, and my job really is quite cushy in many ways.
At quarter to five, I made one last check that there were no e-mailed questions to answer and no last-minute course schedule changes to process. Then I checked to see if there were any new job openings.
And there was and it was a job I wanted. It was working on a system for creating and converting online courses for K-12 students. Of course it wasn't there when I checked at 2:30 in the afternoon. Of course they wait until I'm happy with my current job and have no time. Still, mine.
Then I read the job qualifications. I don't have some--I have no experience or even knowledge of XML or Flash. Rats.
But then I remembered that I decided to apply for jobs even when I don't have the qualifications. So I read through the notice carefully. My current job actually makes me look good for that job because they want someone who can train people on how to use their system and what the formatting rules are, etc. And I do that sort of thing for the system I'm working on right now. Plus there's a line about how you can switch experience and education so long as it all adds up nicely.
So I updated my resume and pressed the first button you have to press to apply for the job. And right away it says the first thing I have to do is fill out a questionnaire. There are about ten questions in the format "I have experience doing x. Yes or No." And all but about three of them I would have had to have said no to. They were mostly techno-geek questions. Others were worded so I couldn't say yes. I've supervised people before (just barely), and I've trained people to use systems, but I haven't trained people I'm supervising to use systems, for example. If those are their priorities, they won't even look at my resume after they see my answers to those questions, so I didn't bother.
And now I'm starting to think that there are two kinds of people that are sought for the jobs I want. The first kind is people who like teaching, and those jobs require not only degrees in what you're interested in and teaching experience and teaching certification but also specifically several years of classroom teaching experience. I am never going to get that. I refuse to torture little children (and myself) just to get that qualification.
And the other kind is a techno geek with a random set of technical experiences. Technology is like ballroom dancing. No matter how many kinds you know, it's never enough. You always have to learn something else. And although I enjoy dancing enough to go ahead and learn waltz, foxtrot, rumba, tango, Viennese waltz, quickstep, samba, mambo, bolero, night club two-step, east coast swing, and west coast swing, not to mention hints of Argentine tango, salsa, two-step, jive, and club swing, am just not that big a fan of manipulating things online.
If that's at all true, and I think it is, that's yet another piece of evidence that I'm going to have to get my next job through connections.
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no subject
on 2006-11-04 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-11-05 02:03 am (UTC)