Request for Advice on New Job Possibility

[livingdeb]

The job I want just opened again.

Unfortunately, they don't seem to want me. Instead they want someone with a year of "experience in instructional design of web-based courses" and a bachelor's degree. Or someone with more experience and less college.

At first I was upset by this, trying to imagine never being able to get a better job than I have now for the next eight years and finding it unimaginable.

Then I remembered that I don't care anymore what the claimed required qualifications are because they are allowed to change their minds.

So next I was confused. The preferred qualification is that the instructional design be at the college level. Yet they don't care if the person has actually been to college themselves.

Then I noticed that they are not going to care about my fabulous HTMS and CSS skills because they use Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. Um, I have worked with Photoshop for a couple of hours once about a decade ago.

It looks like I don't have any qualifications at all except for a college degree in some random subject. But in fact, I have the following qualifications:
* strong interest in learning academic subjects
* enjoyment of presenting what I learn in ways that are comprehensible, accurate, and interesting
* secondary teaching certifications in two rather different areas (math and social studies)
* experience teaching at the college level (as a TA, anyway)
* experience working closely with faculty on class documents (as well as manuscripts and grant proposals, as a typist)
* not afraid of computers (quite competent with Word, Excel, HTML, CSS, and bizarro degree audit system)

That's pretty good, right?

Okay, so here's where I ask for some advice. Loads of smart people apply for jobs which they don't yet know how to do partly because they'd like to learn how to do these things while being paid. I don't really quite get how employers go for this, but apparently they do. Any ideas on how I present myself even though I have no experience in creating web-based courses or any of the software they use?

Then, once you get your job, how do you deal with not knowing not only the things they don't expect you to know, but also the things they were hoping you'd know? Do you spend all your free time learning this stuff for a while at the beginning?

Comments

[kevin-hogan.livejournal.com]

Why not go for it?

My own experience has been that yes, you do spend all your free time learning new stuff for awhile - but hey, that can be fun too.

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

I did go for it, having learned that sometimes what people ask for is not what they want.

Thanks--you're the second person to tell me about spending all one's free time learning new stuff for a while. That's good to know.

[(Anonymous)]

(sally)
It's kind of strange that this job is open again. Is this one of those positions that they're not serious about hiring someone into any time soon but want to have open just in case exactly the right person of their dreams happens to apply? (You know, if the person who is currently doing this job for UCLA or whatever just happens to be moving to Austin.) Do you have any contacts who can help you figure out what they're really looking for?

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

I don't have any contacts, but their personnel chart is online. They have five slots for people with that title, so regular turnover can account for what's happening.