Keeping Job Applications
Jul. 2nd, 2011 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI got rid of a lot of papers over the last couple of days, about of half of which were old job applications. I've found it's good to keep my job applications throughout a job search for several reasons:
1) In case someone calls me for an interview after I've forgotten all the details, I'll have everything at my fingertips to refer to.
2) When I want to apply to several jobs at the same place and the place has a long, obnoxious job application, having the old one handy means I can just copy everything without having to look up anything else.
3) It's good to keep track of how many jobs I've applied for and how many interviews I've gotten so I can keep track of when it's time to give up. Last time I gave up after "only" eight interviews (over eight weeks), but almost immediately after that I read that it takes ten to fifteen interviews to get a job offer. So then I started again and got the offer for the job I have now.
However, it is no longer a good idea for me to keep any of my old applications.
1) Things have changed in the 10.5 years since I got my job. A bunch of those places don't even exist anymore; it would be better to start my search for employers from scratch. In addition, most applications are probably online by now and would have to be filled out only once. And even the applications themselves have changed drastically (at least for the one employer I know about).
2) It's depressing to see the wide variety of jobs for which I could not get even an interview and just how crappy some of them were. If I start another job hunt, I don't need all that garbage around reminding me that I suck, because I don't actually suck, so it's counterproductive and no fun.
And now I have more file space, too!
1) In case someone calls me for an interview after I've forgotten all the details, I'll have everything at my fingertips to refer to.
2) When I want to apply to several jobs at the same place and the place has a long, obnoxious job application, having the old one handy means I can just copy everything without having to look up anything else.
3) It's good to keep track of how many jobs I've applied for and how many interviews I've gotten so I can keep track of when it's time to give up. Last time I gave up after "only" eight interviews (over eight weeks), but almost immediately after that I read that it takes ten to fifteen interviews to get a job offer. So then I started again and got the offer for the job I have now.
However, it is no longer a good idea for me to keep any of my old applications.
1) Things have changed in the 10.5 years since I got my job. A bunch of those places don't even exist anymore; it would be better to start my search for employers from scratch. In addition, most applications are probably online by now and would have to be filled out only once. And even the applications themselves have changed drastically (at least for the one employer I know about).
2) It's depressing to see the wide variety of jobs for which I could not get even an interview and just how crappy some of them were. If I start another job hunt, I don't need all that garbage around reminding me that I suck, because I don't actually suck, so it's counterproductive and no fun.
And now I have more file space, too!