Job update

K so you'll probably be reading a lot of these over the next year. But then that's kinda why I started the blog. So I could talk about everything that was going on in my life with jobs and work and school and life.

I applied for 3 jobs recently. One was a curatorial position in Suttonborough just outside of London, England. I knew it was a MAJOR long shot (it's a curatorial job, I don't have much experience with it. Plus it's in England, I'm a US citizen, they'd have to REALLY want me/be desperate in their pool of applicants to give me an interview) but I decided that I'd never know if I didn't try so I stuck my hat in the ring. One was at the African-American Museum of Iowa outside of Cedar Rapids. One was at the Montgomery County Historical Society in Rockville, MD. I really wanted that Maryland job. Heard from all 3. No such luck.

The England job like I said I figured as much, so wasn't surprised. The African-American museum said they'd already started the selection process (even though the deadline was the day I applied - I guess they already had a good enough pool to start doing interviews) BUT they'd put my resume on file. The Maryland job said I had an impressive resume but not "the combination of academic focus AND professional experience we were looking for" in a pool of 75 applicants. Translation - we don't want someone straight out of grad school.

Am I bummed? Yeah. Am I devastated? No, not at all. This is just the first 3 applications. I've already got others that I'm going to be applying for over Christmas break, when I can think straight. Plus sending my resume to places in St. Louis. Plus sending it to all the contacts I made at AAM. Plus talking to my cousin Lauren, who works with historic preservation in Galveston and might be able to help me on a job there (not in a museum but with historic houses in a cool area, should it happen I'd take it!) Plus whatever other postings come up next semester. There's gonna be many more applications, and to be honest probably many more rejections. The job market sucks right now, especially in museums, and I know that. But I also know that somewhere out there is my first job. All I can do is believe I'm gonna find something, trust that God's got a plan for me and do my best on applications until the plan actually happens.

Plus there are some silver linings. 1 - as cool as it would be to live in London (let's face it, it'd be totally AWESOME!), the job was only part time, so I'd have to take another job. Plus I'd be super far from my family, friends, and Bixby (for those that don't know, he's my Boston Terrier, and I LOVE him to death!). 2 - the Iowa job said they'd put my resume on file, always a good thing! 3 - the Maryland job flat out said I had an impressive resume. So not only did I get them past my cover letter and interested in my resume, they said they were IMPRESSED by it. So I'm getting past that first hurdle of deleting the cover letter all together without a glance at the resume, AND they look closely at the resume enough to be impressed. I've just gotta get past that hurdle to the interview!

In other news, we did our program presentation for Lankford's class. I got nervous right before we started cause Lankford reminded us that the program and evaluation of the exhibit we're putting together counts for 1/3 of not just the people that worked on those teams grades, but the WHOLE CLASS - aka if we screwed up, we screwed everyone over. But we did REALLY well, I felt great about it! He had a couple tough ?s which we were able to field, and with a few minor errors it went off perfectly! So that's great!

K this is long enough. Keep praying for me/your fingers crossed/good thoughts coming my way on the jobs! It's out there - I just hope I find it sooner (like May) rather than later (like May 2012).