Job search update

The job hunt continues. It's worth noting, I think, that so far I've gotten rejection letters from about half the companies I've applied to. Of course, no one likes hearing they weren't good enough, but the novelty of actually receiving a written communication from a company despite being eliminated as a candidate - much less a full 50+% of them and most of those through the US Mail(!!!) - definitely caught my attention. My experience - and that of most every job seeker I've ever known - is that the job search process generally goes like this:

1. Send out your resume and personalized cover letter
   
2. Make the appropriate follow-up noises
3. Hold your breath for about two weeks
4. Give up on that position after never hearing a peep in reply (unless you make the cut for an interview).

I'm not quite sure what this reject-letter business means. I'd like to think it means my resume made it through a leg or two of the consideration process before being trashed...it seems crazy to me that in this economy, with the number of applications each position probably gets, companies are suddenly choosing to MAIL letters to every single rejected applicant. But I suppose it's just as likely that churning out rejection letters is built right into their computerized resume-scanning process. :op

Anyway. When Cindy and I discussed the reject letter phenomenon (and the jobs that I assume I've been eliminated from due to not hearing anything), she zeroed in on the truly important question: why am I not making the cut? We concurred that the biggest hurdle is probably my lack of college degree. Now, I'm not putting my career-transition plans on hold for 4-5 years or more while I bang out a bachelor's degree - not just no, but Hell No. But Cindy feels, and I agree (and thankfully, Levi also agrees), that if I don't nail down a job - or at least start seeing some positive responses to my resume - in the next month or so, I might get more consideration if I'm at least actively enrolled in a degree program.

So, how does a 30-year-old woman with a full-time job, two kids, and a husband who also works full time, find time to go back to school? Oh, I have a plan, I do...but this entry is already getting long, so I think I'll save that discussion for a future post. ;o)