Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Job Search A Painful Reminder of Glaring Inadequacy

The last time I had to subject myself to the possibility of professional rejection was five years ago when I applied for my current job. Well, obviously that went well, but now I have to do it again. And this time it's weird because I have to apply for jobs that I am not yet qualified to perform, but with any hope will be qualified for in the near future upon completion of this blinking nursing program. This puts one in a strange situation. The job application itself is confusing to fill out. Under "education" I have to put that my highest level completed is high school. High school! That was, like, ten years ago. Have I done nothing official since then, as far as academia is concerned (yes, that is correct)? If an employer stops there, it's going to look like a high schooler wants to start IVs on their telemetry patients, and I just don't think they're gonna go for that.

Fun as that is, I'm also moving. Yeah, I just thought "you know what - between graduating from this RN program and finding a job, why not just throw a complete change of environment in there. Because the best thing for my job search right now is to go somewhere I don't know and apply for positions at facilities at which I have absolutely no connections." Good plan. Great plan. Because, as a student, I obviously have all the money in the world to relocate while both I and my husband are searching for jobs. Yeah, that sounds just about right. Because in this glowing economy, a job should be easy to find. Oh, and it's a really good time to sell your house. Just perfect timing all around.

So, here I am three weeks out from applying to five different hospitals in the San Antonio area and I have heard nothing back. Nothing. One of the hospitals hasn't even sent me a confirmation email. Not even marketable enough for a confirmation email. It's rejection of the worst kind: rejection by ineffort (ineffort is a new word I was forced to create in order to make that sentence grammatically correct while still getting my point across. Solid reason for creating a new word). I know I have to give it more than three weeks, but it starts to sting after one, so...

On the up side, I have found a pair of graduation heels. The heel is so high that I can barely walk in them, but I refuse to admit that. I will walk in them. I am not going to let a pair of shoes tell me what I can and can't do. Not now.