again

Another stinking rejection today was received by me; they'd already filled the post. This is the easiest kind of rejection, but it still sucks. Not that I would want to move to Atlanta, but it was better than some of my alternatives.  And, the school seemed cool.

When I got over my total despair (that lasted about an hour), I worked on my resume.  I'm meeting a very astute friend on Friday for lunch.  He suggested that I rewrite my resume.  These are the two paragraphs of his I focused on today:

Your resume portrays you as smart and energetic, which is good. Business people are looking for transferable skills, but do not understand education well enough to make all the connections. You can help them by being more explicit about what you did in each job. The TA and house adult jobs would be especially interesting in displaying your organizational and interpersonal skills. Three to five tasks per job would provide more impact than one or two. Starting with action verbs as you have done is good. Not everything has to pertain to business. If you describe "prepare lesson plans" it stakes you out as a writer and a planner. Results are more important than activity.

Don't be afraid to afraid to infuse purpose in your resume, especially your objective statement. Yes, you worked the phones, but didn't you really provide callers a warm entry into the organization and successfully provide client service by connecting them with someone who met their needs? It's the difference between "making bricks" and "building a cathedral" and is worth being explicit about. It might sound phony to you, but resumes today are so overwritten that yours seems abrupt by comparison.  (italics mine)

As you can see, it's solid advice.  I love his image of "making bricks" versus "building a cathedral."  And, "don't be afraid to infuse purpose." I think these are valid pointers in a general way too.  We are a part of a much larger story as tiny as we may be.  Tiny but significant.  I can forget this while being knocked about by so much disappointment.

After I had enough of converting by brick-making into cathedral-building, I looked through advertisements (with a British accent, of course) for History and English positions.  It was slim pickings.  But, I made a query to an international position.  I'm kind of excited.  I've never been to the country... or that part of the world.  It could be quite fascinating, and there's a US AF base in the tiny country.  Can you guess where it is?

I borrowed some Downton Abbey DVDs from the library last week and have been watching one to several a night.  I think it's affecting my diction.