Frustration
I don't know how many of you reading this actually have jobs. If you are indeed employed, I'm going to suggest that you stop reading this blog. I have a lot of things to say, and, frankly, you don't need to hear them.
This blog is titled "Frustration" for a reason - because I'm tired of this endless search for a career. I'm frustrated because my lower-achieving peers with better connections (or, let's be honest, any connections - as a woman from a lower-income family, I lack the Daddy's Friends network) are getting hired over me. I'm frustrated because I know that I'm qualified, yet no one else seems to think so.
I'm willing to do anything - even if it means writing classified ads 10 hours per week. I'm willing to cover "news" stories at the local Retirement Community. I know I'm not a terrible writer, because I read things by people deemed qualified to write, and they can't even use the correct form of "their"! I've seen NATIONAL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS use incorrect pluralizations.
I'm still really up in the air about everything. If any of you lovely readers can lend me a well-connected family member for a day, I'll be your grammar slave for a month. I just need that tiny little foot in the door, and then maybe someone will listen to me. Until then ... I'm unemployed and hating every minute of it.
Have you ever had someone look at your resume professionally? If you think you should be getting more interviews, your resume may be the issue. If you are getting enough interviews, but no jobs, then you need to work on your interviewing skills.
A great book to help with interviewing is "Knock 'Em Dead" by Martin John Yate. Any library will have a copy of it.
For resume advice, check out:
http://www.professional-resume-example.com
I hope this helps. I wish I had a notable family member to lend you but I don't. :)
~C Vaughan
You have the things you need. You even have the network. It's time to use them properly and grow them.
Your lower-achieving peers are taling about why they're qualified for the job. They're being enthusiastic. They're convincing because they know why they want to work for that particular company, what they can offer, how they can create positive change. They're getting the nod because they know the questions to ask that show interest in the company and the work to be done, how it will grow, their role in it or how to ask where their role could be given they are doing the job being interviewed for.
Additionally, they're using their similar network strategically. They realize that a person is a connection. A person knows other people and about situations. They know how to be a respectful associate (not that you are not doing that) and how to be positive enough to make those associates want to recommend them for situations. They see the members of their network not at pawns and tools for their advancement but as real people with real interests and issues.
So when you tell us you're qualified, go one step farther. Tell your interviewer that you're qualified. Tell the person reading your cover letter that you're qualified and why. Show them the connections between your experience and what they advertised that they want and they need.
Report back to me on Monday morning.