Resumes, Cover Letters, Keywords, oh My!
Hello, is anybody still out there? Wow! What a crazy month June was. Between end of the year school activitites, conducting not one, but two job hunts (agony) and trying to keep the house running, plus a birthday and Father’s Day on the same weekend, I don’t think I slowed down much at all. I will say, I missed being here on the blog ALOT though. I have almost a dozen posts that have been partially written, because I just couldn’t stay away, and I’ve got a lot of fun stuff to share this month. But for right now, I’m going to share the deets on the secret that’s been tying up much of my free time.
Image courtesy of ponsulak / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Yep, after six and a half as a stay-at-home-Mom, I’m getting ready to head back into the world of working away from home. **gulp** To be completely honest, I’m pursuing some ideas for working from home, and if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments! But I’m trying to keep it real, and not get a head of myself. At the same time as I’m doing this, Travis is looking to transition into a position that offers somewhat normal hours and more home time than he was getting before.
In theory, this was supposed to be an easy thing. I made the decision right from the get go, that I wasn’t going to stress myself out too much with this, and that I was going to look for the kind of job that is well, more job than career. For example, our Target is opening in the autumn, so I filled out the online application there, cause I think it would be a blast working there, especially if I could work in the container/home organizing department! Not that working at a big box store can’t be a career, I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not looking to jump into the corporate world. No ladder climbing for me, I just want something that will pay decently, hopefully be a little fun, and at the end of the day, I can come home and leave work at work! Know what I mean? There was just one hitch.
Before you can start a job hunt, you need a resume. This is where much of my free time went, it was a total time suck, and in my brain I put way too much importance on this little document. Or maybe not, as it is what will, hopefully get me in the door, but the point is I spent hours researching resume writing. Much has changed in 6 1/2 years, but the internet is a wonderful, resourceful place, and I took my time pouring over articles about resume writing, re-entering the work force and the dreaded keywords. There are so many wonderful articles out there, so I won’t rehash it all, let me just say I was on information overload. And to top it off, I got hit with writer’s block. Writing about myself, especially to sell my own skills, is not my strong suit. I was consumed by the need to get the resume written, but the words wouldn’t come. Every time I tried to focus on something else to give my brain a break, I would feel like I should be at the computer, pushing and pushing until I got the first one written. It was a very vicious cycle I went through, but in the end, I got one written up, and now it’s just a matter of tweaking it here and there to suit the various positions I’m applying for. Now I just need to work on outlines for a few cover letters so that when it comes time to send one in, I have a guideline to follow and I’m not stuck with writer’s block again. I blame the keywords. I have a hard enough time with keywords for this little ole blog, and then you add in the pressure of “if you don’t have the right keywords you might not get picked at all.” and it was not a pretty place to be.
This isn’t something that came out of left field for us. We’ve always had this plan that after Liam was in school, I’d head back to work. Now that his first year is finished and we know that he’s settled and that there are no major problems, we felt it was time to start taking those steps to get me back working. With the bulk of the stress of writing up the resumes behind me, and with Summer Vacation being here, I’m really looking forward to spending some more time here with all of you.
For the month of July I’m focusing on nailing down my routines. (those got messed right up in June) I have a few organizing projects I can’t wait to share with you guys, and of course, some printables to sprinkle in and keep things fun. I’ve got a whole new half sized planner coming up around the middle of the month, and just a whole bunch of other goodness waiting in the wings.
How is your summer going so far? Are you taking it easy? Tackling a big project? I’d love to hear from you!
