I Know, It's Been Ages

since I've last posted. I've got to tell you, blogging has been the last thing on my mind. I apologise for my general lack of enthusiasm.

So what have I got to show you tonight I bet you're wondering. Well, nothing creative AT ALL. I've decided to share my frustrations about searching for work with you. I thought I'd give you a bit of warning before I got started so you can 'turn off' cause it's not going to be a warm and fuzzy post.

Some of you may be aware that I recently lost my job that I had been in for 10 years. I had been on unpaid maternity leave since August last year and in June, when I rang to say 'Hey, I'm ready to come back to work' I was told 'Sorry, got no work for you'. Since then, I have been looking for a new full time job. We did the sums and going back full time is really the only way that we'd get enough money to make it worthwile. Anyway, I'm hoping that by venting some of the frustrations I'm experiencing, it will help me with this process, cause quite frankly, it's taking its toll on me. I'm finding it to be the most soul destroying, confidence shattering experience I have had to date.

Here's the most recent one. Applied for a position that sounded really good - in the CBD so a bit of travelling, nothing in the role that I haven't done in the past. Get an interview - I think it goes pretty well. As I'm getting ready to leave, the HR lady I'd met with says, 'We'll be in touch if we want to go any further in the process with you'. Cool. Well less than 15 minutes later, I get a phone call, 'We'd like you to come back to do some psych testing next week and if that goes well then meet with CEO as she likes to meet all prospective employees.' No problem, can do. Do the testing, obviously goes well cause next day get phone call to make appointment to meet with CEO. Very excited at this point. HR lady that I'd been speaking to had really pumped up the job and my confidence, was told the job had a lot of flexibility, could work from home if kids were sick etc, etc. Really good to hear considering some other responses I've gotten due to the fact I have a young child. Ah, discrimination - good to know it's still out there! Anyway, meet with CEO, I think it all goes well. Apparently it's between myself and another girl who wasn't meeting with CEO until the Monday (my interview was on the Friday). Was told that they would be in touch on Monday.

Well, Monday comes & goes - no phone call. I've since decided that NO NEWS IS DEFINATELY NOT GOOD NEWS. Wait till the mail arrives Tuesday to see if the 'rejection letter' is in mail - it's not, so I give them a call. Total change in demeanour with HR lady. SO NOT GOOD. Apparently CEO was concerned with my 'limited experience in one field'. I was SO SHOCKED that I couldn't even get a reply out to ask her to elaborate! They obviously weren't happy with either of us because I then was told that they were interviewing a 3rd (and possibily a 4th - I couldn't take it all in at that stage) candidate and that they would get back to me. Well, it's been a week since I made that phone call, and still nothing.

Then on the other had you get this. Apply for a position that is about 10 mins from home and really good money. Job is advertised as Bookkeeper to learn all about importing. This position is being advertised by an agency that had advertised another job that I'd applied for (that fell through), so my resume got sent directly down to the client. After about a week, I still hadn't got an interview, so made some enquiries. Apparently, client wants to go with someone who has importing experience. HELLO, nearly everything we sold at my last job was imported from either the US (most), UK, Europe or Taiwan. Have got a little bit of experience with this. However, still can't get interview. See the position advertised again and again and decide enough is enough. I emailed the agency, explaining my frustrations about seeing job advertised again & again and not being able to even get an interview! Well, it turns out the client who had seen my resume thought that I would think that the job would be beneath me and that I would get bored and look for something else. ALL WITHOUT EVEN MEETING OR TALKING TO ME! Let me tell you, after all this, the LAST thing I'd want to be doing is looking for another job. It's one of the reasons I stayed in my last job for so long. It's just too hard to start again with a new employer.

So, sorry if this has brought you down, I've still got some more to tell you about, but this has got really long.

Hope you all have a good day/night, and hopefully we'll return to the scheduled programming soon!