Next Friday, I will be making a presentation for my colleagues and supervisors on utilizing social media in development work. My boss, who is somewhat “old school” has finally embraced some of the ideas my younger colleagues and I have been pushing.
“We’re entering a post-literate age,” he told me.
Well, maybe not post-literate, but certainly with less in print.
***
So I don’t feel the compulsion to hurl my coffee mug across the room, I am going to pretend this is poorly-executed satire.
***
Today, I have a program development and fundraising meeting at the resettlement office. I can smell the grant proposals a mile away. Hurrah!
***
No feedback on job applications so far, even on one for which I met every single one of the very specific qualifications.
* Professional research experience
*Refugee resettlement and asylum work
*BA in human rights or a related field
*Overseas human rights experience
*Understanding of global press freedom issues
I meet literally all of those qualifications (which has never happened to me before), and I suspect that’s not common, for an entry-level person anyway. If I’m not even called for a phone interview, I’ll start really worrying.
***
I just told my current boss about the above job application and my curiosity about why I haven’t been contacted. He laughed and said that those qualifications are not uncommon among entry-level people, and that the organization probably had a ringer in mind for the job anyway and won’t even consider other applications.
I can be so naive.
Something tells me I’m going to have to be content with a secretarial job in Boulder, Colorado come June.
I’ve put five years into this, and I’m coming up against a wall I cannot scale. The other day, I told a similarly struggling friend that I feel the hardest part of chasing a dream is knowing when to let it go.
I don’t think I’m at that point yet, but I am very discouraged and I feel like it’s getting closer by the day.
***
My mom, who runs a small business in Longmont, CO, is asking her friends and clients if they know of any clerical jobs opening in the late spring. I sent her my resume today. And so begins the long process of settling.
Transitionland 