Why is finding a new job so weird and hard? Searching for one requires a whole skill set that you immediately forget upon finding a new job!
First, you have to think about what you actually know how to do. I have always worked in a Customer Service based world. Soft skills are incredibly hard to explain via a resume or a cover letter. "Hi, I'm great at talking to people and pretending to know what they want until they explain themselves!" doesn't exactly cut it. Even looking at your job description won't help - most people I know don't do anything close to what the job description says. It is just a mishmash of words attempting to tell people why they should hire you.
Once you get to the point where you have a resume that somewhat makes you qualified to do anything in the adult world, you have to search for a job. It isn't just figuring out what sites to search or who to contact, it is figuring out if something is a job or a total scam. Spoiler alert: most are total scams. The two main categories seem to be recruiting/temp agencies with "jobs hiring today in your area!" or a blend of marketing and sales that no one can quite explain to you. (Side note: not all recruiting or temp firms are bad places! I have used them before!) If you have to crowd source whether or not something is a real job, it probably isn't.
Then you get to interviewing. Phone interviews are much bigger since last time I was job hunting which is both good and bad. The good side is that if you hear about it and the job obviously isn't a fit, you really didn't waste too much of anyone's time. Bad side is that it adds another step to the process. You have to walk the fine line between "I'm kinda good at doing stuff and you have stuff that needs to be done" and "I AM THE GREATEST EMPLOYEE EVER" in order to make a company want to hire you. Too far to the former and you're the chump they take advantage of, too far to the latter and you're the arrogant jerk.
If all the above work out (you figure out your skill set, you find a job that isn't a weird scam, and you manage to sell yourself in a non-creepy way), you end up with a job. Where you promptly forget everything that you had to do and know in order to land a job. The next time you end up in the situation of looking for a new job, you have to remember it all over again!
People always say it's easier to find a job when you have a job. Yay!
Tomorrow will be my first "real" day without a job. The weekend has gone on as usual, but tomorrow will be the day that most of the people I know go to work while I stay home. We'll see how that goes.
My adventures as the Funemployed Unchaperoned White Girl will be on Instagram as oryomai
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