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Applying for the Dream Job

By Amy Nielsen

I have been waiting for my dream job to post so I can apply for it. I heard about the position from someone who works in the same office a few weeks ago. Over the last weeks, the funding has been frozen as the fiscal year changed over.

I have been checking the postings every few days. Today the new openings went up finally. When I saw it, I nearly hyperventilated.

I have been working hard to put myself in the right places to find out what kinds of opportunities are going to be coming available over the next few months. I spent the late winter months learning everything I could about the agencies and organizations in our community who do similar work to what I want to do. I have been going to all sundry events that have anything to do with health and wellness. I have been trying to meet as many of the movers and shakers as I could.

 I am not in a rush to find a job. I have a lot of slices on my plate with family, teaching, and volunteer commitments. Rather, I am really interested in finding the right job. The research time I put in over the winter is beginning to pay off as I meet more people and am able to put faces to names.

I started this journey with the intention of opening my own business. I have determined over the last year that I am just too fundamentally lazy for that to work. Working by myself is like playing ping pong alone.  Coworkers fire me up and keep me motivated. I like to work as part of a team with independence to do my piece.

I have the luxury right now to not have to be employed immediately upon graduating from school. Being an adult student with a family, I have other sources of support. I’m not trying to pay the rent with this new career. I can take the time to work my way carefully into the community.

Finding the right fit will take time. I live in a rural area with limited opportunities. Those that do come up are fiercely fought for and hard earned when awarded. Ours is a small community in the corner of the state.  The big universities are far enough away that those students are not interested in applying for positions here unless they come from here to begin with.

Agencies and organizations don’t have a lot of turnover at the levels I am applying for. Those employees that do move on usually do so to other positions within the local area. It’s a small circle of passionate people who have been paying a lot of dues for a lot of years here. A hard circle to break into and hold one’s own. Some days it feels a bit like feeding my toes to the piranha.

So I applied. I sent in my resume and cover letter. Just to be sure I sent it correctly, as I am not the most savvy at filling in these online forms, I sent a note to the two women I have been most in contact with about this specific organization. Both are employees who have been encouraging me to keep my eyes open for just this opportunity. I know that as employees they cannot specifically direct my application, but I am hoping they can at least watch out for it.

The job posting reads like it was written for me. My credentials line up perfectly with the requested certifications. I am already very familiar with the materials I would be presenting on a daily basis. I enjoy teaching the kinds of students the program attracts. Even my extracurricular talents work in favor to make my presentations that much more valuable for the organization.

My biggest fear in this whole process is whether I filled out the online application correctly so the autobot that reads the algorithm doesn’t kick my resume out for being incorrectly categorized. I am sure that I have missed job opportunities because I haven’t filled out the online application correctly. There is often times no way to know if what I clicked is clear because the applicable answer to the question isn’t there.

For example, I hold a bachelors degree technical theater. When the form asks for higher education level, I click bachelors of arts. When it asks for the subject of my degree, there is no option for theater. I have to click arts/undefined. But this is not the same thing at all and doesn’t convey the same kind of training I have had. Rarely can I list my post graduate certificates in culinary arts, holistic nutrition, and herbalism as there are never spaces for them. Yet they are very relevant training to what I will be teaching in the jobs I am applying for.

Unless I can get myself in front of a human being and have a conversation about my wild and crazy ride, the autobot is not going put my resume in the hire pile. I just don’t fit in little boxes like that. That is part of the reason these kinds of organizations want to hire someone like me. If they can find us. If we can get in the door in the first place.

Now I wait and hope that the boxes were clicked properly and that I am in fact in the right place at the right time. I have seized my day. I have grabbed the tiger by the tail. I have applied for my dream job. I even wished on the candles on my birthday cake for this job. So now it has to happen. Right?

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