Job Search Update

When looking for another job it's sometimes hard to tell if your resume and/or cover letter are dialed-in. You'll wonder if the resume is too long, too short, formatted in an attractive and meaningful way, if it reflects your experience and talent, etc. You wonder if your cover letter has the substance that the potential employer needs, if there are any prejudices about where you presently live or your education, etc. It's not until you start getting some nibbles that you realize that you might actually have done a good job branding yourself. And with branding, I firmly believe it needs to go beyond the simple realm of creating a Word document listing your skills. If you have something to offer you can share it in a blog, responses to other blogs and articles that permit comments, reviews of products, forum discussions, etc. On one hand some people might see it as blatant self-promotion and I would have thought the same not long ago but what I'm finding is that it can be meaningful. My favorite recent example is a response to home office energy saving and my response was picked up in a follow-up story. I'm not a radical tree-hugging individual but I do believe in practical changes that aren't overly difficult or expensive and make a difference, particularly when you do a few things that add up and have a nice cumulative effect.

Back to the theme of the post... I have suddenly started getting a few really good nibbles. This serves as excellent affirmation that your identity online (one particular nibble confirmed that) and/or resume and cover letter are firing on all cylinders. One phone interview when really well and the committee was very impressed with my credentials and the discussion. The head of the department took part and called me afterward to tell me that. He also mentioned that he was afraid that I might be over-qualified and that the position might not offer me the ability to influence as much change as he thought I would be capable of, at least not in the near term, but he would enjoy my contributions. I stepped back and thought about it, looked at the location, the pay, and how the position could fit into my long-term career plan and it really didn't make good sense so I withdrew from the running.

I also got a call from a small northeastern college to which I applied over a month ago. Sometimes colleges and higher education take a while to fill positions, both private and public schools. This one looks promising based on the description and I had a phone interview last week that went quite well. They'll be contacting me again in the New Year.