make my resume so spectacular potential employers literally say "yowza!"

..whose opinion I value a lot, and who also has a lot of HR experience. She told me that it was the first CV she’d ever seen where she didn’t want to change any of the text. I glowed with pride.

I probably shouldn’t have checked this off though. I don’t think employers are actually saying “yowza”, because no one is knocking my door down right now. Maybe they’re just too intimidated by my brilliance to get in touch. Yeah, that’s it.

Huh.

I’m actually incredibly pleased. :)

After taking a few days away from my resume, when I looked at it today, I was pretty damn impressed. For a second I thought, “Did I actually DO all that?” and then I was like, “Yeah, I did. Rock on.”

So it looks awesome, and tomorrow morning has already been dedicated to prettying up my just-the-basics cover letter.

_{I’m really glad I’m off work for the next days. I feel rested, and for some reason, it seems to have made this whole resume issue not so awful.}

I think my resume is as complete as it can be – and might I add it looks pretty spiffy. I’m going to put it aside for a day or two and try not to think about it, so I can come back to it on Friday and see it with new eyes. That way I can be doubly sure no mistakes slipped by me, which is highly unlikely considering I’ve edited it about four dozen times and made Christopher spend a good 20 minutes going over every last little detail. (“Did I spell my name right? Oh god! How fucking awful would that be? Check it again!”) So I think it’s done, but let’s wait a few days and see.

I’ve got a list of 10 places that are hiring and about 10 more that aren’t, but what the hell? It can’t hurt to send it to them anyway, right? I know newspaper people, and I know we are a fairly fickle bunch, so maybe I can catch one or two of those places going through some unexpected turnover. That would be sweet. It may not be ideal, but I know I’m totally qualified for a writing job and I definitely couldn’t get paid any less, so those are my back-up plans. Or Plan A’s. Depending on how many responses I get.

Three of the places I’m applying to aren’t even for writing jobs, but I know I COULD do it and I could convince them of that if I can just get an interview. One seems particularly interesting, so here’s hoping.

It sucks to say this, but I don’t think I want to write anymore. I did everything right, just the way I was supposed to. I graduated at the top of my class in high school, I immediately went to college, they told me to choose a career that involved what I loved and I did, and I went straight from college into the field I was aiming for. That’s the way it’s supposed to work, right? Well…they never told me that writing for a wage would rob me of the joy I used to get privately with my own creative writing. When I leave work, writing is the last thing in the world I want to do, and that really bums me out.

Maybe, just maybe, if I can make a career change, I could get that passion back. It couldn’t hurt…and staying in this place – which, by the way, pays me so little I actually qualify for food stamps and government housing and ain’t that the most depressing thought in the world? – hurts. Most days I enjoy it, but come on, I can’t build a life like this.

So it’s time to move on, which I will soon attempt to do with my snazzy resume in hand.

I’ve always considered it a good thing that my job experience was limited. I thought it showed that I didn’t jump from place to place, but damn…it looks mighty paltry just sitting there on paper, you know?

Christopher’s coming to see me at work in a little bit, and I’m going to have him take a look at it and hopefully help me figure out how to spice it up a bit. It looks good, but I want spectacular.