Keeping Calm and Carrying On!

While applying for jobs these days, I simply click on the 'Apply' button and submit my resume. I have stopped bothering to add a cover letter, unless it's for a teaching post...in which case I also submit my teaching Resume, Statement of Teaching Philosophy, Evaluation of Teaching stats, Syllabi (taught so far), copies of my transcripts, and full recommendation letters. I'm hoping I'll get a lecturing break, but it appears there are always more qualified candidates (with PhDs and with more industry experience! I hate them all).

 

Surprisingly and ironically, I have had more responses for interviews from companies to which I submitted my resume only...contrary to the advice one hears that job applications must be accompanied by cover letters "or they will be thrown into the reject pile!". Guess what, they do call if and when they need you.

If they don't, then I just do a jig to the tune of James Brown's 'I Feel Good':
"I feel good (I knew that I would)
 I feeeel good (I knew that I would)
 So good!
 So good!
 I dumped you!"

 

I think the cover letter stipulation applies only for mid/senior positions, and when you know the party interviewing you. In that case, the interview itself might be a sham, but you want to do it right anyway. Like a formal marriage reception when the union has already been blessed at the registrar's or elsewhere (I don't mean in bed).

 

My husband is amused by my cover letters. As I've pointed out, it wouldn't matter if they were just one-liners in his case - they would just be one step in the formality.

 

How do I deal with the depressing job search? By being optimistic, reminding myself of my own positive points, looking at the positives in my life, enjoying the summer with my sons, reading, cooking, and doing all those Sisyphyian tasks that all mothers do (the laundry, cleaning, the dishes, and so on and so forth...it never ends, but it helps one forget the anxiety of uncertainty through the sheer dint of physical exertion).

 

You know, one reads about how people waste away while pining for something...not in my case. Did I mention I sometimes go into a storm of cooking? I also eat with a vengeance (mostly desserts) to deal with the stress. It's no wonder I'm not losing weight!

 

It always helps to have a good book by one's side. Especially if it's romantic - well, not the kind of romance between couples but more a sort of awakening, an appreciation of sensuality...in the way one appreciates a beautiful day. I find I invariably end up in the Literature section of the library, despite having visited the place for something more prosaic!

 

My happiest hours have been spent on the couch, curled up with a book...with the happy sounds of my sons playing in the background, or with the younger one flopped fast asleep on my stomach while the older one was busy with craftwork (or his Transformers, dinosaurs, Legos, or whatever else!)...the afternoon light slanting into our living room, the rippling shadows of leaves on our carpet, the birds in the our garden, and the whirr of insects...a very humdrum domestic scene, I agree, but for me, one of infinite patience and joy.

I feel quite helpless in my job search, and the feeling of not having control makes me angry. I think of my mother who was already flying high by her late-30s. She was a V.I.P. bureaucrat, a first-class executive, mother of 2 daughters who could provide them with the best education, a privileged life, full-time housekeeper and guards...she could do a lot for her children because she was powerful enough to do so.

I keep reminding myself that my life is different, but the helplessness at not being able to give my sons the best eats away at me.

I want to keep enjoying the summers with my children, and I hope I get just the job that fits in with my lifestyle, life philosophy, personality, and work-family goals...and of course, the right income (how could I forget?!?).