Time to get that "job application" ball rolling
Here's my focus for May 2024.
It’s almost May, which means: hot weather, strawberry season, the end of my “12-week year experiment”, and time to get the job applications rolling.
Yes, that’s the focus of May: applying for jobs!
Two weeks ago, I finished a portfolio-value letter combo (inspired by the book I wrote about here). I feel it’s giving off some serious “this person is an entry-level QA tester but has done some cool things and received recognition for it so giving her an opportunity might be a good idea” vibes. Well, I’m hoping it is. 😅
I also redid my CV. Again.
This time, it’s a two-pager that I’m really happy with. I used the format by Charlotte Chaze from “Break Into Tech”. She offers the template as a freebie and you can access it here.
No photos. No colors. Black text on a white background, Arial font. And yet, all the key info about me seems to be there, usually in snippets that I feel are good enough to get me to the interview stage so that I can elaborate more on each snippet in person. (Well, that’s how I envision it going, at least.)
Anyway, I haven’t done a life-recap-and-resource-recommendation post for a while, so here’s what’s on my mind when it comes to the weeks ahead.
Career move of the month: applying for jobs throughout the whole month of May (minus the Labor Day and Easter holidays). April saw me hitting the gas pedal on IT-related networking, which already resulted in a few freelance gigs & job interviews scheduled for the fifth month of the year (yay!). So far, the conclusion of Andjela, the job seeker is the same as the one Andjela, the entrepreneur had during the years spent as a solopreneur (and a freelancer before that): nothing beats good old in-person, one-on-one, face-to-face, see-my-enthusiasm-IRL-while-I-do-your-vibe-check networking. Nothing.
Motivation of the month: this piece by
. Kathryn is a gentle soul who’s one of the best active listeners I’ve had the chance to talk to. She translates that ability into a newsletter that makes you want to pause and listen to yourself. In a post from a few weeks ago, she talks about being bad at something as a newbie at it. She writes:“Why should you not be bad at starting things?
What have you told yourself should be happening? (…)
We can’t bully ourselves into change. (Well, we can; but I suspect maybe you don’t want that to be your first option!)
If we can accept we’re someone who doesn’t always find it easy to start something, we can start to find supportive ways to guide us; as opposed to trying to force ourselves with sheer willpower. (Which will work on occasion, but can often leave us feeling exhausted afterwards.)”
Give the whole article a read - it’s both a gorgeous and gently sobering piece of motivation!
What you can expect to read about in May on the Career Pivot Diaries: how the “12-week year” experiment went for me (hint: it had its ups and downs), the three-part series on how to utilize ChatGPT in your career change & job hunt process, and how my own job applying/interviewing/hunting is going.
What would you like to read about in the coming weeks? My (virtual) door is open for suggestions!
Before we wrap it up for the week, I have a favor to ask:
This platform is still super tiny - in all honesty, I haven’t done a single thing to promote it in months. However, now that there’s a decent amount of articles in the archive (and I’ve entered a new career phase) I intend to share my articles with more people. I’d appreciate it if you took a few minutes to share one of them - any that you found particularly useful - with your community, whether here on Substack, or on X, LinkedIn, or any other platform. Thanks in advance! 💜
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to finish the presentation slides for a lecture I’m giving in a few days. Life is fun. :)
Your neighborly “I’m pleasantly surprised by my enthusiasm-to-anxiety ratio - is this what “adulting” is about!?” scribbler,
Andjela
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Welcome to the Career Pivot Diaries where I chronicle my journey from sustainability communications to QA testing! This is where we’ll cover all things career change, such as going from entrepreneurship to 9-to-5, exploring new professional identities, and *finally* updating that dusty CV. Most importantly, we’ll explore how to see ourselves as more than our work and find a sense of safety in choosing a new path while allowing room for creative play.
If you could use a boost in career change endeavors of your own, subscribe to receive a new article straight to your inbox each week!
As you start your job application push, how are you taking advantage of employee referrals? This was always the way I found the most success in going from application to contact with a recruiter to an interview loop.