Job Searching

On Thursday I meet with one of the career counselors at my alma matter, Simmons College.  The appointment was spent brainstorming and not actively job hunting online which caught me by surprise because I thought you could only be successful when you actively did something.  My career counselor advised me to talk to my supervisor Children's Hospital Boston, check Simmons College's job bank (jobs posted by employers who want Simmons Alums) daily, go onto Indeed.com and try Craigslist.  I also joined the Simmons College Alumni Group on LinkedIn.com and there is a career fair at The Seaport Hotel, Boston.  I pre-registered while writing this and plan on attending!  I am not moving back to PA with a stone unturned.

I applied to three jobs today: an entry-level temp receptionist position at a hotel in Cambridge, an entry-level temp Admin Assistant I position at a Boston non-profit, and a greeter at one of our Boston hospitals (all found on Indeed).  The temp positions are for 1 and 3 months, I just forget which position went to which time frame.  I emailed my supervisor at Children's Hospital Boston to see if we can get together for lunch this week so we can talk about my options in Child Life.  Simmons College's job bank, CareerLink is down for maintenance.  I found two Admin. Assist I jobs at Tufts, but it appears their website is having issues when I click on "yes" when asked if I want to apply as an external applicant.

The other issue at hand is housing.  My lease ends on 8/31 and I cannot renew because my rent is too expensive.  I applied to temp positions because it's better than nothing and like my career advisor said apply to anything, and so I did, but I'm not entirely sure how the timing will work should I get one of the temp jobs, especially the 3 month position.  It could start next month, or August, or even September.  What then?  Look for apartments with 2 or 3 month leases, if there are any?

I tried to register for the Medical Terminology at BCCC (my local community college in PA) and I am 8th out of 9 people on the waitlist.  If I can't get in by the July 1st start date, I may decide to postpone Child Life practicums until the next semester since the major reason for taking Medical Terminology is to strengthen my application.  I also want to take Child/Human Development again because the course I took while at Simmons wasn't as in-depth as I feel I need.  (Child/Human Development isn't offered through BCCC during Summer Session II and I couldn't find it online here in Massachusetts this late in the summer.

Productive Weekend

I was very productive this past weekend.  I updated my resume, organized the bottom of my closet, found 8 child life practicums, drafted an email to send to the child life directors of the programs, made several additions to my LinkedIn profile, updated my Monster.com profile, looked for jobs online (didn't have any luck and emailed Simmons College Career Education Center), did laundry, brushed Max, sent a text to one of the Child Life Specialists I met at the conference and likely did other things I cannot remember ;).  While I have had other productive weekends before, never have I had one that was so focused on my future.

This week I am meeting with someone at the Career Education Center at Simmons to discuss about how I can make the most of my job search since I already know what I want to do, but need to complete certain specific steps to get there.  I also need to email my supervisor at Children's Hospital Boston (the Child Life Specialist for the unit I volunteer on.  Lastly, I need to register for the Medical Terminology course at Bucks County Community College that I feel I should take to strengthen my application for child life practicums.

I am still just as unsure of my future as I was a few weeks ago, but I find that doing all I can to move further in any direction helps to empower and in a way distract me from all the uncertainties surrounding me.