Wednesday, October 17, 2007

a day in the life of someone who is job hunting

The last few days haven’t been easy for me. I’m still looking for a job. To be honest I had imagined it a lot easier. Not so frustrating. Not having a job is bad, not having any money on top of that is worse… I don’t want to complain, I just want to share my experience at this point. I know other people are MUCH worse off than I am!

My day looks almost the same every day. Getting up in the morning, starting the computer, browsing the internet to look for the new open positions, realizing that mostly they are the same as the day before, meaning that I had looked at them at least ten times already. Then calling to see if the position I’m interested is still available. Then writing two to three applications per day. There are hardly any entry positions available for university graduates. Or at least not in the field of HR. (if you want to go into banking there are TONS). It seems as if in HR you either need minimum of five years of experience on the job, or else you can become an administrative assistant. (database maintenance, answering phones, writing rejection letters etc) Administration is really not my strongest point (based on my past experience), so I leave these positions to the others… Then from time to time I get to do the odd online assessment in case I managed to make it to round two. Again Hoping. Checking my inbox at least three times per hour. Then again opening an email which is saying that unfortunately there are people with more experience applying for the same job, thus they are sorry to inform me that I unfortunately didn’t get the job. Thus, I have to keep my hopes up for other applications.

But now half an hour ago there was finally a light in the end of the tunnel…!! :-) I got a phone call saying that I get to go for an interview on Friday- at last! Let’s see what comes out of that. It is a small HR company in Zurich… I’ll keep you posted!

Monday, October 01, 2007

being back with many questions

It has been a long time since I last posted something on here. Not that there wouldn't have been anything to blog about, but I just didn't feel like it: no creative energy for a little while now. Yes, as you may have figured, I'm indeed back in Switzerland, I have landed- in every sense of the word. I'm back to reality. My trip seems so far away, if it weren't for the pictures as well as the new people in my address book, I'm almost sure it hadn't happened. But then sometimes something triggers a memory and then I start dreaming and remembering again and I start smiling- one of these big smiles. Then I know it all actually happened. I was there. I made all these experiences, I met all those people, I had all these adventures.

The last 4 weeks have been rather busy with my last two exams for my bachelor degree, university paper stuff, job applications, family time, catching up with friends etc.

Still I haven't found a job yet, but I'm looking on the internet every day. The good news is that there seems to be plenty of interesting stuff out there. The bad news is I either lack experience or there are 50 other people who want the job as well...:-(
Gotta be patient. Gotta keep looking- that's what I keep telling me.