Oh, the joys of job hunting

I apologize for posting late again, but I’ve had a long week. I’m currently in Boston searching for work. It’ll mean moving back up here if something(s) comes through, but I wouldn’t mind living around here again. I applied for an open position at the Newton Free Library (Special Library Services Librarian) – I think I could do well with it, and I’m hoping to hear back from them soon as to whether or not they’d like me to go in for an interview. I’ve also been applying for some retail positions. The job market is really tough these days (as if I couldn’t tell from 7 months of rejection), and I’ve heard from professional librarians that they had to start out with a couple part-time jobs right after they graduated.

I’m going just going to have to keep plugging and hoping something comes through. Some good news, though, is that I’ve got two potential apartment-mates lined up – one for if I end up getting work in the Westchester County area, and one for if both of us get good jobs in the Boston area. I’m going to sign off for now. There’s not much more to report for this week. Cheers, y’all.

Still searching

Sorry I’m late with this week’s post – yesterday was  a bit crazy for me. I’m still searching for that sweet full-time library job of my dreams, of course, and it looks like I’m still going to be searching for a while. At this point, I’ve moved on to looking for a full-time retail job, two part-time retail jobs, or one part-time retail gig and one part-time library job until the economy gets better. As soon as I get a decent job situation worked out, I’ll start looking for a place of my own to live in, either a small place just for me or a (maybe) larger place to share. If I end up staying in the area I’m living in now, one of my awesome new friends is willing to share a place with me.

I’m also getting ready to spend about a week in Boston to see if I can find some work up there. I’ve heard that real estate prices in the Boston area are a bit cheaper than in and around NYC, and I like Boston. I’ve found one possible job up there that I’m going to be checking out, and I’m going to be spending as many days as I can up there exploring the area and seeing what jobs are available that hopefully won’t turn toxic for me like the last long-term retail job I had. I’ll even be going to one of my alma maters, Salem State College, to see if the Theatre Department might want me – I’m out of practice, but I still think of myself as a techie. I really miss being in that environment.

Anyway, I promise I’ll post on time next week. Ciao for now, and here’s to a successful job hunt!

Between jobs yet again.

My seasonal retail job officially ended earlier this week, and due to various processes I was not selected to be moved over to the permanent store (a Waldenbooks that was slated to close and wound up getting saved). I was told by the manager that I’m first on the list of people to hire if any more jobs open up, but this store is tiny and I wouldn’t be able to get full-time work or a good starting pay scale.  Yes, I am still working on getting a library job, but I’d much rather be in a book store if I have to stay in retail for a while. So I’m still plugging on the library job front, but I’m also applying to work in certain retail locations including Borders for if the economy doesn’t improve enough in the near future.

I’m also doing some volunteer work. I was volunteering at my local public library, and while I had to give it up for a while because my holiday retail schedule didn’t quite match up with the library’s, I’m going to be starting up with that again. I’m also volunteering with the Lunacon science fiction and fantasy convention that’s going to be taking place near where I live. Every year, Lunacon has a book exhibit and raffle to support the Wollheim Scholarship Fund for young sff writers. The name Wollheim is the W in the name of the DAW publishing house, famous for putting out sff titles. My Lunacon project is to contact a variety of publishers to ask them if they’ll donate books, comics, graphic novels, et cetera for the exhibit and raffle. I’m not sure where I’m going to be in March (the Con is running March 19-21 at the Rye Town Hilton), but if I’m around then I’ll be attending to help guard the table and run the raffle and such.

I haven’t been to a schience fiction convention in at least ten years. I remember the first convention I went to – there was a man in full Borg getup from Star Trek: TNG, and I corrected him because he ewas saying “useless” instead of “futile.” I also remember that James Doohan and Ethan Phillips were the guests of honor at that one, and I’m a little sad that I lost the Original Series baseball cap that both of them signed for me. *sigh* You just can’t get James Doohan autographs any more … Anyway, let’s hope we all live long and prosper this year.

Got to keep on plugging.

It’s a new year, and hopefully 2010 will bring more success on the job front than 2009. I have and will continue to search and apply for any and all jobs that I can find that match up with my qualifications and skills. I’ve been working retail for the past few months, and I’ll probably have to continue with retail (either my current employer or someone else if I get a better offer) until the economy improves enough that libraries can afford to hire more new people. Other than a few more rejection e-mails, there’s nothing new to report with The Great Job Hunt.

On the reading front, I’ve been having some fun with military science fiction. I’m going to try and finish John Ringo and David Weber’s We Few this weekend, and I won’t be surprised if I speed through the rest of Manxome Foe (co-authored by Ringo and Travis S. Taylor) and get it done by tomorrow night or Saturday morning. The Looking Glass series is a lot of fun, and a great character showed up in the third book who seems to be a distant relative of a character from the Prince Roger series. The two characters have the same accent, attitude and profession, along with last names that are only separated by a couple vowels – given the centuries separating the two series and the author in common, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Looking Glass character could be justified as an ancestor of the Prince Roger character. I’m also nearly done with Robert A. Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. It took long enough (most of the book) to meet the title character, but it’s a fun story. Heinlein was a master storyteller, and I can see why authors like David Weber and John Ringo have been inspired by him.

Cheers, all, it’s time for me to sign off again until next week.