![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pondery update things.
So, work. After several years of dodging furlough bullets from both ways - when the state runs a multi-billion-dollar deficit and university employees have to take one to five furlough days to reduce costs, we're federal contractors and the worst that happens is we have to spend a day of (paid) leave because the university is closed; but when the federal government shuts down, we're state employees, so we do have to keep going to work, but we also get to keep getting paid - things have started hitting fans and there's a non-zero chance some number of us will be downsized after the end of this fiscal year. They want to give as much notice as possible to as few people as they can, which is all very compassionate, but it still boils down to, the lucky ones who get 90 days' notice two months from now will hear along about the beginning of October that they'll be out of work after Christmas.
I've periodically shined up my resume when I've been frustrated or annoyed, so this week I slapped the title of my MPhil thesis on it and deleted the word "expected" from my MLS, and pinged our extroverted former-financial-director-now-ombudsman to see if she could help me find a lifeboat. So she's keeping me in mind and talking to some people, and I've also in the past few days applied to about a dozen jobs between USAJobs and a few contractors. And can I just say: if you make me register for your "talent pool" in order to apply for a job on your site, then once I've done that, if I use that login and password to sign in to the /careers part of your website?, it should not tell me those credentials are invalid. I should not have to register separately to the "talent pool" and the goddamn application process.
And another thing. If I upload my resume and your software thingy slurps data from it, first of all, it should slurp the data more accurately than it's doing (I mean, my resume is not graphic and complex; there's no reason to pull bits of it out of order). And secondly, once I've corrected all that data, you should not have another window where you ask me the same information again. When, for example, you've slurped and I've verified my education, why two screens later is there a pulldown menu asking me the highest level of education I have achieved?
But worst of all are the jobs that require a clearance. I happen to have an active clearance. When I go to apply for a job and the very first screen says you must be a US citizen and hold an active clearance to be considered for this job, and I confirm that I meet these criteria, why OH WHY are there three more places in the application process where you ask if I currently hold a clearance, what is my current clearance level, and if I have ever held a clearance?
And finally: once I've uploaded my resume, and your data slurper has slurped the data from my resume, so it's now in there twice - for the love of god, why are you at the end giving me a text entry box and asking me to PASTE IN THE CONTENTS OF MY FUCKING RESUME.
Some of these jobs have multiple-choice questionnaires with questions like "Do you have experience editing documents written by others for grammar and style?" The answers are something like "a) I do not have training or experience in this task; b) I have formal education or experience in this task but have not yet performed it on the job; c) I have performed this task on the job under close supervision; d) I routinely perform this task on the job without supervision; e) I am considered an expert in this task and am often approached for guidance at this task by others." Of course one is able to answer differently with regard to different questions; but when it comes to the editing and proofreading question, I always kind of want to say "(f) and I've got some notes about this listing, if you're interested." But they never are, so I never do. (Not like the time at the temp agency that I pointed out a typo on the page I was supposed to reproduce for the typing test.)
Himself and I have now been in our house for two months. I'm so happy on a day-to-day basis I can't really stand it. Even when I'm cranky or tired or upset I turn around and there he is, and whatever, I don't love this house, but it's fine for now and it's got my man in it and that makes it marvelous. There have been just a small number of times I've been unhappy with something he's done, and so far we're batting 1.000 on talking about stuff and working it out by the magical means of Communication. I love him so much I think you should smack me upside the head. (Except that violence doesn't solve anything.)
Three weeks or so ago I had my balloon sinus dilation. It did in fact hurt like hell, but only for a couple of moments. What was worse was that for the next week I wasn't allowed to blow my nose, and oh, how I wanted to. I cheated a little bit about 3/4 of the way through by exhaling a little harder than usual in the shower. It was awesome. Since last Wednesday evening I've had this medication regimen I have to do twice a day involving three wee vials of medicine (an antibiotic, a corticosteriod, and a chelating agent) and a battery-powered nebulizer. I'm slightly more than 25% through it, assuming the doc doesn't call in a refill, and I hope like hell he does not. I hate it. Also I have to soak the parts of the gizmo in a 60-40 vinegar solution and we're going through vinegar at a shocking clip. Oof.
I miss my dad like crazy.
I've periodically shined up my resume when I've been frustrated or annoyed, so this week I slapped the title of my MPhil thesis on it and deleted the word "expected" from my MLS, and pinged our extroverted former-financial-director-now-ombudsman to see if she could help me find a lifeboat. So she's keeping me in mind and talking to some people, and I've also in the past few days applied to about a dozen jobs between USAJobs and a few contractors. And can I just say: if you make me register for your "talent pool" in order to apply for a job on your site, then once I've done that, if I use that login and password to sign in to the /careers part of your website?, it should not tell me those credentials are invalid. I should not have to register separately to the "talent pool" and the goddamn application process.
And another thing. If I upload my resume and your software thingy slurps data from it, first of all, it should slurp the data more accurately than it's doing (I mean, my resume is not graphic and complex; there's no reason to pull bits of it out of order). And secondly, once I've corrected all that data, you should not have another window where you ask me the same information again. When, for example, you've slurped and I've verified my education, why two screens later is there a pulldown menu asking me the highest level of education I have achieved?
But worst of all are the jobs that require a clearance. I happen to have an active clearance. When I go to apply for a job and the very first screen says you must be a US citizen and hold an active clearance to be considered for this job, and I confirm that I meet these criteria, why OH WHY are there three more places in the application process where you ask if I currently hold a clearance, what is my current clearance level, and if I have ever held a clearance?
And finally: once I've uploaded my resume, and your data slurper has slurped the data from my resume, so it's now in there twice - for the love of god, why are you at the end giving me a text entry box and asking me to PASTE IN THE CONTENTS OF MY FUCKING RESUME.
Some of these jobs have multiple-choice questionnaires with questions like "Do you have experience editing documents written by others for grammar and style?" The answers are something like "a) I do not have training or experience in this task; b) I have formal education or experience in this task but have not yet performed it on the job; c) I have performed this task on the job under close supervision; d) I routinely perform this task on the job without supervision; e) I am considered an expert in this task and am often approached for guidance at this task by others." Of course one is able to answer differently with regard to different questions; but when it comes to the editing and proofreading question, I always kind of want to say "(f) and I've got some notes about this listing, if you're interested." But they never are, so I never do. (Not like the time at the temp agency that I pointed out a typo on the page I was supposed to reproduce for the typing test.)
Himself and I have now been in our house for two months. I'm so happy on a day-to-day basis I can't really stand it. Even when I'm cranky or tired or upset I turn around and there he is, and whatever, I don't love this house, but it's fine for now and it's got my man in it and that makes it marvelous. There have been just a small number of times I've been unhappy with something he's done, and so far we're batting 1.000 on talking about stuff and working it out by the magical means of Communication. I love him so much I think you should smack me upside the head. (Except that violence doesn't solve anything.)
Three weeks or so ago I had my balloon sinus dilation. It did in fact hurt like hell, but only for a couple of moments. What was worse was that for the next week I wasn't allowed to blow my nose, and oh, how I wanted to. I cheated a little bit about 3/4 of the way through by exhaling a little harder than usual in the shower. It was awesome. Since last Wednesday evening I've had this medication regimen I have to do twice a day involving three wee vials of medicine (an antibiotic, a corticosteriod, and a chelating agent) and a battery-powered nebulizer. I'm slightly more than 25% through it, assuming the doc doesn't call in a refill, and I hope like hell he does not. I hate it. Also I have to soak the parts of the gizmo in a 60-40 vinegar solution and we're going through vinegar at a shocking clip. Oof.
I miss my dad like crazy.
no subject
YAY, I am so glad, this fills me with joy.
♥
no subject