#i have a whole list of positions i want to apply for and they'll probably pay me more soooo whatever

[wickedhawtwexler]

ok no more goofing off and watching tv, i really need to get back on the job app grind today. i WILL apply to three (3) jobs today, no more procrastinating 😤

[separatist-apologist]

Hi 👋 I know it's kind of intrusive- what is your job exactly and and and, probably since you must have given a lot of interviews in the past you even posted you just gave an interview- i mean how do you prepare for an interview? Not a corporate job something like teaching? If you are okay with it you know I am just asking out of curiosity and like could use some advice

Hey! I'm not gonna share my exact job, or this new one for obvious reasons but vaguely I work with folks experiencing domestic & sexual violence. My primary responsibility is program management and oversight, but I do some direct service as well since I'm licensed. This new job would be 0 direct service, all program management at a directors level so I desperately want it.

My interview tips for any helping profession (or just generally) are as follows:

Look up the place you want to work at. Just knowing a bit of basic background/history is going to make you stand out because inevitably they'll ask what you know about the place you're looking to work at/the job itself. I have interviewed a lot of people/hired quite a few folks and I can tell you that most people don't do this, and when they do, it reads to me like passion.

A job interview is the place to brag. This is hard for me, too, but don't downplay your accomplishments.

When you're asked questions, tie it to a personal experience navigating whatever they're asking you. So for example, "how would you handle a situation in which-" respond with an example of how you've handled that situation, or a similar one. It ties your experience directly to the position

Don't be afraid to ask questions. If I don't know what to ask, I'll use these as my go-to's: How would I know if I was doing a good job? What does a typical day in this role look like? Can you give me an example of a time you've had to deliver bad news? and What is your supervising style like?

I treat an interview like a back and forth- they are interviewing me, but I am also interviewing them. I want it to be a mutually good fit. If someone has a bad management style and I'm getting that vibe from the interview, I probably don't want to accept a position with them

Follow up with a 'thank you' email. Personally, I don't care if candidates do this when I'm interviewing them, but it is nice because it leaves the door open for me versus just like, static if that makes sense? Like I know post interview you still want the job.

If pay wasn't listed on the description, ask in the interview! You deserve to know this before you're made an offer. If they can't tell you, I think that's a red flag. This interview, I knew the range going in and if they make an offer, I'll negotiate which is a whole different post.

Finally, try and relax! I know its hard, especially when you need a job/want it, but if you're nervous, you're likely to forget things or seem unprepared. Be confident and remind yourself that a lot of people apply for positions and even interviewing is narrowing it down. Someone saw you just on paper and thought, "I'd like to know more about this person!" and let that give you confidence!

[tiredassmage]

dav thoughts misc. edition

(if you will)

there's a few other assorted things that fuck me up about having played my canon/first run of veilguard through as tyr that i don't think i have the full ability to word properly atm and i'm not sure when or if i will, so i'll suffice with a shorter(? we'll see how bad i ramble) list.

for one, the recurrent themes of grief and change and regret are just. delicious. and exactly the kind of shit tyr's baked out of or into or however you wanna say it in his ~original media presence (swtor), so it's absolutely incredible to watch it come up so often in veilguard. i figured he'd fit really well and naturally into rook's role and i wasn't disappointed. one day i could probably make a screenshot dialogue collection of it all, but i also know my own motivation for that kinda thing, so that's. a fairly big project i just don't think i'll ever actually complete but it lives in my mind.

the second is that it is massively fucked up after the twist in the end that his dragon age verse tag is a line of varric's from inquisition and i am still crying and sniffling about it intermittently because there's no way i could've known about that. and god it works painfully well. there better be a damn good punchline, varric says. hold my beer and watch this, said veilguard.

neve and him still drive me up a wall (positive). i want to chew on electric cables or something about it. she's incredible and i love her. and it's incredible the kind of... parallels if you will that are in her and tyr's relationship and to some of the relationships he's had elsewhere (shara jenn, anyone? yeah. i'm still not over my watcher two feelies and neither is tyr). the only explanation i can think of for why i didn't predict how down bad i'd (and... tyr, tbh) be for her is because i didn't dig a whole lot into the material immediately before release bc i just wanted to have fun when i got my hands on the game. they have similarities to each other, and neve's own struggle draws out a really interesting Thing tyr does about... where his love and beliefs sorta come together. honestly, part of why he falls so fucking hard for her is because she's on the edge of letting him jump off the i love you cliff, uncertain if she should let either of them take the risk of actually saying it. i think a lot of it is exactly that neve gallus knows the kind of loyalty that's in that man. she wants to believe him when he says they'll figure it out, but they're up against impossible odds, and he is trouble, for her, because she knows the kind of lengths someone like him is willing to go to. he'll see this through to the end, whatever it takes, because that was a promise. and he'll apply that same level of dedication to whatever it is he feels for her. [inhales] god they're so fucking good, brent.

i'm probably forgetting other things but. again. short rambly list just to kind of get it out of my skull and remember to share it because i want to even if all the words won't word completely how i kinda know they are in my head, lol.

i also have developing feelings about rook #2 (welcome back theo, the man the myth the legend most of you probably haven't met but i love him) and it's doing really interesting things about family and performance pressure and fitting in with him that, again, brain refuses to fully articulate atm. but they're in there. gnawing on what it's doing to the crow background for me w/him.

bites the keyboard etc etc.

[troidatoi]

Day 6 - 9/10/2023

Guess who keeps on crying? Me! This week had fucking hands like literally tossed me around and threw me on the floor stomped on me. lmao. I'm trying not to let it get to me but I mean it's me so I am going through the motions right now until I feel better. I was driving to a friend's house last Friday when my car stopped and nothing was working so I had to pull over. Thankfully my friend and his dad came to help me and they had triple A. Got my car towed back to my house and I felt so bad because they stayed with me for two hours but I'm so grateful for them. My dad was being annoying about it and I'm like please just be quiet. I hate how my parents are so cheap with things that will benefit us in the future. My parents didn't want to get triple A because they're like we don't need it! And lo and behold! We needed it! With me being misdiagnosed the day before and then this happening to my car, I wanted to run out into the street so someone can run me over. lmao. I'm trying to eat more but my body's still in pain and I wish I wasn't in so much pain. I so badly want to enjoy food again without being scared. I know for a fact I have all the fucking above, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, etc. I'm trying to love myself while trying to fix my digestive system so that my body isn't in pain but it really is so hard. lol. The supplements help temporarily but I need a permanent fix and I know it's coming! It's hard to not hate myself while looking in the mirror but I'm trying my best. I can't thank my body enough for still trying to fight for me and for it to be as strong as it is while I abused it so much with food but I'm trying to have a healthier relationship with my body and food. I know I'll get there. Health is wealth!!

Job hunting is depressing the fuck out of me. lmao. I keep crying about it. I know someone is going to hire me this month. I just feel stuck with no way out and I have bills I need to pay. My mom's been helping me pay for somethings which of course I'm very appreciative of. Once I get a new job, I'm definitely going to treat her out to a nice meal or buy her a nice bag. I have to remind myself that this is all temporary. I do have a job with MGM Resorts tomorrow so I hope that goes well. I'm glad it's a WFH job because they're in Vegas. lol. I'll take anything at this point (as long as it's within my field). I'm surprised they got back to me so quickly because they called me the day after I applied and one of the hiring managers was already asking me questions. LOL. I was like what and then she's like okay let's set up an interview. I was wondering how they haven't hired someone yet because that job listing's been up for a month or so. Either no one is applying for that position, they didn't like anyone they interviewed for it so far or they're doing that thing companies do where they need to post something but they'll just hire within. I am hoping that's not the case. It'd be cool to work for them. I'd be down. Like if they hired me on the spot, I'd take it. LMAOOO.

I did a free Pilates class this morning and it was nice. I miss doing Pilates so bad. I struggled today. lmao. But the instructor was super nice and I thanked her for all the help and she said I did a good job today. <3 Once I get a new job and pay off a lot of my credit card debt, I'll probably take Pilates classes again and go to personal training again!! I just can't wait to feel better about my mind and body in general. I know that amazing thing is coming for me and that all the headaches, inflammation, bloating, pain, and the breakouts will all go away. The gastro doctor already seems 10x better than the holistic doctor that I was seeing.

Yeah, I mentioned I'm like crying a lot huh? LOL. I was finishing up Riverdale cause they put up the last season on Netflix and the last episode made me cry so fawking bad like I cried throughout the whole episode. It was basically about life and death and honestly it was a nice episode because if you've been watching Riverdale a lot of the shit didn't make sense. lmfao. But I think the last season was one of the better seasons because it felt cohesive opposed to their other seasons. Death has always hit me so hard and that episode wrecked me because they talk about how they lived their lives before they passed way and I obviously want to enjoy my life as much as I can which is why I'm always going to games and concerts and doing what I want because I don't want to wait until I'm old to do the things I want to do, you know? My mom gives me shit for it but I'm like okay? I want to have fun. Sometimes it's hard for me though since I think about my health a lot but I'm also trying to find the happiness and joy in things. Despite all the crying I'm doing and have been doing, it's not like I'm purposely trying to be sad or anything. I don't know if it's normal for someone to just feel so intensely about everything because I cry over everything!! And of course I don't want to wait for things to get better. I always try to actively seek out help and try and solve things because I know that there's always a solution for me and that everything always works out for me. It doesn't feel like it right now like my gawd, it doesn't feel like it right now but I know I will.

In June, I had back to back interviews and I was crying and stressed out about it and I was listening to Bulletproof by La Roux and I was like oh, let's see what music she has now and I wish I knew about her recent stuff sooner because it's so goddamn fucking good. Especially her second album. I instantly fell in love. So I dm'ed her on Instagram and I was like she's not going to read it! She's a celebrity! She actually got back to me the next day and I cried because she wrote a long message and I felt like she took the time to write back to me and it was like she didn't have to?! And I wrote her back and she said whatever it is, I got this and idk but it kind of helped me to still keep going. My friends were telling me the same thing but idk why it took an artist for me to be like you know what? Yeah, I am going through all this fucking shit right now but things are going to get better because I want and need it to get better. It still does to this day and after that, I became an even bigger fan of hers. I listened to her in high school and her first album was amazing. I went down a rabbit hole of her interviews and watching her live performances. You can tell she loves what she does. I bought like all this merch and hung up her vinyls and albums on my wall. I sent her a picture of it and a message and if she sees it, then great but if she doesn't then that's okay too! I just wanted to show my appreciation towards her and her music. I know she has a lot of fans that tell her the same thing. Her music does something to my soul and words can't express how much joy it brings me. She sounds like such a lovely person. I would love to see her live and even meet her one day. I hope I get to. I think like a sit down conversation and a hug from her would heal me in ways I wouldn't even know. I know she's dealt a lot with anxiety and everything I read about her, I felt like I could relate. I remember her saying something like she can't really accept things for what they are and I always thought the same for me. I like that she puts out music for her enjoyment and she didn't want to be a huge pop star. She's very humble. I think everything she does is so effortlessly cool like I want to be her when I grow up. lmao. I'm definitely manifesting meeting her one day. I'm always going to remember that she messaged me and I am always going to love her for it.

I'm sure I'm still going to be crying a lot this week but let's just hope for the best case scenario, that my digestive system is healing, that I can eat without being scared, that I'm going to get a new job this month, that I'm going to pay off my debt, that I'll lose the weight and be healthy. To always have hope that everything is always working out for me.

"I can't die until things get better and that's a threat."

[ruhro7]

Making friends is something I'm really going to give a go starting now! I downloaded a few different apps that have friendship listed as a possibility (Hinge, Bumble, HER). I've applied for a volunteer position at my local library (fingers crossed). And I'm trying to follow through with it instead of letting the panic and fear stop me! I'm probably going to be chatting about this on here, fair warning. I'll make a tag (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Ro) that you can block if you'd like, though I know I don't have many people following and no one is obligated to continue following me should they not want to!

So a big issue that I'm worried about facing is just what to do with people if I make friends or if we decide to meet up and see how we vibe. I'm compiling a list IRL, though I may add it to here in case it can help anyone facing similar! Looking online, a lot of suggestions are to go to a movie, or travel, or music, gaming, etc. I can't do any of that (currently) so I'm trying to find alternates that still get me out of the house (which is another goal of mine).

I've noticed a few issues so far (writing this paragraph a few days later). One of those is that folks are coming on to me, and then seem to be hinting about it further even after I say no, I'm on here for friends only, thanks. And I don't know if that's just the trauma talking that makes me think that they aren't fully getting that I mean no, not happening and not no, ask me again but in a different way.

Another issue is the actual conversations! I'm pretty out of practice, so I don't know if this is common now or not, but people aren't talking so much? Like I'll try and just ask some light questions, getting to know you kind of thing, and they'll be like yeh XD and that's it? But then texting me later like "heyyyyy"? How am I supposed to respond to any of that? I haven't practiced for those kinds of conversations, I didn't know conversations could be like that? What's the right response?? I've got down basic back and forth and trying to be light and funny but IDK what to do here???

And to think, I'd told my therapist last week that I wasn't so worried about initial conversations because I do have that practiced. My mom and her husband always had new friends over so I'm used to that kind of interaction and I know what to do, or so I thought! I was clearly wrong and now I need to go back to the drawing board! And I need to tell C when I see her thursday that I need help. Thank goodness I wrote everything I was feeling down to tackle.

I digress, I might try to open up my distance requirements on Bumble BFF. There's only one person on there within my distance (yay living out in the middle of nowhere compared to the rest of the places around me lmao). And I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the volunteer opportunity, I hope to hear back from them. I've spoken with two nice-seeming girls, I just hope that I can get a handle on this whole 'chatting' thing better. And to work through my panic about it, but that's for therapy!

I'll post in a moment the ideas I've had for activities and things that sound nice to do that I might be able to handle. After all, someone else might be interested in seeing things beyond "movies, clubbing, and watch a show together".

[acecademia]

hi! I graduated may 2020 with a degree in political science and since then have been working at a preschool. In the long run though I'm not sure what career path I want to follow. Just this week I've started to realize that working as a librarian seems super fulfilling and might fit my interests and skills. So I'm wondering if you have any advice on what I should take into account at the start of this path...I know I'll probably have to go to grad school, but what else should I know? thx!

Hi lovely!

Librarianship is definitely an exciting field! Congrats on taking the first step toward learning more about it 🥰 To work as a librarian in the US, 99% of the time you are required to have a master's degree in library (and information) science from a program that is accredited by the American Library Association. There are programs in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico, though not every state in the US has a school with an accredited program. You can find a searchable database of these programs (and a pdf list) here. Different programs have different requirements (such as the GRE, statements of purpose, additional essays, etc.), so also keep that in mind.

More specific info/advice under the cut!

I'd recommend getting some library experience first before applying to a program. It'll let you kind of feel out the field and see if it's a good fit. Whether that's volunteering at a public library or getting a side gig as a library page or even working as full-time library staff in a non-librarian role, you'll be able to get a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of what being a librarian really entails without the commitment of grad school. Personally, I was incredibly Extra in high school and racked up over 450 (probably closer to 500) volunteer hours with my local public library. I then did some more library volunteer work between undergrad and grad school, and my supervisor gave me some additional guidance and tasks because she knew my plans for grad school. That was really helpful for me in figuring out whether I was actually interested in librarianship as a career and what kind of librarianship I enjoyed. Obviously, covid would make this more difficult, and I don't really have good advice for dealing with that :/

Another secret benefit of getting that library experience: it's invaluable if the program you attend has graduate assistantships you have to apply to. Assistantships are part-time jobs working for the university you're attending that generally come with a tuition waiver. In other words, you work for the university, and you don't have to pay tuition (or you pay reduced tuition if you're going out of state in some cases). The program I went to required you to apply for assistantship positions, and not everyone was able to get one. In fact, most of my friends were never able to secure one. I lucked into mine, though it wasn't library-related. All of the library-related positions went to people who already had library experience and don't get me started on that whole mess. It was a bunch of bullshit.

I'd also recommend talking to a librarian or two. If you have a librarian in your life, great. If not, most public librarians are more than happy to talk to you about the profession. You can also email an academic librarian (I recommend checking out the contact or directory page of your alma mater's library) if that's more your area of interest. Most of the time, they'll be down to chat as well. If you've already got a school in mind for your library degree (or you find one in the database), check out their website for contact info for academic advisors for the program. You can always email them as an interested student and see if they can put you in touch with alums who work in the kind of library you're interested in.

If you don't know what kind of library you'd like to work in, that's also fine! A lot of people in my program either didn't know either or ended up changing their minds. And some people weren't able to immediately find a job in their preferred area and are working in a different kind of library. If you want to use your polysci degree, there are a million different options, such as being a subject specialist in an academic library. So you'd be the go-to resource for polysci students and scholars in a university library. You could also easily go the archives route and work in government archives. If you like kids, there's always the children's librarian route or the K-12/school librarian route. School librarians usually require a teaching certification, which some MLIS programs offer with an additional semester or so of classes/student teaching (though sometimes that's an additional application, so watch out for that if you're interested in pursuing it!).

I'd also advise you that librarianship is a job that you do because you love it. You're never going to become rich by being a librarian, and if you can't get funding to pay for your degree, the salary you'll make is not going to help you pay off any loans very quickly. It's dumb and frustrating, but the upside is that, if you do take out loans, depending on the kind of library you work in, you should qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Either way, funding is definitely something to consider when you're looking at programs. I went out of state for my degree, and while I don't regret it for a moment, if I hadn't managed to luck my way into a tuition waiver, I don't even want to think about how much debt I'd be in.

I hope this helped! I'm also totally down to chat more or give additional advice if you'd like! 💜💜💜

[thisnerdsadventures]

a 2021 update

Ah, so I have forgotten to update in a million years, per usual

~ Random thought section ~

I woke up this morning and read this tweet thread about Alice Wu's director's note for her movie The Half of It. It's streaming on Netflix, and I highly encourage to go watch it, it's probably one of my favorite movies from the past few years. Anyways, she talks about how she produced the film while digesting the heartbreak of a friendship breakup - the whole thread hit me on a different level, but here's a quote that really hit home for me, especially a month from graduation: "The end of the film is each of their beginnings. And for my characters, I can think of no happier ending." We spend a lot of time worrying about the end of things and the uncertainty of things to come. Yet, there was a time where we worried about the exact same things for the very chapter we are now so nervous about leaving.

1. I'm nervous about leaving school and starting the..... rest of my life???

2. I'm nervous that my friends will slowly fade away. I'm nervous that they'll get on with their lives and I'll be slowly still trying to get my bearings, stuck in limbo.

3. I'm nervous that starting adulthood will be difficult because there are no more college orientations, no more awkward freshman dinners, perfect opportunities to meet new friends who are just as nervous as you are.

In writing this out, I felt a sense of deja-vu, like I had written these words before. So I just looked back at some of my posts right before entering college, and lo and behold:

08-18-2016: Today I said goodbye to one of my closer friends, and i realized that without even knowing it, Sunday’s party was the last time I would see some of my closest friends. It’s awful that way, that you don’t even know it’s the last time until it’s passed, and you’re left to pick up the the end of a chapter of a relationship from the scraps of an unexpected and improper farewell.

I feel like I’m in a weird twilight zone between college and high school where my present friends are all beginning to fade away to move on in their lives, and I’m yet to really meet anyone in my class yet, so at the moment,,,,,,there really isn’t anyone.

I wrote this less than a week from moving to Boston, and it's so shocking to me that I also experienced the "unexpected and improper farewell" part in senior year. It's almost the exact same thing that happened in COVID and is continuing to happen. You never know when the last time you might see someone might be, except instead of consolidated over the course of one pre-college summer, it's over the course of more than a year, the time that this pandemic has been going for.

And I hate that I said the "fade away and move on" thing verbatim, literally nearly five years ago. To be honest though, it's true, a lot of them did fade away and move on. But so did I, I wasn't left behind. To some extent, I was the one who did a lot of the moving away. And like many things in life, a couple of us continue to hang around, and maybe our friendships cycled in and out over college, but have come around again after a few years. I guess those are the ones that you know will stick around. The limbo period between chapters is a hard one, and it's nice to know that present-day me isn't the only one who has felt this. It's nice to know that past me met so many incredible people so fast, that I forgot this limbo period happened.

I know this part is getting a little long, but there's just a couple more snippets I want to share:

08-13-2016: I recently read Marina Keegan’s essay The Opposite of Loneliness, and one line resonated with me a lot: We’re so young. It seems silly and almost pretentious for me to think that this party would be so final, and yet it does, even though we have decades upon decades to build and connect or reconnect.

We’re so young, but that doesn’t stop the understanding that we are going to a new chapter in our lives and that it’s going to redefine our relationships. I hope it doesn’t change them too much.

I suppose much of the anxiety of going to college results from having to build my own community from the ground up again.... I tell myself the pieces will fall together and everything will be ok, but it doesn’t stop the increasing anxiety from, well, increasing.

I loved this collection of essays, if you haven't read it, I recommend you do. In moving around for so many years, I haven't been able to keep a lot of books in my possession, but I kept this one because that essay really hit home for me, and continues to, no matter what part of life I'm currently experiencing.

I think moving to college did change my relationships. But change is not a bad thing - your childhood friendships, the few of them that survive, end up strengthening and growing into adult friendships. And in the end, isn't that better than not changing at all? I'm hoping that a few of my college friendships will do that too - we'll go from college friends to family friends, and my kids will call them "Aunt" and "Uncle" and they'll grow up watching their parents talk for hours in the front yard before finally getting in the car and leaving for home.

08-13-2016: But hey, this is part of what I signed up for, I knew I wasn’t going to have much of an initial safety net, but I’m sure I’ll survive. We, as humans, always find a way to adapt right?

I think I survived and adapted. Not in the way I saw things going, but we can never really fully predict things, can we? One day, I'll learn to give myself a safety net for the next chapter, I'm sure. Today's not that day though.

Going back to her director's note, there was one more thing that just struck an emotional chord for me:

Fun fact, Alice Wu actually went to MIT for a bit before transferring to Stanford, and then she became a software engineer at Microsoft! I relate a little too much to her. Maybe one day I too will dump coding for my art form. But for now, in this above example, I relate far too much. I worked on my album, Imperfect, a little too obsessively this past winter while trying to digest the throes of heartbreak from one of my own friendships that ended. I still don't know if there was an ending for that friendship. I think I've spent a lot of time trying to put off the end, like a TV series that just keeps adding more and more seasons. Regardless of whether it needs to end or not (which I have not decided and will continue not to do so), I spent a lot of time thinking about who I was before and after that friendship, and I've concluded that a lot of who I am now, what my life looks like now is a result of that friendship. I'll give you a hint: I really like who I am now, compared to who I was before, and it showed me a lot of parts of life and friendship that I never expected would happen. That friendship was (is?) one of the most beautiful things that has happened to me in my life.

Let's finish off this reflective post with a quote from Khalil Gibran, that's kinda related to that point about how transformative the past can be, and how we're far better off in future chapters of our lives because of it.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

Again, if you haven't read his collection of poems, you should absolutely 100% drop whatever you're doing right now and do so! Wow, I really just assigned an entire reading list in this post.

I hope in making this movie, Alice found peace. I would hesitate to say that I found peace when making my album. I wrote a lot of songs about the heartbreak I felt from that whole experience. But the last song I wrote, "Best Friends," ends the whole thing on a positive note, that at the end of the day, I remember how my friends (past and present) literally saved my life and how things are looking a little better, and whatever happens, I hope my best friends will be there waiting for me, whoever they end up being.

- OK I PROMISE I DIDN'T SET OUT TO BE 100% SO EMO -

But yeah, I haven't really been doing much otherwise? I guess just tryna stay alive, I've been cooking a lot and cooking a lot of good good food, I did apply to an MBA program, I got my COVID vaccine (second shot this week!), I am excited to announce I am publishing a paper in my MEng lab, which is a really big accomplishment imo, I am thriving in my (1) econ class that I kept, even though I didn't realize we had readings assigned like for the past month, I went to try pastries from this Turkish bakery, I biked, probably, 15 miles over the past month, I've read at least 4 or 5 books this year so far, and am hoping to knock another one out today. Currently dying because trying to finish my thesis in like . a week, which is looking a little challenging, but I'm sure it'll happen!!!??