Jobless and a little frustrated

I did this amazing thing last year -->  Took a year off and moved to the US to be with the hubby and now we're back.  I figured I am young, if there's a time to do this, this is it.  I thought when I came back, I would have no problem finding a job.  After all, I have experience, am smart and have a few networks.  Well let me tell you it's not panning out as expected.  I've applied to over a 100 jobs in the span of 2 months with only 2 call backs from companies.  The first one didn't pan out....I knew that during the interview, I didn't answer the questions well.  But I had one last week and I thought I knocked it out of the park.  Seriously looking back, there is nothing I would have done differently and I was expecting that they would call me back yesterday but nothing :(  I seriously never wear my emotions on my sleeve but I cried yesterday because I felt worthless.  I seriously spent hours just lying in bed wallowing and watching hours of beauty youtube videos.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my year off but now I am feeling depressed and getting discouraged.  I know the answer is to not be discouraged and just keep on trucking but man it's hard.  My goal is to at least apply to 2 jobs a day and spend time catering my cover letter and resume to the job but wondering if I just need to fire them out instead with a generic cover letter and resume.  I've also been told I need to network and I've networked with everybody I can.  & plus I am not that kind of social person!!!  So I've exhausted my network and don't know where else to go besides applying online.

/end bitchy jobless rant.

UPDATE - where have I been and all that jazz

Well I haven't posted for what looks like over half a year.  What has happened?  Life I guess.  Here is a quick summary what has happened over the last half a year when I did not post.  Changed jobs, got married, changed jobs again, moved to another country! and quit my job.

So yeah a lot.  Now I am living the life of susie home maker for a few months before we move back to Toronto and I must say that I am rather enjoying life.  I feel like I have almost a clean slate with lots of time to reflect and take it easy before entering real world again.

Will I post regularly?  Unsure but I do have a fair bit of time on my hands so only time will tell....

Time Flies....

Half a year since my last post. I don't think anybody even reads this thing anymore....

What happened? Well I started getting paranoid about writing posts. At that time, I really wanted to blog about looking for a new job and things happening with my family but I got paranoid about people figuring me out and decided to keep things to myself. Without wanting to write about what was going on in my life made me feel like I had nothing to write about for a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a month and then 2 months and then I kind of forgot about this thing. I still read the blogs I follow on my google reader but I was no longer excited about writing posts hence the lul. So I am back for now. Got a bit of a writing bug and I also have time now that it's close to Christmas and I am taking things easy.

What's happened in the last half year?

1. I got promoted at work! but I just mentioned earlier I was looking to leave! What gives? The thing is I was doing work, etc. that was not part of my job description and really the role of a level that was above me. It frustrated me that I didn't have the correct title & recognition and I made it known. I got answers that they were doing the best they could to make everything right but nothing was really changing so I started looking elsewhere to leave. Well a few months ago, I got called into my bosses office and he told me I was finally getting promoted and would have the right title, salary and recognition. I am still doing the same thing I was a year ago which tells me that I should have gotten promoted a year ago like I had asked for. What have I learned? Corporations wouldn't think twice about doing what's best for the company and I shouldn't feel any different. Earlier in the year when I was looking elsewhere for a new job because I felt bad and guilty about it because I like my boss and coworkers but at the end of the day, I was being taken advantage of and I shouldn't have felt bad about it. I am still early in my career and I chalk this up as a learning experience.
2. I lost ~10lbs! I remember posting on here when I first joined the gym. Well it's taken a lot of work but I am now about 10lbs lighter and back to my old clothes! I still want to loose another 5 and I'll be super happy but being able to fit into my old clothes feels good again. It was easy staying in shape in the warmer months. Now that it's cold, I want to hibernate in my house all the time and I need to keep motivating myself to bear the coldness and make it to the gym.
   

Speaking of the gym, it's time for me to get ready to go there.

Work Health Benefits

On my lovely work pay stub every month, there's a deduction for health benefits. I've always thought, 'Gah, why am I spending money on something I don't use'. I have one of those not so fancy smancy health benefits where I don't get free massages, ect. All you people with free massages, I am jealous I tell ya! But I do get 100% coverage on prescriptions and boy am I glad I do.

In the 2+ years I've worked there, I've never had to make a claim ever and then bam, in the matter of 2 months, I've been in & out of the doctors office & racked up ~$100 in prescriptions. And I see more in the not too distant future. Suddenly I am appreciative of my benefits.

Trouble sleeping

Lately I've been struggling to fall asleep. I have a lot of things racing through my mind lately and that's what's been keeping me up. What's worse is I wake up early...and I mean early! I get up before my alarm goes off and that pretty much never happens. If you ask the bf, he'll tell you that if there's one thing I love to do, it's sleep.

It also doesn't help that the weather is sticky gross lately. I dig hot weather but humidity is not my friend. My hair feels the same way.

Back to my mind racing. It's been racing with thoughts of work and stresses of work. I think it's a toxic environment for my personality and a change of pace is in order. Now how quickly that change will happen is a different story but at least I am on it.

Dealing with clients suck sometimes

I know I've complained about this very thing before but it sucks having to work with clients who expect you to bend over backwards for them. Um, hi, you're not my only client and trying to be pushy and threatening me isn't going to get you anywhere. If anything I am going to want to play hard ball with you just because you're being an ass.

mmmkay

Work Dilemma

What would you do if for the most part you enjoyed what you do at work but felt you were being underpaid. Like by at least $10k underpaid. Also there is abso-positively no way you could get a raise at work.

This is my current situation. I have days where I dread going into work but I think overall I enjoy what I do. I also feel like I should be making more. I've brought this up with my manager and there is absolutely nothing that can be done in this area. So here I am debating if I should work for the enjoyment of work or seek employment elsewhere. Is it even a good idea with the economy right now? The last thing I'd want is to quit my current job to start elsewhere only to find out the new company is doing cuts and I am one of those cuts.

I am at a point in my life where I am still single with no dependents and no loans. This means that I can get by on what I make and save a little. Only I feel like I could be saving more if I was at a different company doing my exact same job. Stupid 'what ifs'.

I said for the most part I like work but if given the choice of working or staying at home to watch t.v., I would pick the second. I see work as an ends to a means right now. That means is buying things like a house & eventually retiring and I am all for getting there sooner rather than later.

I've decided to get back to updating my resume & try putting it out there. Doesn't hurt to see if I have any other options.

Work frustrations

Do you work with complete dumb asses? People that have some how gotten in high positions but are dumb as a frying pan. I am not a genius but I know enough to do my job well.....most of the time ;)

A client of our companies who by some misfortune I help manage has a complete moron that does not have the basic skills to perform her job. What's worse is that she was even recently promoted and has people that report to her. Since they're our client that means we actually have to treat them well. So basically when they ask stupid questions that I've answered a gazillion times, I have to answer yet again with a smile on my face. And answer politely! bah! Seriously this lady asks the most retarded questions & lots of them that it makes me almost want to leave the company. Well it'd be one of several reasons I guess.

I feel like I am almost doing her job half the time. Even worse is that she presents things I do to to her counterparts at her company and claims all the credit. Not a big deal since her counterparts have no effect on my work review & raise & whatnot but it sucks knowing that she probably makes more than me when she is hardly qualified to do her job.

Work Life Balace?

I have so much to get done @ work, I am feeling overwhelmed. So overwhelmed that I've been bringing home work to do which I don't like very much. I like that work stays @ work & once I leave it, I do my own thing & try to live life. Lately I feel like all I do is eat, sleep & dream work. Ok maybe that's a little extreme but I certainly think about work in my personal time & how I am going to finish everything on schedule.

Do you guys have a good work life balance? I clearly don't at the moment.

Don't want to work

Sometimes I have days where I contemplate going into work & saying 'nope, not gonna do it anymore'. I have days where I abso-positively don't look forward to going into work. Tomorrow happens to be one of those. I wish I could write more but I am uber tired & also want to keep work identifying items outta the blog.

I feel like I am in university again & have a gut-wrenching chemistry final that I did absolutely nothing for. Feel like no matter what, it's a fail-fail situation.

& on top of everything, it's supposed to snow starting tonight which equals a long drive into work. Bah humbug.

negatory on the raise

So my company with many others has decided to push off giving raises to their employees due to the 'economic situation'. Off course this comes with lots of anger from the employees. Lots of people have talked about applying elsewhere. I've certainly thought about it. While I am relatively happy where I am, thoughts of higher pay & seeing what else is out there have definitely entered my mind. What's holding me back? My lazy ass basically. Though I finally started updating my resume about a month ago, I stopped half way through because it got frustrating. It's hard pumping yourself up and talking about your job while highlighting what you did there. It's easy to have a conversation and tell people what I do but putting it down in a few lines is another story. I wonder how many people don't apply elsewhere because they can't get around to updating their resume.

I came across this wonderful post from squawkfox which talks about the dos & don't of resumes which reminded me again that mines been sitting on my computer half finished. I think I'll try taking a stab at it again over the break. Hey I don't celebrate christmas so I have no excuses for not working on it (i.e. family obligations).