Friday thoughts of working, hockey

I may not be the most stylish person around (I heard you--yes, you over there, the one choking, stop it), but I'm actually not sure whether it's a point for me or against me that I don't usually build my outfit around my socks. Today, however, for the first wearing of my new socks, I did in fact carry the socks to my closet and see what went with them. (Other than jeans, obviously.)

Again, I'm not quite sure what I should be apologizing for here, but for some reason I feel apologetic.

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My recent work history is filled with change. When I moved back to Massachusetts in 2003, I signed up with a couple of temp agencies. I did one short (day-plus) job, then started the job I was at for a couple of years before the layoff. I job-searched briefly in the fall of 2004 before being extended; then again and for real in the summer/fall of 2005. After getting laid off from that job, I was searching again in the summer/fall of 2008. I have a point here, I promise: what's interesting me is how I've seen the technology of the job search process change in such a relatively short period of time.

In 2005, it was kind of a funny, unexpected thing that people contacted me after seeing my resume on Monster. Applications could still be made through the actual mail, as well as sent by e-mail. There were lots of job ads in the newspapers, but you could also sign up to have those ads e-mailed to you based on your keywords. In fact, that's how I found the job that I got: an e-mail of an ad from a newspaper (though not in the Globe, so I wouldn't have actually seen it in the physical paper I read).

In 2008, I was mostly applying through e-mail. There were fewer ads in the paper, too. I found my job through a recruiter who saw my resume on-line.

In 2010, the ads in the paper are kind of a joke, a few pages of mostly nursing and educator positions. Instead of e-mail, every company seems to want you to apply through their own website (and the interfaces are without exception tremendously annoying to use). Of course, it remains to be seen how I will find my next job.

One tool I've been thinking of using this time is business cards. I hesitate because I'm not sure they're necessary, and I am being very stringent with the non-essential spending until I have a new job and its attendant paycheck, but I can see how it might be useful to have a form of "here's my contact info" before the "handing over the resume" step. What do you think?

And if I do get them, what do I want them to say? "Proofreader" is good but might be slightly self-limiting; "Wordsmith" speaks to me but might seem too cutesy to an employer (though at the interview for my proofreader/copy writer position, the manager did say they were looking for a wordsmith, so perhaps if you're looking for one, the word wouldn't turn you off?). "Proofreader/Copy Writer/Editor"? I want to go for creative without being too much. Suggestions? Thoughts? Guide me, please!

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Mr SVP gave me the oddest look this morning, the exact sort of smirk I would expect him to have if I announced that I changed my mind and would like to stay on at work, please. The thing is, I am never going to say that. Is that really what he was thinking, or am I anthropomorphizing? Perhaps it was just his being pleased that someone else, a person he reportedly did not like, gave her notice today? I really don't know.

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The New Guy was in a long meeting* this morning, resulting in an unexpected peaceful period at my desk. He came out reporting that one of things about the new project that was supposed to be taken off was now to be put back on. I kind of wanted to laugh, and I refrained from telling him that dude, they change their minds All The Time here. It's like being managed by someone with the attention span of a 2-year-old.

*I wasn't invited to it, didn't even know about it, and if you're wondering if that hurt my feelings, well hell no. I'm glad they're divorcing themselves from me, as I am from them. I'd far, far rather spend a quiet hour at my desk cleaning out my in-box of two-year-old e-mails than sit in a meeting trying to look and sound as if I cared the slightest bit about the project. Whew. I can tell you, I'm never giving more than a two-week notice again.

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Of course I hope the Bruins win tonight, though I won't panic if they don't. More than winning, though, I want them to play well. As the announcers love to say at this time of year, hockey is a game of mistakes. I hope the Bruins don't make too many.

And whatever happens, I can sleep in tomorrow! Ah. It's the simple things in life.