I got it to work!!

[shadowkat]

After much finagling I *finally* managed to get the pagebuilder on geocities.com to work long enough to post my revised Fatals essay to my site. Thanks to D'H and LittleBit! Also managed to remove those sample chapters from my book that I'd posted this past summer. Yay, me! Of course the dang internet kicked me out five times during it, once I had to reboot my computer because it froze, and the stupid pagebuilder launcher doesn't always load right.
Which means, I'll probably not be able to post that impossibly long and footnote ridden essay "Pitfalls of Television". People will just have to hunt through the atpobtvsats archives if they want to find it. May try to do the Cordelia one - it's shorter and not as difficult to upload.


Nice to know something worked today. Frustrating day job hunting wise. Redid resume - so it has more of an Human Resources focus. Now, the hard part, coming up with cover letters that will convince companies to hire me, even though I don't have the *exact* experience/background they are looking for. Incredibly frustrating - since I just saw all these human resources jobs in NY Times online databases. (I just have to find a way of convincing them that I qualify without 2+years experience or a degree in HR...ugh. My father seems to think I can do this - just push the legal background he says and business/negotiation experience.) Why does job hunting have to feel so impossible? I honestly feel like Sisyphus looking up the side of a cliff - 'You expect me to push a rock up that? You got to be kidding. I mean it's a cliff!' Ugh.
New year? Not going so well - hoping will get better as we go along. Did get lease renewed...which is good.
And got enough at Xmas - to pay rent, bills, & buy food. Also good. Neurologist is being a pain in the ass though - he wants me to fax him or mail the five page report that the Liver Specialist sent me telling me I don't have Wilson's disease. Nice - considering I don't have a fax machine and the Liver Specialist switched organizations and I can no longer reach him to fax it. Then there's Wales temp organization, which I left a message at - sort of dreading this one. Really need some money coming in, but I'm not very good at the secretarial skills. Also have to make sure not to tell them about Wales' job. So far the only New Year's Resolution I seem to be keeping is losing weight (or the not gaining of it) - zip appetite this season - what with the chest cold that won't go away causing heart-burn, and the stress. Can't quite tell - but my clothes seem to be hanging loose on me again.
Oh well, at least I figured out how to edit my website - acquiring a new skill I didn't know I had in the process. (Actually it was pretty self-explanatory, so not sure skill is the right word.)

Comments

[atpolittlebit.livejournal.com]

Glad to have been of offered-but-not-needed help with Geocities. ;-)

As to your looking for HR jobs, one of the things that can be useful, and this ties in with what your father was saying, is to look at the skills you've used on other jobs. Not at the tasks you did, but at the underlying skills that you needed to accomplish them. While the actual job duties might be different and sometimes seeming to be completely so, quite often the skills needed to perform them are the same. Example: you had to call people in the course of performing your copyright job. So you aren't afraid to call people you don't know on the phone, persever until you reach the person you need to talk to, and get the information you need...all skills that transfer to following up on references. That's one that comes to mind. For an example of one that is much less obvious...when I changed occupations from being an OT to working in computers, I was asked why I thought I could do the job (qualtity assurance, testing and support). I said that I was certain that if I could understand the human brain's responses well enough to work successfully with people who had damage to it, then I could learn a system where the response to a given stimulus was the same every time. You may have already done this, in which case smap me and move on [grin]. But if you haven't, give some thought to it. What are the transferrable skills you possess and how do they fit into HR? And feel free to email me if you want.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Bit. That actually does help.

I have done a little of it - on the resume.

Ex:· Demonstrated ability to research, analyze and synthesize business and legal information
· Superior verbal communication skills including writing, oral presentation, and editing capabilities
· Skilled in presenting ideas to senior management and staff
· Able to set priorities, organize projects and complete tasks under deadline pressure
· Strong problem solving and negotiation skills
· Work well independently and as part of a collaborative team

But struggling with the cover letter. So your suggestion helps. Any help is appreciated. It's also reassuring to know there are others out there who have successfully changed careers. I may take you up on that offer to email.