Saturday, April 2, 2011

Job Search... Encore!

I finally have a job for the summer. June- August. That has been a welcome relief as now the job posting I'm seeing are less for Instructor/ Guides as are for camp counselors. Jobs that don't require any sort of prior certificate or education. If I didn't already have something lined up I would be getting a little nervous seeing the majority of places having a hiring age of 16, with positions for 15 years olds in the counselor in training (CIT) programs.

I then started to feel weird, now that I didn't have my job searching hobby what would I do? I finished knitting a blanket, read a few environmentally themed non fiction books which were cited in my classes. I went skiing. I then was thinking about it the other day, when should I start looking for work in fall? I figured that I should apply for fall jobs in June. I them remembered that I'm moving potentially late April/ May from VT to North Dakota with my parents and then in June I'm going to start work, and won't be done until maybe August (no internet, no phone service). I then thought that if I did apply for jobs in August they might all be gone and it would look real bad. Guess I was going to apply real early, like now. Such is the life of a seasonal employment hopper, once one job starts you have to apply for the next.

I had a few places in mind that I was waiting to apply at. They're all outdoor environmental science schools. Schools can come to these places for a few days (3-5) and spend a week in environmental outdoor learning. Mostly public schools come, it's like a vacation, teachers bring their classes and also participate. The educators at these centers lead all classes and workshops. I'm applying to be one of these educators. All places that I'm looking at applying to have free housing on site as well as meals when the center is 'in session'. Surprisingly there are a bunch of these schools centered around Southern California. There's only one such company that I have found in New England.

One I had wanted to apply to has a rolling application basis but they're based in the Bahamas and basically I wouldn't be making any money because I would spend the money that I did make on plane tickets. While the program did look good, and the location would have been amazing... I ruled that one out when I did the math. I don't need to make a lot of money but I least need to pay my student loans. The company based out of New England didn't have a very good breakdown on their website about what they pay, how you can advance through their system, and what the housing is like (is it a tent in the woods with a wood stove in the corner or is it a private dorm or is it a shared house?) basically there wasn't a whole lot of information. The only concrete information that I gathered from the whole experience of perusing their site was that in big bold red letters at the bottom of the employment page WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS AT THIS TIME. I shrugged, well that answered my question.

The other two that I was looking at are based in Southern California. The one that I was originally looking at back when I was still in Benin had a great employment page. Honestly, the company in New England needs to look at this page because if someone who's serious about applying sees this it spells out everything right away and shows that the company might actually be a bit motivated about their hiring process. There is so much information on here I really don't have any questions to ask, it's all answered in the website. I'm sure there are aspects of the school that they don't post on their webpage, i.e. videos of screaming children, employees pulling their hair out, and fights between the classroom teachers and educators. All things that I'm sure do happen. But they did a good job portraying the company without it coming off all sugar coated. The second place that I found also did a very good job. Probably what happened is that they're competitors and need to keep up with the latest hiring techniques (such as a good employee page).

I looked on their webpages and I saw that they both are hiring for the winter/spring semester. I figured that there was no harm in asking if I could apply early to one of these places. So I explained my situation, that I was going to be gone when I wanted to apply but I had already made up my mind to do so. I suggested that I could submit and application and they could keep it on file until they were ready to review it. I sent out both emails at around the same time. Both companies email me back right away two hours later encouraging me to apply and that they would be review my application right away! So I have begun to submit applications for September. Hopefully I will have lined something up before I leave in June. The hiring process begins again!

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