Job Search October 23, 2008

So I am finally in the interview phase of a job search. I am really hoping I get this job because I feel it would be the perfect place for me to jump start my life. I would be making around 48k on a contract position which means higher taxes but whatever. My official title would be ‘junior php developer’ which sounds just so hot. This would be perfect for me because I get to learn stuff on the side while I do my job. It gives me the flexibility I need in order to become fully in depth in the language base of PHP and also grow on the side.

There is only one thing I am probably doing wrong with this whole process, relying on them completely. I am trying so hard for this job that I have pretty much stopped my job search. I am putting all of my hopes on this one job, and I’m really hoping it pans out becacuse it is so amazing. If I end up not getting a job, I don’t know what I would do. Most likely I would pack up and leave for Phoenix, but that is an issue for a different day.

With hope,
-The Cali Garmo

Life on Hold September 26, 2008

So my life is currently on hold. I am waiting for one company to call me back so that I can get an interview with them and basically solidify my job and finally begin working. Unfortunately the company I will be working for is extremely busy because they are working on something special. I can’t say much because I don’t know how much I am allowed to disclose. So anyway, they are so busy they don’t have time to interview me. Good thing is that I am almost guaranteed a job there. Or at least really close. The recruiter who is working for them only sent them around 2 resumes and the company liked both and stopped her from sending any more. Apparently, there are 2 positions open. Very good chances of me getting in then. So I just need to wait for an interview!

Bad news is that the interview will probably not happen until next week. So what do I do for a week without money and no location to move to or anything like that. Get a part-time job! I talked with the recruiter and they were able to help me out and I am now working for her as an assistant recruiting people. It’s actually an ok job and it will hold me up until I get an interview with this company. And if I don’t get an interview the recruiter can probably help me find another one or something. It helps to have friends in good places.

So this basically means I am not only almost getting a job, but I am also learning what recruiters look for in resumes and how they find people. So I am become a professional in all this and will only help me in the future. I am so excited about this that I can’t even begin to express it. So I have started helping out my relatives and friends learn how to position themselves in order to get jobs! Use knowledge to help others.

Anyway, that is all. I’ll know more about a job later on and I’ll keep you all posted. Also, if you need any help getting yourself out there, such as resume help, or promoting yourself, just send me a comment and I’ll see what I can help you all with. After all, my audience is my number one priority! Next post will be on what this will entail about my future and what I have decided out of the three options I gave in a past post [link]

Enthusiastically,
-The Cali Garmo

Job Search vs. Job Hunt September 13, 2008

So generally after you graduate or you decide to move on with your life you go on a job search. You look for jobs and they generally will reply back with eager anticipation of you working for them. A job search is a fairly simple thing to do. You sign up for monster.com or some other website and you find new jobs and you search them out and apply. Fairly simple right? That’s what I thought. What they don’t tell you is that once you finish the job search, you begin on the job hunt. The job hunt is basically you trying to get any employer out there trying to even give you a second look. They ask for experience that no one directly out of college would have, they ask for knowledge that most people wouldn’t know, and they ask for ridiculous things. The job hunt is basically us hunting and trying to spear down a company and force them into employing us with our good looks, amazing personality, and adequately portrayed resume. Now what happens when you land in a situation such as mine where no one will even take a second look at your resume cause you don’t have ‘experience’ that they are looking for. I am now faced with 3 different options and I will try and see which one best matches what I want to do.

Option 1) Continue my job hunt.
Yes it is a job hunt. I am now throwing myself at employers in hopes to knock one of them down. After applying to over 30 jobs and not one even calling me back or emailing me back, it is safe to say this is not a very good option. I will continue to lose more money and most likely not find a job. The only way I will find a job is if one of my connections is able to persuade the employer to offer me a job even though I have no experience. This will only work with my connections at Agilent Technologies, so we will see.

Option 2) Continue on a job search in anticipation for grad school.
This option is a little better, but still not very nice. This is basically me finding a temporary job as something random  until I am able to get into grad school. This random job would probably be being a waiter or something as absurd. This also makes the assumption that I can get into a grad program With only 2 months until the final GRE Math exam, I am highly unprepared to take the exam. With only a 3.3 GPA, I am technically ‘below average,’ and with only one worthy letter of recommendation, I am 2 short of having a full set. So although this option is possible, it will be a difficult trek and will involve me being broke this whole year working at a job I will most likely not like in order to go to a grad school I probably will not enjoy due to my inadequacy on the tests.

Option 3) Go to a community college for a year, then reapply for a university degree during which time I can gain ‘experience.’
This is probably my current favorite option. The only problem with this option is that I would need to move to Arizona while going to Community College. I would go to CC for a year and learn as much information as I can, and then the next year go back and get a degree in CS and/or Physics. I like this option because it keeps me in school at a level that I am comfortable with and will allow me to grow and gain the experience that I will need in order to compete in the market. This will also allow me to raise my GPA for when I apply to grad school sometime in the future.

So as of right now Option 3 is sounding like my most favorite, but what do you think? Would you choose another option? Would you stay optimistic and hope that a job will come along? Would you take the long shot and go for grad school directly? Would you move to a place you dislike in hopes for a better future? What would you do?

Curiously,
-The Cali Garmo

Masters Program August 22, 2008

So I just started in my masters program and let me tell you, it’s intensive. There is so much stuff you have to do that it is not even funny (or completely possible for that matter). I guess first you need a little background. I am getting a teaching credential with a masters in education. In essence how that works is that the first year I work on getting my teaching credential in california, and then the second year I work on getting my masters degree. This may sound all fun and exciting, but let me explain the things that they don’t tell you when you sign up.

One of the simplest things you do is attend school. The only issue is that with ease comes discomfort. You need to be at school by 7:30 at the latest. In fact the earlier you arrive the better. My long term teacher arrives at 6:45 am while classes don’t start until 8:15. Not fun! And then you stay at the school until 12:35 in the afternoon. At which point you don’t really get home until around 1:20. This may not sound too bad. Waking up at 6:00 am everyday, and being done with your work by 1:20 pm. Oh, but wait, there is more!

At around 1:20, I have 15 minutes to make lunch, eat, change clothes and head out to my classes that I take at the university. I have to be at the class by 2:10 pm. At this point I am in class until sometime between 5pm and 8pm. If I have time from here, I go to the gym in order to work off some fat, but I see in the near future not having enough time. So on average I get home around 7:00 pm or 7:30 pm. One quick side note. In order for me to wake up 6:00 am and be efficient, I need 9 hours of sleep, which means going to bed around 9:00 pm. A quite fun dillema is now born. When I get home, I shouldn’t technically eat since you aren’t supposed to eat 2 hours before you sleep, but I eat anyway because I am hungry. I finish cooking and eating around 8:00 pm. This usually gives me enough time to make ready made pasta, if I am lucky.

Now the real fun begins. By 8:00 pm I must now start working on my lecture assignments for university, and my home assignments from the high school. For the high school I have to look at lesson plans and work on the homework assignments that the students must do. I must also make sure that I understand the material that is about to be covered for the next 2 days in class. For my lectures I must work on random assignments. In any given week I have over 150 pages to read, a journal to hand in, a random assignment to turn in, and also somewhere between 1 and 3 essays. This is all per week for the assignments and per day for the lesson plans. And all of this must be done by 9:00 pm so I can get some sleep. Naturally, I don’t ever make it.

So this is what is funny. I am dedicating my life to this program in essence and for what? I plan on being a teacher and this is only the teaching credential side. I am paying $27,000+ to the college in order to go here. I am taking out $20,000+ in loans in order to get an education here, and for what? And with having $20,000+ in loans, I have no idea how I am going to pay it off. As a teacher I will be making somewhere around $42,000 a year. Although this is a lot more than some people, it is not enough to be able to pay off the $20,000+ of debt from my graduate year and also my $20,000+ in debt of my undergraduate. Teachers make almost no money.

So my question is this. When as a math major I could easily secure a job right now and make $80,000 a year, why am I choosing to teach high school? In order to get the credential you have to do so much work you can’t get proper amounts of sleep, or nutrition for that matter, and once you are done, you are so high in debt that you literally can’t pay any of it off. With this sort of way of becoming a teacher it’s funny how we actually have the number of teachers that we do. I feel it is ridiculously hard to get any teachers due to the barriers that have been put into place to stop them from getting through.

I will continue my path as a teacher because I enjoy it so much, but I still can’t help but think what my life would be like if I were to quite and go and work as a math person for a couple of years to make some money. How would my life turn out differently if I chose to stray from my path set so long ago in a bedroom while I was in second grade. This road that I see before me, I will not travel, for it will not take me to the destination I originally planned.

With anxiety,
-The Cali Garmo