Being Unemployed

As many of you may know I lost my job in September.    I was very optimistic that I would have no issues finding a job, I mean I live in  BC!  Christy Clark told me I am at the head of the BC Job Creation Machine. I joke but its partly true, here I am, I live in a province touting job creation and prosperity and I am VERY good at what I do!  

I was let go without cause and told my position was no longer needed.   The very next day my employer, the BC government (the one who told me they were creating jobs) announced a hiring freeze!   No worries right? as I already said, I am really good at what I do!  I mean look at this summary of my skills:

• Excellent Working knowledge of many standard computer programs 
• Working knowledge of JUSTIN, ROTA, and Maximizer
• Lifetime learner – taken several career advancement courses
• Bachelors Degree – Major in Psychology and Extended Minor in Criminology 
• Excellent customer service, interpersonal, research and organizational skills
• Valid BC Drivers License and clean drivers abstract
• 4 years supervisory experience
• 7 years interviewing and external customer service experience (not including reception)
• 13 years experience teaching, leading groups, peer tutoring and peer counselling 
• 18 years administrative experience
• 22 years volunteer experience

So what is the problem....why am I still unemployed? Well I don't think the hiring freeze helped, as well did you know that our unemployment rate is actually up to 7% now?

The first two months, while I was still on severance, I focused primarily on trying to find a job in mental health, health care, education etc.   Something that would help me use my new degree and help build new skills.   I quickly found that I was woefully under qualified for most of the jobs I found.   So I started to focus  my search on administrative or supervisory roles in institutions that I would eventually like to end up in.    

I have to tell you the competition has been stiff!   I have put out over 135 applications since September!  I have had a handful of testing rounds, several interviews and a couple of second interviews.  However, nothing has come of it so far.   I always ask for feedback if I have a good interview and here are a few things I have heard:

"You were amazing and it was down to you and another girl, it was so close that in the end it came down to" words per minute (typing) and you scored 62 and she scored 65"

"I know we weren't looking for a CA, but the candidate who won had a CA and we work with a lot of CA's so we thought it would be a great fit"

"We really believed this job was below you and that you would get bored and quit in 3 months, we will keep your resume on file in the event a more senior position comes up"

"We had a very difficult choice, we only had 1 position.  We received 144 applications, we narrowed it down to 14 for testing, 5 for interviews (I made it this far) and the candidate we selected had more supervisory experience that you did"

And it goes on....So, for some I am too qualified and for some I am not qualified enough!  The market is tough I have heard over and over about postings where the sheer number of applications that come in are overwhelming.  I applied for an executive assistant position for which I was very qualified and they phoned me because they were doing pr- interviews to try and narrow down the 200 applications they had received for the job!  I was passed on to the HR manager but as of now I haven't heard anymore.   I do know that this posting is still open though.

I am still optimistic that I will find something soon and I continue to send out as many applications as I can each week.   I have also connected with several temp agencies to try and get either a few days here or there or a "temp to hire" position.

If you have made it all the way to the end of this post and you are the praying kind, I would love the extra prayers and support!   I know the right position will come when it is supposed to but it is hard to be patien and trust some times!