In an earlier entry, I said that I would be posting my job search journal here. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote that, because it’s not possible. My job search journal is a day-by-day record of phone calls made, e-mails sent and received, resumes submitted online or mailed, and so forth. In other words, it’s full of the names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of people I’ve contacted, and I can’t post that information on a Web page without their knowledge or permission. So I’m keeping my journal in a paper notebook, just like in previous job hunts. I’ll certainly post updates here when something significant happens, like an interview, but so far it’s just been networking (contacting acquaintances by phone or e-mail to let them know I’m hunting, and to ask them to keep their ears open for leads) and submitting resumes online or via e-mail. I’ve responded to some specific job postings at the sites listed on the right side of this page, but my main focus right now is getting my resume into the hands of recruiters or managers who might be looking for a technical writer at some point in the future.
Deciding to turn this blog into an online job search journal was a mistake, because it resulted in paralysis. I couldn’t post contact information, and I didn’t want to just document the emotional aspect of the job search on a day-to-day basis, because that would be both tedious and depressing. Consequently, I ended up posting basically nothing for several weeks. So I’m going to go back to writing about other things unless I have some actual job-related news to report.