thank you for the pics of the beautiful buffista babies.

happy birthday to all!

Thanks, everyone! We have a happy little boy now in possession of swag and a banana cake.

His father is less happy, as I arrived home to discover that my dad (or more precisely, his wife) had sent Ryan a birthday present. No note, no card, no explanation. He's made no contact and sent no communication since I returned the Christmas present. I just don't know what the hell is even going through his mind at this point.

More pleasantly, Ryan got a birthday balloon from the teacher today, and everyone at chapel wished him a happy birthday. He's a bit of an attention hound, is this boy.

I'm sorry bt, that is difficult. May the giggling happiness of the birthday boy sooth and comfort.

Is Jilli still looking for work? [link]

bt, belated Happy Birthday to Ryan! What a spectacular person he's becoming.

And I'm sorry about the urky family stuff. Been there, it's difficult, I know. But take heart in your terrific little guy and how great his worldview is--you and Biyi did that.

I am still looking for work, but I have no experience working with cart software. USING cart software, yes, that's shopping. But the back end? Sadly, no.

Don't sell yourself short, Jilli -- they're not talking about programming cart software, they're talking about posting new items, which (without knowing the details of whatever they use) is like posting a blog post compared to reading one.

(Also noting the interesting fact that women tend not to apply for jobs unless they feel fully qualified for every bullet point, whereas men tend to apply if they're vaguely in the neighborhood of any of them.)

I am so with amych on this.

Whenever I do career counseling with women, I have to push to convince them to go for positions that they can grow into, rather than automatically master.

In truth, jobs change so often, a static job description is unlikely to cover all one entails anyway.

If 80% seems doable/enjoyable, go for it!

Whenever I do career counseling with women, I have to push to convince them to go for positions that they can grow into, rather than automatically master.

How do they get past the autoreject emails without lying on their resumes?

That is a really good question, Plei.

Usually, I recommend doing a ton of networking before the resume is submitted such that it gets into the hands of someone who can shepherd the paper into the right hands.

I'd have to give it some thought but, while I never advocate for lying on a resume...ever...I'm generally able to craft language that is true while leaving space for interpretation.

There isn't much that can be done if the resume sorting comes down to nothing but keywords. We certainly have that issue in the gov't KSA requirements.

What is also true, is that many of the women I've worked with actually HAVE done something very similar to the required KSAs, they just don't call it the same thing.

For instance, a meeting planner who has developed an event schedule, including moving registrants, balancing speaking slates, planning material deliveries, etc. might think that she can't do scheduling for a manufacturer. Many of the skills are the same. Can she claim experience as a scheduler? I think so!