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!

Speaking of job hunting, I'm going to vent a tiny bit: there's a start-up where I kinda-sorta know some folks, and they contacted me three weeks ago about discussing a contract with me so I could start doing tech writing for them. I promptly replied with YES!, and asked when they'd be available to talk and work out the details.

Crickets.

I sent follow-up emails. I sent a message yesterday via LinkdIn to the guy who contacted me, just in case someone's email was doing something odd. Still nothing. This is driving me MAD.

I went in for a stress test today to see if there is a reason I'm having trouble getting physically back after the hospital two years ago.

They cancelled my stress test after they could not find my heart properly on a sonogram.

Silly doctors, don't they know I gave my heart to Andi several years ago?