Don't judge me...

...but I just bought a new computer for my job hunt. 

No, no, it's not completely decadent. My old laptop is both, well, old and impractical. It's not working for me. I spent two hours this morning trying to job hunt and work on my resume, but I only got about thirty minutes of work done because everything is unbearably slow. I've tried defrag, I've reset as far back as the system will allow, and I've tried speaking firmly to it. None of this has worked. 

Hello, Acer on sale for $180 at Target. You have one job. 

What I'm Looking For

Over the last two days, I've spent a lot of time on job search sites. 

What have I learned?  

Apparently my city has two outsourced call center thingmajiggies. I'd go into more detail for you, but the web sites and job descriptions are page long adverts for how cool the guys who started the place are and how much fun you'll have doing whatever buzz word heavy job it is you end up applying for.

I like the idea of administrative assistant or office manager, but I'm either completely unqualified or freakishly overqualified for the job. I haven't decided which. 

Human Resources sounds like something I could actually do, and have applicable skills for, but they all require 5+ years of experience. I've been hiring, orienting (NOT orientating), training, and firing for ten years now. That counts for something, right?  Unfortunately, there's some sort of HR program that's apparently the very basis of the job expectations that I've never even heard of. 

I used to think I wanted to do Technical Writing, but I may have been wrong about that. Ideally, I actually want to edit manuals, not create them. 

Basically, I need to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. 

New Year, New Job?

I started working when I was seventeen years old because I wanted to earn money for my Senior Prom.  Fourteen years later and I can't remember my date's name, but somehow I still have that first job.  Crazy, right?  Don't get me wrong:  I've done better, I've advanced; I even worked my way through a bachelor's degree working at that job over breaks.  I'm grateful that it's paid for my car, my housing, all my food, and more movie tickets than I care to tally, but I'm done with it.

Background:  I got fed up and quit once before.  Five months later, I begged them to take me back because I couldn't find a minimum wage job with the management experience I had acquired, and I couldn't find the sort of job I'd spent four year working toward because the only experience I have to my name is food service.

So now, three years later, I'm looking for a job.  Again.  I don't know where to start, and I don't know what I'm looking for, but I know I can't do this one much longer.  

Reasons to Stay
I like living indoors
Steady employment
I know the job

Reasons to Leave
The pay isn't actually that good
Neither are the hours
No room for advancement
No stimulation

There you go.  I'm going to spend the next several hours trying to figure out what sort of jobs I might meet the qualifications for, and how to spin a ten-year-old English degree and fourteen years of customer service and administrative experience into what recruiters actually want to hear.

Wish me luck!