Focused Friday

I spent the day working on my social media stuff for All Mesopotamia, finding content via Twitter and scheduling that content to be posted on Facebook eventually. I am left feeling really good about all this, especially after looking at Facebook's analytics for the page and finding that since October 19th, there's been an increase of 200% for likes of the page. 

The important thing is to move forward and not let rejections like yesterday's interrupt my flow of movement forward. Good things will come, I just have to be patient. In the meantime, it's important to enjoy one's weekend, so I'm going to go do that so I can be fully charged and ready to take on a new week on Monday. 

A rejection

For a little over two months now, I've been in the market for an editing job more steady than my freelancing work. 

In that time, I've updated and polished my resume; I've gotten three interviews, two of which were with a dream employer I was sure would hire me; and I've gotten rejected by everyone.

In fact, I'm writing this on the couch as I lick my wounds from the latest rejection, a rather bizarre one. But before I describe what transpired between yesterday afternoon (which has a backstory extending back to the middle of last month) and tonight, I'd like to also mention that just before the bizarre rejection, I had also gotten a rejection email for a fellowship I had applied for late in the summer that I had completely forgotten about...so. Yeah. Today has been challenging my positivity pretty hard. 

Anyway, going back to the bizarre rejection: Last month, I applied for a remote job that is not as dreamy as the one with the dream employer I mentioned earlier, but would've been a great resume and skill builder for me as I look to revamp my career by doing anything and everything to prove myself as not only a viable candidate but an employee with drive and passion. It wasn't long after I sent off my cover letter and resume for this job before I got a brief and abrupt email asking for my salary requirements along with a disclaimer that this employer was operating on a shoestring budget. 

Now, while I search for and apply for jobs, I'm reading up on what to do and what not to do to ensure eventual employment via impressive resumes and cover letters that land successful interviews and fruitful negotiations. Almost all the literature I had read up until that email arrived in my inbox had advised me to not give a number when the salary question came up, to stick to the proclamation that I am "flexible." Naturally, I responded with what seemed to be the answer: "I am flexible," I wrote, and hit send. 

I heard nothing more from this employer, so I moved on with my life.

Then yesterday, just before I called it a business day, I noticed that that same job was still open. I thought it over and decided that I would apply again, this time including my salary requirements in the cover letter I still had saved on my computer. A couple of hours later, there was a response from the same individual who had emailed me last time, this one a little more verbose, but only because it informed me the salary range I had given was too high and included a series of screening questions. I agreed to the rate they could pay me, saying that it was the experience I cared about the most, and proceeded to answer the screening questions, including one about my computer's RAM and whether I am comfortable taking a copy editing test. 

It turned out my 4 GB RAM would not be enough for what was required, neither was the 8 GB RAM I have access to on another computer, but I assured the hiring manager that I would remedy this problem and began googling computers with a 16 GB RAM, because I'm driven that way. I completed the copy editing test in just over an hour and crossed my fingers. Less than an hour after completing the test, I got a response, a rejection. "It's not a fit," the hiring manager wrote abruptly.  

It's not so bizarre that I applied for a job and it didn't work out, I'm used to that. It is bizarre that an employer offering a salary quite a bit below the average for a role requiring a slew of skills and qualifications, most of which I meet, would still reject a candidate who applied twice, agreed to a much-below-average salary, and was ready to buy a brand new computer to do the job, all on top of no benefits. 

Maybe it really wasn't a good fit, I'm not saying that's not a possibility. I'm not even saying I'm the best candidate they have gotten or will get, but I would've been a good employee, one who really wanted the job for what it was, not what it paid.