Interviewing

It has been presented to me that it may be time to re-evaluate the direction of my resume.  Perhaps it is too technical and only relevant in my current area of expertise.  I am not really sure but with much pushing I made the decision to make the effort to change my resume...and that will be a job all in it's self.  

Resumes are supposed to be the instrument that makes that first meeting a little less awkward but I find that to  be the opposite.  As I have sat in many interviews feeling like I am being quizzed or interrogated about the experiences presented on my resume, I often feel more nervous after I depart than I did when I first walked into the room.  So this week I have yet another interview.  This time though I am going to spend time trying to figure out what I could potentially be doing wrong during this critical event.  I mean my resume says so much about me but it seems like after that things fall apart.  Am I just not as good in person as I appear on paper? Am I talking too much? Do I not seem happy or enthusiastic enough?  Whatever the answer may be to these questions I plan to figure it out prior to my interview this week.  My goal is to do a few mock interviews and get some feedback.  

The Low down

When you say you live in Las Vegas the first thing that comes to mind is...wait for it....CASINO!  And the reality of this all is there are a LOT of casinos.  In fact in a story posted on http://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/nevada-casinos/las-vegas the city of Las Vegas has 122 casinos listed in their directory. Their database also reveals that within those 122 casinos there are 116063 gaming machines and 4323 total table games.  Now putting this into perspective and taking in account all the possible positions that are needed to operate and manage a casino you would think that the unemployment rate in Las Vegas would be low right?  Wrong!  The unemployment rate in Las Vegas sits at slightly above 13% not to mention that Nevada right now holds the highest unemployment rate within the United States. 

Let's dig deeper, before I moved to Las Vegas about 7-8 months ago I resided in the state that had the second highest unemployment rate....Michigan.  So coming from that dismal place to this one you would think that I would be pessimistic about the state of affairs in terms of employment but I haven't been.  Actually to my surprise I have had far more interviews here than I ever had in Michigan but the downside to this is that I have heard many more "No's" and that begins to wear on one's ego, psyche and self-confidence. 

What I'm getting at here is that work is hard to come by at this point in time...especially for people who feel like they made the right choice to reach for higher education, we now make up about a third of the unemployment rate in Nevada at about 4.8% (http://thenevadaview.com/?p=66). Looking at the numbers and statistics it is often hard to see the light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel.  News reports periodically talk about a rise in the employment rate in Nevada but for what types of jobs? 

I find myself competing with people who have high school diplomas and GEDs and probably very little actual work experience.  It feels like a punishment or a scarlet letter to be college educated or to have more than retail work listed on your resume.  I often feel mocked for applying for positions that I know my skill sets exceed what they are looking for because that puts my resume into the "Better Luck Next Time" pile. I can't count the number of times that people question my intentions during a pre-interview screening.  I keep asking myself is it better to be under-qualified or over-qualified because it seems like there are very occasions that my resume fits into that "just right" category.

Preface: Where I have been

Today is the first day of a new journey.  I find myself starting blog after blog that end up with no real direction and some how total about two posts.  This time I plan for things to be different simply because I want to this blog to be about my future and the places I want to go and what I have been searching for during the past year and seven months. 

Since laid off from my last place of employment I have spent my days and nights applying for countless jobs to which all I have been rejected.  I have been on several interviews and still no luck.  As I think back to each encounter I try to go through my mind to figure out what I could be doing wrong.  Mind you I am college educated, goal oriented, ambitious and just in general a very hard worker.  I like to do things right and get the job done...I am that all of nothing type of person, definitely willing to go the distance in any situation.

So you may ask what is this blog going to do and why am I spending precious moments plugging away at a blog when I should be applying for jobs.  That answer is simple because I want insight to what  I am doing wrong and what I need to do  better.  Throughout this blog it is my goal to:

1. Post about jobs I apply for
2. Discuss and evaluate my interview
3. Celebrate if I do land a position

I have it made up in my mind that someone is going to take a chance on me and that there is a position that fits my skill set and on top of it throughout my search I will prove that I am Job Possible.