View Full Version : A Quick Question (for now) in Filling Out These On-Line Applications
Hey there, I am happy to report I didn't fill out a single job application on these past two days off (and am a better person for it)! But reality hits, and I need to get back into gear and try to figure out why I haven't gotten even a single call for an interview. I am ready to go back with a fine tooth comb to see why I am not doing such a hot job in selling myself to a potential employer.
Since I only have a few moments before I have to leave for work, the first one I want to tackle is "why did you leave this position?" I was responding to that question by stating I am looking for a more stable place of employment, or something to that effect. Bear in mind I am only applying for grocery-store type positions at this point (Trader Joe's, Wholefoods, etc...). Probably not such a good answer, really.
Please discuss and help me with some ideas to couch it in better terms as to why I want to leave a place of employment that pays pretty well for one that will never pay as well...thanks in advance.
SteveinMN
4-26-12, 10:53pm
You have to be a bit careful about the answer, but you can't go wrong with something on the line of "I've done pretty well here, but I'd like a new challenge" (especially if it's a different sort of retail). Or "This store is closer to my home". Or "I really like the mission/vibe/policies of <name of retailer here>". Or "My current job is not as good a fit as it once was" (though that one begs for a follow-up question). You have to be honest about it, of course, but a job is/should be more than a paycheck and you are not wrong to point out other aspects of employment which appeal to you.
Good luck!
Well, if the question is why DID you leave, the answer is that you're still there. Always tell the truth and just that. In an interview, if it comes up, you can simply say that the businesses future is less certain than you're comfortable with, and you're interested in long term stability. Which is the truth, yes? And, no one's business if what you're leaving pays more. No one will know unless you spell it out.
If I'm still working, I always fill that out with currently still employed but looking for something..... (closer to home, within your company which has always interested me, etc...)
I've found it's best to (at least partially) customize the response to that question to the organization I'm applying to. It's not a one-size-fits-all thing. If I were applying to Whole Foods, for example, I'd be explaining why their ethical company culture appeals to me, how my existing skills were an asset to them, etc. You're competing against lots of people trying for low-paying jobs who might have specific grocery experience -- you'll want to sell yourself on why you are going to be better for them than those folks are, even if you're being paid the same (because of your strong customer service ethic, proven problem-solving abilities, love of their particular company's policies, whatever)
Hi everyone, I had a pretty stressful and busy week at the ole job and this is the first chance I've had to really look at the suggestions you so kindly left me, all of which are helpful. The weird things is, I am having a lot of trouble getting motivated to change things in my life even as they are making me miserable 75% of the time. By the time I get home and feed myself after work, I just don't feel like doing anything.
I don't feel depressed though, in the classic sense. I just feel very unmotivated to do anything but go to work, read, watch DVD's and sleep and then get up to do it all over again. I've been in this pattern for weeks...I am a little pissed at myself for wasting time and not being a go-getter. I think I've let myself be in this limbo for so long that I am actually comfortable being stuck where I'm at. I can't envision the future; I can't envision how to take the steps to get anyplace different. Am I having a mid-life crisis? Is this what approaching menopause does to ones pysche? I am having such a hard time making decisions that I don't really make any; even simple ones are proving to be hard, like what should I do on this cold, dreary night? Should I go out? Nahhhh... should I play my guitar? Maybe...Should I make art? I'm not feeling particularly creative...Maybe this is a night where I have to force myself to go out and be around people and "act as if" I am together.
Back to the job thing though. I'll have to get in the right frame of mind, the frame of mind of selling myself to an employer. Blah...perhaps on Monday my day off. I need to make myself go to the job center and use the computers there so I am not stuck and frustrated all alone at home trying to do it.
I'm feeling kind of burned out and in need of an adventure, something to look forward to this summer but I'm not sure how I'll ever get to take a vacation unless I just quit the d*** job already!
SQ,
What about something like this? They offer a small stipend for full-time staff, as well as meals and housing. Since you have some savings, maybe something like this could provide the break you need to get out of the current dysfunctional situation and start working on the more spiritual stuff you are interested in. Know nothing about the place, but it sounded interesting:
http://www.coolworks.com/omega-institute/profile
Lots of park and resort jobs on this site, too. And maybe you could also consider WWOOF-ing it for a few weeks or months.
lhamo
SiouzQ., is there any way you can take some time off work? Paid or unpaid, you really seem to need some time to recharge -- maybe even a few days or a week to wind down and then some time to think creatively about the future. That time might be enough to break the work-dawdle-sleep-work cycle. And it kind of sounds like you don't yet know deep down what you want to do. That may be why you don't have the energy to pursue any direction in particular.
You hit the nail on the head, Steve. I was just saying to my co-worker today (the one who is leaving in a few weeks to go bumming around Europe) that if I could just take a month's leave of absence to go drive out to Washington and visit my dad (he'll be 85 this year) and roam around, camping along the way would make me a very happy girl. The trouble with my workplace is the 81 year old owner has cut the sales staff so much this year there really isn't any one left to run the place. I am the senior employee on the sales floor now, and when J leaves, it'll be me and one other new guy who frankly, is not turning out to be the greatest employee. Remember, this place is horrendously dysfunctional. I am becoming manager by default, which is NOT what I want at all, not at this place of business. Supposedly, the owner is going to hire a "manager" in the next week or two but I really have my doubts that he is going to get someone in who is knowlegabl (sp?) about the guitar industry, simply because he won't want to pay a going wage for someone like that. Can you see how I am in a no-win situation? None of us can even have a sick day, let alone a vacation at this point without the business grinding to a halt! The whole structure of the place is THE most inefficient, asinine thing I have ever witnessed. Well, now the students have graduated and are leaving town, so the slow period is a-coming, as evidenced by a very boring day today.
I think the next two weeks will be very telling...
The other thing I wanted to say that has been on my mind is I realize I post a lot and I get such kind, helpful responses back, but I don't return the favor much and I am sorry about that. It just seems that so much of my life is in one kind of turmoil or another all these years, what with dealing with my daughter, etc. I hope someday I will get grounded enough to offer feedback the same way it is offered to me when I feel stuck and hopeless...
One more note: I have completely caught up through Season 4 of Mad Men (love that show!) but realize I have become a terrible hermit, way more so than usual! I must stop living vicariously and try to connect with real people. Tonight my plan is to go see a friend of mine play at a bar downtown and I will so have to fight the urge to settle in here at home. After all, it is my Friday night.
You do realize that its not your responsibility to run the place, right? If you keep picking up the pieces for the owner's bad decisions, why would he be incented to do anything differently?
Yes Herbgeek, I do realize that and have for a long time. That is precisely why I REFUSE to carry a key to the building and will continue to refuse because once you have a key, you've also signed up to be manager-by-default. And it wouldn't be managing in the classic sense ~ being the manager at this place means you have all the responsibility but no authority to make the needed changes to make the place run more efficiently. I'd rather beat my head against a brick wall! But wait ~ that's what I do anyway! There are many ways I push back so as not to take on more responsibility that I want or will get paid for. The whole situation is so back a**ward; at any other job, I would be doing all you could to get that promotion! However, I know how it all works at my place of employment and have seen it in operation for a couple of years now. The business always seems on the verge of collapse, one disaster after another, but like the Energizer Bunny, somehow it keeps on beating its feeble heart because of his "loyal" employees. It actually feels like we are enabling an alcoholic...
@Ihamo: thanks for that link! I am going to check it out in further detail today!
It actually feels like we are enabling an alcoholic...
That was my point. You DO have a choice.
mtnlaurel
4-30-12, 11:33am
It actually feels like we are enabling an alcoholic...
BINGO!
I can just so relate to your posts SQ.
I am going through some kind of revelatory process* where I have outgrown my old coping mechanisms and am having trouble letting go of the vine I have been swinging on to grab the next one.
*And it's not necessarily a "process" that I have actively sought out -- it's just that the coping mechanisms I have relied on just don't work anymore
Re: feeling poorly about 'not contributing' -- don't waste a second on that thought.
I personally learn more when someone holds up their hand with a burly scar and says, "This is what happens when you touch the hot stove" vs. "I've never touched a hot stove and here are all the reasons why"
All types of info have their place here and you are touching people in ways you probably don't even know.
Mtnlaurel, I really like how you describe the *revelatory process*; it fits me to a "T". It's scarey, and a little exciting I guess (but mostly scarey), uncomfortable, unpredictable...it's like being a teenager all over again but without the blind faith that everything is going to be all right because you are young and have plenty of time to screw up before getting serious and settling down...
Diverting even more from my original post, I've done the settling down bit for twenty years and in my mind I really want to shake things up but find it so hard getting started...the closest I got today was I bought a pair of straight-legged jeans for the first time in probably twenty years and was amazed at how good they look on me! All these years I have refused to wear anything but bootcuts jeans and my motorcycle boots but I am so tired even of how I dress; I really have become very rigid about things and maybe shaking it up just a little bit is a small step on the way. I even perused the mall a for a little while without the usual grumbling under my breath because I actually had a good shopping experience at the Land's End part of the Sears store.
Anyway, this middle-age maturation process-thing is more than I expected...all last year when I was 49 and approaching my birthday last fall it really didn't bother me because nothing much outwardly (or inwardly) had changed. Now six months into it, I feel like I have been slammed somehow by the realization...everything that made me happy or fulfilled in the past is not exactly cutting it today but I don't know what the new *it* is. Sometimes it helps to think of myself as a character in a book or movie; it gives me a little distance from the crazy emotions.
When will my new vine sprout, I wonder?
Re: feeling poorly about 'not contributing' -- don't waste a second on that thought.
I personally learn more when someone holds up their hand with a burly scar and says, "This is what happens when you touch the hot stove" vs. "I've never touched a hot stove and here are all the reasons why"
All types of info have their place here and you are touching people in ways you probably don't even know.
Amen to that, mtnlaurel!
When will my new vine sprout, I wonder?
When you finally decide it is worth nurturing -- giving it enough food and water, supporting it when necessary, arranging things so it gets the right amount of sunlight, keeping the predators away.
When you finally decide YOU are worth nurturing -- getting enough food and water, getting support from your friends and family when you need it, arranging your time and energy so you can continue to grow, and keeping the enabled and the dysfunctional away.
SiouzQ., you know what to do. You posted a while ago that you feared the very situation that is now here -- de facto management. Now, except for your symbolic refusal to accept a key to the place, you're going to get the responsibility -- but not the authority or the status or the pay. Maybe I'm just really slow here, but I fail to see how that helps you accomplish your goals. I can easily see how it accomplishes your owner's goals.
I understand about not wanting to let down the rest of your team and I certainly understand that the comfort of even a dysfunctional routine might be thought preferable to striking out on your own. I don't understand why you are willing to sacrifice your future for this job.
I'm trying not to be too much of a "guy" here and fix things ;), but I would sit down with Owner and tell him that you will accept the increased responsibilities only if they are resolved by (pick a date that's a little sooner than you think he's going to hire a new manager) and that at date X, new manager or not, you then will be taking (fill in how many weeks you want off) paid vacation in return. And you should be ready to make it clear that you'll walk if you two can't negotiate something fair to you and you put it in writing. It's obvious Owner will walk all over all of you given the chance. Why enable that further?
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