My wife is at her first day of paid work outside the home in about 12 years today. (She had two days of orientation and today is her first day at her station - still in training but more fun than orientation).

She filled out an online application at Seaworld and they called her in last week for an interview and now she's working. It isn't much but every little bit helps.


The funny part is when she was in training at one point she and 2 other people went off with the supervisor for the section they would be in (photo booth selling pictures taken of guests on the rides) and she said the first thing he told them was "I have not read your applications. I do not know anything about any of you except for one thing: You like to talk. If (The HR Lady) picked you for my department, you like to talk."

And for once in my life I did the smart thing and shut up.

have the social graces of a rabid hyena on meth.

These are HR people, many of whose only purpose in life these days seems to be making as many people as possible as miserable as possible.

Once upon a time, when the Middle Class still existed, there were decent HR people. I miss them.

that would scan a resume and parse it into the separate components.

Yes, I am in Silicon Valley , though I'm not looking in tech.

Everyone should have one or more "base" resumes, based on the nature of the jobs you are interested. When faced with a piecemeal online submission, modify the word processor copy you form and attempt to copy/paste from your local copy to the server. If it won't accept "CTRL-V", then you do have to retype it, but you know exactly what you said later because you have a copy.

The reason they do that is to trap you in a "gocha". If you keep a separate file for each submission with EXACTLY the same wording, you'll never be caught off guard in an interview, phone, skype, or in person. Well, at least not with "In you're application you said... is that not true?"

It's fucking ridiculous. At least with many state jobs, they now go through the same site, where you can re-use the same resume, without having to type it in over and over and over again.

On the bright side, the federal government has gotten away from the KSAs (essay questions), which are infinitely worse. If I had ten bucks for every hour I wasted writing those damn things, I would be set financially for a year.

The thought of having to fill out another job application nauseates me, as I have filled out probably close to a thousand of them.at this point.