adventures in job-hunting

Job-hunting now, post-bar, so I may still not be around much, unless I am trying to escape from the depressing tedium to bemoan the fact that I still feel unqualified for everything.

(1) Jobs that require you to tell them your salary requirements. What. I don't know! However much you want to pay me so I can eke out a living? A million dollars a year? What is a reasonable request, how much does it affect whether they'll give you the job, oh god too much stress.

(2) I've forgotten how to write cover letters. D: It's essentially a talk up of all your skills and experiences to make you sound like the pinnacle of perfection that everyone is desperate to have! ...which sadly does not explain why you are currently jobless, huh. (No, really, I feel so artificial every time I have to embellish my accomplishments with grandiose prose. It's been beat into me to Be Humble. And, anyway, anyone with Asian parents in the U.S. probably grew up hearing about how Everyone Else's Kid Is So Much Better Than You.) So...how crass it to just write HIRE ME HIRE ME HIRE ME I'LL DO ANYTHING and then sign it?

(3) Do you think it makes a significant difference if I apply to DC jobs with a local address or an NC address? The government refuses to pay relocation costs flat-out, so I feel like they shouldn't discriminate based on location. /contemplates

(4) Senator jobs! Republicans offer to pay. Democrats apparently want you to subsist off the glory of serving alone. Now the question becomes: what morals are you not willing to compromise for the sake of gold, gold, gold an income?

(5) The only legal jobs in Singapore require 2+ years of prior experience. The only legal jobs in Hong Kong are for corporate/funds/banking lawyers. The only legal jobs in China are for Chinese attorneys fluent in Mandarin. There are no legal jobs in Taiwan. Well - fine! I didn't like you either! (Not that I could've honestly expected to get anywhere without guanxi.)

(6) Why doesn't your job site support Chrome?! /grumbles and breaks out the never-used Firefox

(7) There are people who advertise lawyer positions on Craigslist? Like, actual firms? I am seriously eyeing all of them with suspicion. Don't you, like, have a website for that? Or...approximately 100 different job websites?

(8) The eternal Catch-22 question of how do I get a job when every job requires experience and no job wants to hire me and give me some experience?

Sad story from post-bar: while I was in NY, there was an episode of Law and Order or a Lifetime movie or something on TV where a suspect gets questioned in a room by the investigating officers who arrested him. They then step out, mentioning something about the suspect's attorney. Mei's first thought: OH NO, THAT IS SO ILLEGAL, YOU CAN'T QUESTION A SUSPECT WITHOUT HIS COUNSEL PRESENT IF YOU KNOW HE HAS COUNSEL FOR THAT MATTER NOOO. Someone then tried to argue with me about how Miranda rights required explicit invocation now and that mere silence was not enough. I only gave him a Look and thought, layman, you don't think I know that? Because this is not a violation of his Miranda rights, this is a violation of NY's indelible right to counsel, guaranteed by NY's 6th Amendment, which offers even greater protection than the U.S. 5th Amendment. I know because I just took a two-day test on it..

And then I was promptly horrified by myself. Don't be one of those unbearably smug lawyer types, Mei!

Cheers, though. Everyone says the bar exam is the most law you'll ever know - I will now commence slowly (quickly?) forgetting everything!

lasting impressions at Alpine

Looking around the library, I see students immersed in studying or paper-writing, quiet and mostly focused, and I'm amused by the number of Alpine cups I see. I've probably seen most of these people at Alpine one time or another while at work, but in a different setting, the faces are more difficult to recall.

As I left the Union tonight on my way to Davis Library (the first time I've studied here all semester, I think; I've been in to check out books but I avoid studying here like the plague, and I really have no idea why other than my overwhelming fondness for the Union), a boy held the door open for me. I said, "Thank you!" and he said, "So have you finished your ten-page paper yet?"

I replied cheerfully, "Still working on it!" as I passed him, my response totally belying my bemusement. Who was he? Clearly a frequent customer, one I'd helped and had apparently discussed my ten-page paper with. I had no clear memory of him, but with the hours I work (six days this week), I can hardly be blamed for not keeping the endless stream of customers straight, can I? While I recognize some faces because they're daily or they order the same thing or they have a memorable name or other feature, many others blend together in a blur of "Hey, how are you?" and "That will be $5.21, please," and "Have a great night!"

As there's only one of me (for hours on end almost every night), I'm not surprised that our frequent customers begin to recognize me. I've had a girl say to me before, "How often do you work? Every time I'm here, I see you!" Then there was a guy who asked my co-cashier, "Are you new here? I haven't see you before," and then gestured at me, saying, "I see her all the time." And, now, evidently, there is some Asian boy who remembered me talking about the ten-page paper I had due. It must have been from yesterday because I don't recall having much conversation with anyone during my short covering-someone-else's-ass shift today, and today is clearer in my mind than yesterday, where I spent my morning shift slowly and in a sleep-deprived haze.

I do love Alpine, though, and working there, despite my grumbles of being underappreciated and complaints about stupid customers (you have no idea) and my growing hatred for closing shifts. It's more of a matter of not getting enough sleep and not being awake enough for late-night shifts than the work itself. I love morning shifts best because no matter how little sleep I've gotten the night before, I am always awake in the morning. I'm a morning person and it's disgusting to everyone I know. Yet I love it.

I'm also making a reasonable rate there (though, if asked, I will always believe I should be paid more), which makes for a lovely moment on paydays. It's good to have income and this thought makes me think I should apply for a job over winter break, especially as I'll need as much money as I can to pay for trip tickets and spending money for Project Chonguk. Sometimes I feel so very materialistic.