At the beginning of the summer I began looking at job opportunities in Atlanta and then in July I began applying for positions and anxiously awaiting word. I had no idea when I began, that it would be such a long and frustrating process. Many would say, "that is just the way it is." "It takes a long time and you just can't expect a quick turn around." I must say that I have been more than a little spoiled. My interships during graduate school as well as my first job out of graduate school fell easily into my lap with a limited amount of effort on my end. Even my jobs before that and the part time position that I held during my first year, all came easily. Maybe I was just always in the right place at the right time or the competition was just so limited that I always managed my way to the top of the pile.
I have no clue at this point how many resumes I submitted. I know that I had to be well over 50 and that may be a conservative number. I will have to go back and count all of my cover letters that I have saved. From all of that, I only had three somewhat positive responses. That is a measly 4 - 6% return rate. Very sad! I seriously began to question my abilities and if I was even where I needed to be as a professional in order to find a job that I wanted. I do realize that some of the jobs I was either over qualified for or under qulaified for, the non profit job arena is much more limiting than the corporate, I only had a year of experience and I was living 700 miles from my potential new home, but come on.
After 6 months I decided that I needed to get closer and took a temp position at a consulting firm in Atlanta. I figured that would at least improve my chances - being that there was no longer 700 miles between me and my potential dream job. At the end of February I began the interview process with a company based out of Columbia, SC with a branch in Atlanta. I am now happy to report that after almost 9 months of constant searching I have accepted a job offer as a Grants Strategist with a for-profit grants consulting firm. Their main focus is on large (over 1 million) federal education grants. I will be helping clients through the granting process and then providing technical assistance on the back end of the grant (post-award). It is a really exciting small company that does a lot for its employees. I will have a large learning curve with this job and it will truly challenge me, but it should be a lot of fun and will allow me to learn a lot more about grants, especially large ones. My largest grant award at this point is $450,000. Jumping to the million dollar range is huge. I will also be traveling to Columbia as much as once a month and as little as every other month. I will get to stop by to see mom and dad quite a bit!
I start during the third week in April and am looking forward to a long career with them. I do not want to go through this process again any time soon!!
