Friday, January 12, 2024

ARTICLE #1: What brings us here? How did "The Blog." come to be?


ABSTRACT:   Part 1 -  The state of the Adult Learning Job Market (with supporting data) from the perspective of someone (me) needing to find work, and how it organically led to the creation of "The Blog."   Part 2 -  We know why "The Blog." Now, we find out how "The Blog."  


Introduction


...Why does creating this first post bring back haunting memories of me also making my first post on MySpace in 1999?  Looks like we've come full circle in the social media universe...

This first entry is going to be all about giving you some context surrounding why I've developed this blog.  It accidentally also provides a snapshot of the Adult Learning Job Market's current state, using the data I've collected from my application process.  I've also included the insights from several Recruiters of organizations that ultimately declined my application, who do not want to be specifically mentioned or tagged (so I won't name them).

We're going to be touching upon several different dimensions of why we're here at "The Blog," so buckle up, secure any loose belongings, and make sure to keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times!



Today's Opus



Part 1


So, as you may know, I've been looking for work after being laid off in June of 2023. My last employer went through a major reorg, and the position they created for me was eliminated.

This is not to say I've just been sitting around eating cereal and watching Unsolved Mysteries.  I've been a very busy lady!


Quite literally, I have made looking for work my full-time job. I typically spend between 30 and 40 hours every week actively pursuing employment in one way or another, including trolling through several job boards and applying for remote, full-time, direct-hire positions within my field: Adult Learning and Development (otherwise known as Training).

With all that time spent looking for work, you might think that I'm just being overly picky and passing up offers right and left. Or maybe you think that I'm exaggerating.  Or perhaps I need to start working smarter, not harder...

Not at all the case!  Let's break it all down, shall we?


The raw data:

As of this very moment, since June 1 of 2023 (a total of 242 days at  the time of this post), I've sent out 579 applications and 286 have not passed the initial screening 

Meaning, I got the canned "It's not you, it's us," email without ever talking to anyone.

That's an average of 4 applications per day (including weekends and holidays) or 28 applications per week.  Know that I do take "days off" on occasion, but since I have all the job board apps on my phone pushing notifications to me, I'm constantly getting little "bings and boops and badges,"... So, I'm constantly looking.  But I typically save the actual footwork of sending out an application for my normal business hours.

A typical application takes me roughly 10 to 60 minutes each, depending upon the host or level of detail required. Indeed is the fastest customizable "Easy Apply" with LinkedIn's "Easy Apply" a close second.  

If it's an "Easy Apply" process, we're looking at 10 to 12 minutes to complete from start to finish.  That includes the time to tailor my cover letter and make some tweaks to my resume, and then log my application in my tracker. And my tracker is a real beauty, let me tell you, I LOVE my spreadsheets!.

Suppose it's a process where the job board redirects me to the Careers page of the organization. In that case, we're looking at 20 to 25 minutes total for the "Apply With Social Media" route, approximately 30 to 40 minutes total with the "Prefill with Resume Upload" route, or about 45 to 60 minutes for the "Manually Upload Information" option.  

The time consumption has to do with the level of proofreading and customizing I have to do to adjust my documents to the frames and formats of the ERP system the hiring folks use.  But I've got that down to a science, and I figure that anyone with a CV that's like mine will have a similar time consumption experience.  Hopefully, your resume is not a true narrative CV like mine and is more of a bulleted snapshot of your career.

Side Note #1: The nature and history of my wordiness is probably worthy of a separate blog post, so, stay tuned. There's a reason why I haven't really embraced being a minimalist when it comes to vocabulary and language.

So, again, the whole application process itself is an onerous task.  4 applications per day could take me 4 to 6 hours because of the need to adjust the format and content. 

Side Note #2:  Remind me to tell you about a pretty sneaky and widespread resume scam that's going on around the job-hunting circles regarding formatting to get better traction with the screening 'bots.  I almost fell for it.  Almost!  Thank goodness my spidey sense kicked in at the last second, before I started spending money.  But, I'll save that for another blog entry  I don't want to numb you with too much at first (Although I'm sure, based on the length of this post so far, that bird has already flown the coop...  Yes, yes, yes.  I'm wordy, wordy, wordy.  Sigh!).

But wait, there's more!  There are tons of other things I do, too during those 40 hours per week, that are less common but still take a significant time investment.  


  • I'm also following up on 4 to 5 past applications per week; ones where I haven't had a response but thought I'd be a good fit. 
  • I'm sending a follow-up thank you email to anyone I speak with
  • I'm obsessively making revisions to my templates (resume and cover letter) based on recruiting trends I see on LinkedIn or Indeed (like adding trending keywords or phrases to better align with the language of the biz to grab a Recruiter's eye).  
  • Finally, to make sure I'm staying fresh and stretching my learning muscles, I'm also attending at least 3 free webinars per week.  This ensures that I'm maintaining my corporate immersion, building professional skills/knowledge, grabbing certifications when possible, and taking copious notes, in case I want to create my own materials for the leadership development concepts that an organization might find useful. 

So, my days are full.  That's a good thing!


But where is it getting me?  We're 242 days out and my response rate is just under 50%.  Per most Recruiters, that's par for the course.  But what's my "take" rate   That metric will tell me whether or not what I'm putting out there is a quality product.

By the way, this is one of the ways ROI is calculated, so you Trainers might want to follow along a little more closely.

579 applications out.  286 declinations back.  Are you still with me?


Now, of the remaining 293 applications that are floating around in cyberspace, I have had 43 "positive responses."  I qualify a 'positive response' as getting some kind of contact from an actual human being.  Let me explain a tiny bit more for those of you who may be new to the market.

I've received an automated "acknowledgment" email or text for all but a small handful (truly, maybe 10 total) of applications.  These emails are automatically created and sent by the ATS 'bots.  Sometimes they claim to be a real person, but they're not.  I've since learned that this is one of the places where the new, more worrisome form of AI technology (actual human replacement) has begun to take hold in the most common HRIS packages.  So, I can't count automated responses in my take rate.  

So let's look at the bona fide human replies.  Of the 43 positive responses,

  • 34 of those moved me on to the initial interview with the Hiring Manager.  The rest became declinations or evaporated into the atmosphere
  • Of the 34 that got me in with the Hiring Manager, 28 thought I was great (or at least interesting) and moved me on to the panel interview.  The remainder became "Thanks but no thanks" or also dissipated like smoke.
  • Of those 28 "second yesses," 5 asked for a presentation, which I gave. After my dog and pony show, all 5 said that the decision was down to me and one other candidate. Ultimately, I received a declination for each of them (and one Recruiter even sounded tearful when she called me to tell me I didn't get the job).
  • Now we're down to 23.  Of those, 6 passed me onto a 3rd interview (typically with a VP or several Directors). Again, all 6 said it came down to me and one other individual. I was declined for all.
  • We're now at 17.  Even though I had been "sent" to the Hiring Manager, according to the Recruiters, I still received 12 "Dear John/Jane" emails thanking me for my efforts.  I'm assuming that those declinations are from the Managers reviewing my application and then giving the Recruiters a dirty look while telling those poor TA souls that they're losing their knack for discernment.
  • I still have yet to hear back from the 5 places where I've gone through the whole selection process. I've sent some additional gentle nudges via email (beyond my normal "It's been two weeks and I haven't heard from you, so what's the scoop?" follow-up email) to try to solicit some kind of update or response. 

So, with all that, I calculate my take rate to be approximately 43%. That's not too shabby, per the Recruiters I've been networking with.  

Now, that could change in a heartbeat.  I could very well get 250 "We like what we see on paper, let's have a quick call to really get started," messages tomorrow.  Doubtful 

Side Note #3:  Although... Last night I did receive a positive response (a request to schedule a screening call) for a Federal job I applied for back in August, so I guess anything is possible.

No, the rest, I'm afraid, have, as my dear friend Nicole A. says, "ghosted" me. 

Side Note #4:  250 Ghosts is a very scary haunted house, indeed!

But what, here, is the "low-hanging fruit" that I can grab to decrease my "ghostability?"  That will take a little more digging...

I've got all my data together, so now I have to look at my part in all this. Am I being a snobby brat and not applying to jobs that are beneath me?  Yes and no.


Sure, I could totally start over in my career and take an entry-level position in retail or food service or the like.  But many organizations don't like people who are overqualified just as much as they don't like people who are underqualified.  

And I've been in the Adult Learning industry for so long (around 20 years) that if I were to make a major shift in my career path, I'd need to go to a trade school like DeVry or Lincoln Tech, or as my mother, Deborah Duffy says, "the Robert Fiance School of Beauty," or similar to get up to snuff for some of the more viable job markets.

I've come to learn it's truly my specific industry of Adult Learning/Training that is super unyielding right now.  I love my little list of Recruiters that I can tap on the shoulder to get a quick answer or some advice.  

Side Note #5:  I strongly suggest you stay in touch with Recruiters through LinkedIn while you search for work. They are a BRILLIANT resource for this stuff.  I've managed to create a little Recruiting think tank for myself by networking there.

So, what about starting over within my niche?  Let's examine what I've been doing surrounding that to see if I need to change something.


I don't think my department, role, or responsibility standards are too high: I've been applying for entry-level Specialist positions, entry-level Supervisor positions, as well as Manager positions, Director positions, and even Contract/Consultant work.  So title and level of responsibility flies out the window.

I've been applying to L&D, HR, Ops, Instructional Design, Learning Analytics, Quality, Business Development, and Project Management departments... I've cast a very broad net, so I'm good there, too.

Now it comes down to the dirty little thing that makes everyone uncomfortable.  Compensation.  Am I being greedy?


This is where my love of Glassdoor explodes onto the scene with fireworks and fanfare.

My salary requirements/expectations still put me at the VERY bottom of the pay scale for my field...  WHAT???  Yes, it's true.


That's mainly because I've grown accustomed to a level of pay that (and I didn't find this out until I left the company and looked on Glassdoor) has been approximately $10K - $20K below the industry standard

One of my core principles is to be aware of how much space and resources I'm consuming.  My husband and I are continually reminding ourselves to "Leave a small footprint."  Accordingly,  we try to not take more than we're given, and, if at a buffet, for example, only take what we need.  So on applications, I've been asking for the base minimum standard pay for the industry, knowing even THAT is $10K more than I was making as the senior-most Learning Manager in the US Region for my former employer.

And to think that I was one of the highest-paid L&D Managers in the US!

All this makes me fairly confident that I'm not being an elitist and avoiding jobs that are "beneath" me, or that don't pay well, as my only standard there is that I don't make less than what I made before.

So, where the heck is that low-hanging fruit I was talking about?


Back to my little synod of Recruiters I go for their advice on where I can improve things and move that darned needle.

Every single one of them said the same thing - Two things are negatively impacting my hiring these days:


1.  There are scores of Training Specialists, Training Leads, and Training Managers in the market right now, all because of the financial insecurity of post-pandemic corporate America.  SCORES upon SCORES of them! 

Recruiters get, typically, between 500 and 2,500 resumes for a single remote, full-time training position.

Why are there so many of us out there right now?  Now, that answer does come back to money.  Let's discuss downsizing, shall we?


When a company needs to cut costs, it always looks at non-revenue-generating groups first for possible downsizing. I assume they think it's better to cut Trainers and have Operations staff (like SMEs) perform knowledge transfers or upskilling. There is even a trend towards having SMEs and Supervisors lead onboardingHaving non-training employees perform training, to an Adult Learning Professional, is far scarier, and provides more job insecurity than any new AI technology or asynchronous eLearning could ever do, I promise you

Just so you fine employed folks can read the writing on the wall (God forbid you'd ever have to), the order of a revenue-based downsizing usually goes like this, in rough order: 

  1. Trainers - non-revenue generating
  2. TA Recruiters - non-revenue generating, but very important in the potential of revenue.  However, if the organization is reducing its workforce, it doesn't need folks who specialize in that.  It needs the other side of HR, the HR Generalists, who are the very last to go
  3. QA folks - non-revenue generating, but deemed slightly more important to the sustainability of the business
  4. Operational Team Leads - usually non-revenue generating, but even more important than QA and Training because they directly manage the front line
  5. HR folks - non-revenue generating, but more important than TLs and QA because they're dealing with the reduction-in-force 
  6. Middle Managers - non-revenue generating, but vital as they can take on teams while TLs are being let go, they are usually client-stakeholder-facing, and they are managing the ramp-down
  7. Frontline Employees - revenue generators to the MAX!!  These folks are sacred!

All the while, a strong "performance management" initiative is usually taking place company-wide, in order to hasten natural attrition/turnover. If, at the end of the initial downsizing period, enough "fluff" hasn't been removed to get to the EBITDA  & net income margins, THEN companies start looking at cutting the revenue-makers.  Meaning, front-line employee layoffs.  

So, if you start seeing that your trainers are going increasingly missing, it's probably a good idea to dust off your resume and update it.


The upshot of all this is that right now there is a glut of learning professionals just like me competing for the same jobs and employers can have their pick! They can find someone that has EXACTLY the skills, proficiencies, and experience they're looking for, versus finding a "close alignment."

The competition, then, becomes more fierce between candidates.


In person, I'm a gem! People LOVE me! I'm every employer's dream employee, and I'm probably exactly what employers are looking for in an Adult Learning Manager, given how broad my experience is in the field.  I've had to do (and master) it all, so I'm kind of a big deal to have in your back office.

I've got the experience, the smarts, and the moxie, and I KNOW I would be a fun, innovative, and profitable asset to any company that would hire me. In person, I'm a rockstar.

But on paper? Sure, I look okay.  Lots of experience.  Lots of different hats in the same industry.  Stayed with a single employer for more than 2 or 3 years.  Got some awards.  I have a Bachelor's from a major UniversityPristine background check results (not even a ticket on my record).  I volunteer.  I can communicate well and with a lot of fancy corporate jargon and buzzwordsGlowing references from peers, direct reports, business partners, and leaders.  Yeah. I'm cool. 

The Recruiters say my resume is nice and tight. But, they say, I don't have any letters after my name, nor do I have any certifications from the "big dog" industry credentialers (like ATD or SHRM or ICF). So, if it comes down to two rockstars, one with all sorts of alphabet soup after their name, and the other being me... 

Guess who gets the final pass?


Unfortunately, I do not have the financial means, on my own, to get those precious little letters... and especially not now while I'm out of work and pinching every penny.

For example, the CPTD exam (Think of it as an attorney's "Bar Association" exam, but instead for Adult Learning professionals) itself, costs $1350.00, and that doesn't even include related courses, prep work, study materials, etc... 

  • Total cost of getting a CPTD Certification for the average Adult Learning professional is roughly $4650.00, all told. 
  • Total cost for the CPTM Certification is more economical (though focused on Training Management only) at $3495.00 total. 
  • Recertification for both credentials is $200.00 per year. I can swing that, at least. 

Here's an infographic comparing the two, if you're interested.

Luckily, most legit organizations will gladly pay for a CPTD, CPTM, SHRM, or ICF certification. Especially if you're a rockstar who can prove the ROI of it.


Until my most recent supervisor, I was well on my way to getting the CPTD (Back then, it was still called CPLP).

  • I had formed a study group, and the VP of L&D (Miss you, Michelle B.!) had given me access to all her course materials plus more, from her certification.
  • I was an upstanding and participating member of my local ATD chapter
  • I was about to register for the next exam that would have taken place in the next quarter.

But alas, a reorg happened that re-routed my hierarchy to our brothers and sisters in Central America, the VP of L&D moved on to greener pastures, and all formal professional development for the US training faculty screeched to a halt.

So, no fancy letters or certifications are attached to my name for now.  But I'm going to make sure my next employer gets me some!


2. Most Recruiters will never get to see my resume because of the screening parameters they've entered into their software platforms that will eliminate ineligible candidates in an effort to (understandably) reduce their workload.

That really stinks! 


But, remember, you can't blame the 'bots. They only pump out what's put in. Even with the trend in AI, they're still only as smart as we make them!

It doesn't matter which recruitment software or platform a TA team uses.  ATS is a thing, yes, but one Recruiter told me that using an ATS only results in a 10% loss of eligible candidates.  For the most part, ATS works just as it should.

This has little to do with the 'bots or the software, really.


In fact, I'm grateful that recruiters finally have something to help them cull through the gagillion resumes they get. I've seen firsthand how crazy and hectic and stressful the hiring process can be (especially for companies with rapid growth), so I know how using the screening mechanism of an ERP like iCIMS or SuccessFactors or Workday can be a veritable Godsend. So, the machine is not the underlying issue...

And don't blame the Recruiters, either.  You leave them alone!


It's more a problem with the whole Recruiting/Talent Acquisition industry, itself.  If you want someone to blame, blame the organizational designers who compete for revenue, capital, and market share and so don't share their structures, back-end office resource maps, strategies, institutional and organizational designs, etc...  

Gotta love what the 1950s and 1980s did for us socio-economically and politically, huh?  Sigh.  Ah, Capitalism!  Gotta look out for numero uno, you know?!


Side Note #6:  Nope. I'm not going to get much more political than that in this forum since it wouldn't be appropriate.  I find it best to keep politics, religion, sex, and whether Pepsi is better than Coca-Cola (It is.) out of anything that touches my work.  Not only do I not want to alienate anyone with my personal views, I don't want to stir the pot, since I feel that's irresponsible.  Look, I'm all for "getting folks woke," but only if you have something for them to DO once you wake them.  Otherwise, you've got a bunch of unorganized, angry, sleepy malcontents with no direction and a bunch of renewed and refreshed hate running around unleashed in our community.  Sorry, but I'm going to just stay over here and eat my granola while I buckle up my Birkenstocks and get my drum ready for tonight's circle in the park.

Nope.  The problem is this:

There is no standard/common taxonomy for the Recruiting industry. 


In one place you'd be considered a "Trainer," in another, you're an "Organizational Development Counselor," and in yet another you're a "Talent Development Specialist."  

You might be in the Learning Services Department at one company, but in Learning & Development at another and in Operations Development in a third place.  

And that's even if you're in a company that recognizes the autonomic needs of Learning and Development at all!

Side Note #7:  I foresee another potential blog post here...  Why Learning departments function best when they are hierarchically independent of other departments.  Hmmm... I'm going to chew on that for a bit, first.

At any rate, just under half of the country's organizations have 100% autonomous Learning groups.  The other half all have L&D, to one degree or another, under the responsibility of HR, or QA or Operations, or even Business Development or Organizational Development or Change Management Groups.  

And because there's no collaboration between external corporate entities (meaning CPOs and COOs don't play "nice" in the sandbox together... and they definitely don't share their favorite toys), the only time this level of strategic knowledge is exchanged between institutions is when someone in the Executive Suite leaves one place to try out the greener pastures elsewhere.  They likely will bring their stuff with them.  Otherwise, the knowledge remains miserly guarded in the Ivory Tower.

Silo Mentality
Side Note #8:  Listen, transformation is great!  Progression is great!  Improving upon an antiquated idea or concept is great!  Having an iterative process for growth is great!  It's Evolution for crying out loud!  It's how we came out of the primordial mud to stand upright and make tools and decide if we want chicken fries with our Whopper.  But you're only paying lip service to the concept if you're not sharing for the common good, beyond your silo.  It's an unnecessary bottleneck.  I honestly think that's why institutions like Google and Linux are so blazingly innovative and ridiculously influential Being an "open source" thinker is how we can not only celebrate diversity of thought, but also create structure by universally agreed-upon benchmarks and parameters... benchmarks like, (big gasp)... standardized hiring taxonomies.


The silo mentality (especially if played out on a regional or global field) is holding us back and slowing us down.  

Divergent Taxonomy Infographic
I remember working with a "Material Developer" from Minneapolis, named Paul.  We were collaborating on a project for a major express shipping company, doing what I had always considered Instructional Design (ID).  

I happened to mention that I couldn't wait until our ID team was available again (they were backlogged), because re-branding the materials the program he created from one client to the next was BORING.  

At first, he was super confused and said that he hoped not, because the IDs were so out of the loop with graphic design tools, all they'd end up doing was making a bunch of ugly, text-filled slide show decks!

That got me confused because all of the IDs I knew were graphic designers first and Adult Learning professionals second.  I told him it was the Developers who worked in concept/strategy, but the Designers were the ones who put pen to paper. After a crazy conversation that got me dizzy and a little seasick, I was able to discern who did what and what their role was called.  I actually had to create an infographic for myself!


The point is...?


In order to get your resumes through the ATS, through the 'bots and into the inbox of a Recruiter, you have to use the same language, key phrases and buzzwords that the corporate culture does.  And that may not be 100% just by looking at the job posting.  

The temptation is to just add ALL the words in one way or another to hedge your bets.  So now you've whipped out your thesaurus and you're adding all sorts of variants of every skill and tool you have, just so the ATS will say "Hey, look, team!  We've got a 79% skill match here, you should check 'em out!"

Side Note #9:  Whoa! Don't forget, you've got to keep that resume to around two pages, so you have to be very economical with your words. That's why it's so very important that you closely read the job descriptions, yes, but you also need to go to the corporate website to get the vibe, see how they classify information (particularly responsibilities and skills), and adjust your resume (not just your cover letter) with each submission.

Nope.  That's it.  I've hit a wall.  My brain hurts.  I'm tired of having to count character lengths in fields to see how many versions of "Training," or "Learning" I can cram into my resume and cover letter.  It's no wonder that resume-writing services and employment brokers are super hot right now!  And I feel like every day I get a knock on my virtual LinkedIn IM door asking if I would like an ATS version of my resume, or if I wanted some help reaching out to companies that are hiring.  Nope, nope, nope.

Not only does that feel suspiciously like a racket or pyramid scheme or something, but I'm tenacious (and stubborn) enough to just figure it out and do it myself, goshdarnit!

Which brings us to our next destination.  Please wait until the ride is at a complete stop before taking off your seatbelt, and please don't lean against the doors.



Part 2



Here we are: The Blog!


Because of all that I've discussed above, and the futility in trying to change something I can't control, I'm looking at alternative ways to get my face (albeit virtually) in front of a Recruiter.

The #1 priority in doing that, and this has been corroborated and endorsed by my ad hoc pocket team of TA gurus, is to grow and deepen my tool usage and skill set.  


One Recruiter suggested that to compensate for my lack of post-nominal accreditations (the alphabet soup),  I could expand my knowledge and practical experience with the latest tools and trends.  If successful in that, I should surely knock the socks off of the Hiring Manager's feet by being able to meaningfully discuss with them EXACTLY how I would leverage that knowledge/tool and experience to improve performance/delivery and save the day.  She advised that the only response from that person would then be "ATD who?  CPTD what?" I liked that idea.  A lot.

And guess what!  I'm doing it.   And it's all out there for free, too!  If I can do it, ANYBODY can do it (And it's not that difficult, either.  In fact, it is shockingly easy).


I'm already familiar with TONS of training and instructional design tools, but without having had a project for over a year (two years now, including the time I've been out of work), I have limited fresh hands-on practice for some of the more popular of them.

So, I finally caught on (after seeing the empty entry field asking for a Portfolio in LITERALLY hundreds of online job applications) and thought, "I'm going to make a website and toss some de-branded and heavily revised materials in that puppy!" 

I told my husband Billy:  "I'm 'today years old' when I learned that employers were putting that 'Portfolio Link' in their job applications because they want to see a portfolio!"  I can picture my friend Julius H. shaking his head at me and patting my knee like I was his dotty grandmother.

So, I started from scratch and did a Google search or two (or 40, I won't lie) on how to create a website, get a domain, and start a brand.  And then I embarked upon my practical, hands-on, intensive, and immersive experiential learning.  

Side Note #10:  Feeling the 70-20-10 model firsthand (albeit self-imposed, and where I'm not only the student but also the facilitator) is a real trip!  I'll have to monitor my progress and see what I can draw from this experience.

And now, I'm using my Portfolio Website to, yes, house my new and old work products, but also to truly become masterful (or at least refreshed) of every Adult Learning, Learning Analytics, Instructional Design, Gamification, Survey and Assessment, Reporting, Project Management, Remote Collaboration, and Event Planning tool I'm only vaguely familiar with.

I admit, I've been spoiled rotten.  


My previous employer had all sorts of neat tools and digital gizmos and doodads that I used.  But having to find the free version, and deploy from scratch is a VASTLY different experience than what I had been accustomed to.  Take blogging, for example.  Everything from selection to purchase to implementation had been handled when the tool was given to me to use.  All I needed to do was create an email with some images and formatting and click "Send." Within moments, my blog post was published on our intranet for all to enjoy.  

Here, through the More About Claudia adventure in "re-mastery," I had to teach myself how to go from a literally BLANK space to something that looked vaguely professional, organized, branded, and useful.  And not only that, but I have to work within the confines of the limited and locked-down free versions of everything.  The good news is that after this endeavor, I'll likely be MORE capable and qualified than the folks who are paid to just focus on acquisition and use!  Sorry (not sorry) L&D Coordinators and Instructional Designers!

Side Note #11:  The experience of discovering, acquiring, and utilizing each new (or newly revamped) definitely deserves its own post.  When I've got this project in "coast" mode, I'll circle back and create a post not only showing how you can get free versions of each important tool, but also a ranking of ones I found easy to learn and now can't live without (Canva) and ones that are downright irritating to use (Oracle's HRIS ERP).

I can now say that I've developed several mobile phone-based microlearnings (the free versions of Canva, Edapp, and Figma are SO COOL), which I'll be adding to the Work Product page of the website to join the email blast microlearning already there. I'm a video editor thanks to Camtasia's free version (it was only 7 days, though), I can gamify training in a heartbeat using Kahoot and Facebook, and I can create, host, and maintain a website (Buddha bless you, Google and GoDaddy) like a champ! 

The only social medium I didn't get a chance to utilize or play with through my former employer was Podcasting.  Now that is going to be EPIC.  Once I can get the More About Claudia website and satellite pages in a state of "update only," I plan on venturing out into that realm (with the help of my dear friend, who is already a successful podcaster, Nicole A. and her show "I, Me, Mine").

First, I master podcasting.  After that, the WORLD!!!  


Don't worry, though, as far as following my pocket Recruiters' advice, I'm doing other things to improve my passthrough rate, like getting a bevy of my former colleagues to endorse me and give me references on LinkedIn and for my portfolio. 

Side Note #12:  So far, every time I read one from one of them, I'm a puddle. I'm so honored to have gotten to know them!  Here's a shout-out to Skye B. Karen M. Shaunetta W. Mike S. Sid S. Nicole A. and AJ R. 
(Now you're officially immortalized in the Blog-u-Verse, peeps!)

I'm also taking every free course, certification, and training that I possibly can to grow my brain (toss registry of completion into the folders of my portfolio) and perhaps pinch to create new curricula and materials.

I'm still tightening the HECK out of my resume and cover letters, making sure to strategically adjust and align everything to each specific job I apply to.  I even used a little bit of AI to help with that.  Just so I could see the technology be applied to something other than creating a chatbot.  

As I wrap this up, I realize that I feel better about my job search this week than I have in MONTHS.  A little bit of elbow grease, along with a shift of focus seems to be a pretty solid remedy to the "Momma-ain't-got-no-job Blues."

Here's where I send a big note of gratitude to my best friend and cohort, my husband Billy Kersey. He has been such a supportive, kind, and accommodating partner during all this. I'm super grateful for that guy, let me tell you!


Take good care and make good choices,

(and check out my website... it's ALMOST done!)








1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very insightful. I'm sure more people would be interested in hearing your experience. Please continue to post!