Update on my Job Search

This is just an update for those of you who are interested. Then what I plan to do is post about the good and bad experiences I have had with various interviews.

As some of you know, I returned to work last April after my husband's job did not work out. In addition to sending out resumes, I signed up with an employment agency for which I had worked in Los Angeles and always been placed with very professional companies. I only had one job interview with a non-recruiter, and then was placed by my agency at the position I am in now. I was led to believe by my manager that this was going to become a permanent position, and since I was being given more high-level work I decided to focus my energy on that and postponed my active job search. About three months ago I was given a different story, and told that they are not hiring for day shifts, and since I was not able to work nights/Saturdays, there was not going to be any permanent opportunity. In order to keep my resume intact and still have some income, I have remained as a temp while returning to the job of looking for a job. (So I am looking for a job, have a job, and have the job of mom and wife. And very little money to show for all of these "jobs"!)

Anyway, I have had a total of 4 interviews since I re-started the process. (In addition to one which turned out to be a recruiter.) I am currently waiting to hear back about two positions. One is my ideal job though not ideal salary, but they have been very remiss in following up on the position. While it is possible they have filled it already and never told me, my understanding from dealing with them is that most likely they just haven't made any progress towards hiring. The other job was a random position I applied for and very far away, but it would appear that I am seriously in the running for the job.

The interview process has allowed me to get insight into the good and bad way that companies handle things and I will post a few ideas over the next week. In the meantime, I am continuing to send out resumes and there are several positions which I would love to be interviewed for. (Although the one that looked great is really far away, but I am applying anyway.) I will keep everyone updated.

Misunderstandings

I just had an interesting experience and since it was in the blog world I thought I would share it on my blog. (Especially since I am overdue for a post.)

Let me start by saying that I have been trying to avoid blogging about "the issues" as there are plety of excellent blogs on these topics which I read regularly. I also tend not to comment on these blogs because most of what I would say, usually gets said by others and I don't feel I have anything to add. Today I decided to comment on a post regarding seperate seating at weddings. As some of you know, DH and I had an "interesting" experience in this department when we got married. Basically, I was informed that certain people had to have seperate seating, including the boys and rabbis from my husband's yeshiva and my husband's family. (My SIL actually said, "If I have to sit with my husband I won't come.") We actually did a great job of getting everyone seated in a way that made them comfortable, even though it involved asking some couples who did not request it to sit seperately in order to fill the tables.

Then I found out afterwards that some of the boys who I went to the trouble of seating in this way had spent the morning before the wedding hitting on my single friends. Now, I would love to have introduced them to each other and had them socialize - but they and their yeshiva don't agree that this is appropriate. Great, I respect their view. But there was no reason for the seating to be the main issue - if you beleive that men and women shouldn't socialize in that setting, then don't. The external things like seating aren't going to help you if you don't behave the way that you believe you should behave.

Now, that said, Rabbi Harry Maryles is one of the blogs that most often says exactly what I beleive on these issues. He has a following of both people who strongly agree and those who strongly disagree, and unfortunately his comments section often turns into a personal battle between the same five posters from these two camps. Rabbi Maryles is great and has even been corresponding with my husband off-blog, but some of these disagree-ers can be pretty harsh. He posted today about the seating issue. So I basically wrote what I just said above, but I wrote in a way that I hoped would keep me from being bashed by the disagree-ers. Apparently I did too good a job of watching what I said. One of the people with whom I pretty much agree compeletly bashed my comment. Apparently I came off as Charedi ("ultra" Orthodox)! The fact is I agreed with a lot of what he said in his comment that was criticizing my comment - I just didn't agree that it applied to me! (For those of you who know me, I think you will find it interesting to see what he perceived my entire hashkafa to be from my two paragraph comment.)

But of course the reason he responded so harshly is because that is the tone of so many of the commenters and I think it is unfortunate. Mixed in with the bashing (from both sides) are always some amazingly insightful comments. Sometimes they are from a perspective which I do not share, but I am able to better understand how this other side sees things and that maybe they also have rational reasons for their views. Or, as in this case, we may even be in agreement if we can calm down long enough to hear what the other person is saying.