I may no longer be an editor, but this still looks amazing.
Of course, it also looks frighteningly intimidating, as I've forgotten how to use all of the old functions, much less the new ones.
I may no longer be an editor, but this still looks amazing.
Of course, it also looks frighteningly intimidating, as I've forgotten how to use all of the old functions, much less the new ones.
As you might have surmised from the title of this post, today was the deadline for Massachusetts legislators to file bills for the upcoming legislative session. (Sessions last two years, bills filed by the deadline are guaranteed a committee assignment and public hearing. Bills filed after the deadline, known as "late-files," have to go through the Committee on Rules before they get assignments and are not guaranteed anything.) When I was still a wee intern just over a month ago my boss was finalizing the list of bills that he wanted to file for this sessions.
Many legislators who have been around for a while re-file a lot of bills. They take bills that didn't get made into law last time around for whatever reason and put them back through the ringer in the hopes that things will work out better this time around. (I have no idea how often re-files actually get passed on subsequent filings... that would be interesting to find out.) Because my boss was a firrst-term legislator last session he didn't have a lot of re-files. One, to be exact. So that meant that all of his bills had to be researched and drafted. When he reviewed the list of possible bills in November with his interns and at-the-time aide, he was able to pare down his list of 40 ideas to 12 or so workable bills.
Then I took over the aide job and have since been making sure that the bills got written. Some were drafted by outside forces but many were done in-house, largely by me subject to boss review. And of course the 12 that were decided on grew a little bit until, in the end, we filed 17 bills. (My boss was also involved heavily with 2 others that different legislators filed and listed him as a co-lead sponsor.)
And that's the civics lesson for today, kids. On our next episode we'll discuss committee assignments and all the ways bills die before their time.
I had a moment of epiphany at work today: This job is unlike any other I've held. It's completely different. For one, I've never worked in a cubicle before. Not since spending summers at my dad's dental office have I dealt with this much paperwork. I'm not saying either are a bad thing, but right now they're both still very novel experiences.
Secondly, I can't think of the last time I had to deal with so much new stuff at once. It's a little scary at times, how much I don't know about this job, but it's also exhilarating. It's not like I've never worked in an office before, but doing this sort of work the flow is completely different and there's definitely a learning curve. I've found that during these initial days there's a lot of note-taking. I assume that once I'm more used to the names and tasks I won't have to write quite so much down. I'm glad that I'm able to start now, when things are relatively quiet. By the time things get busy in January and February I should at least feel a little more solid on my feet.
I've been working since Tuesday, getting brought up to speed on the processes and goings-on of a state rep's office. Today my employment became official when I filled out paperwork! (oooh...)
So now I'm an employee of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The transition has been going well. I feel comfortable that I'm learning my way around the office and the building, and I know that much of what I have to learn I'm just going to end up picking up as I go along. The outgoing aide can't really prep me for what the budget process will be like in 5 months. For now it's more about getting up to speed with what's currently happening so that nothing falls through the cracks.
This week has actually been pretty exhausting, though. In addition to the new job, I'm still finishing my old one. We ended up doing a poll about people's opinions regarding a proposed state income tax cut and I've been running the phone banks every night this week. So that means 12-13 hour days for most of the week. Fortunately we finished the poll tonight and I can likely look forward to a more regular schedule from here on out.
What I'm not quite used to yet are regular work hours. My schedule since moving back to Boston has been completely variable, yet now I find myself commuting during rush hour (which, by the way, is a hassle in and of itself, but that's a post for another time).
The short version is that things are good and I'm looking forward to a relatively lazy weekend.
I accepted the job. I'll probably start tomorrow. Today is reserved for laundry.
It's funny the way things work out.
I've been applying for jobs working with state legislators. I've pursued every opening that I've heard of and gone after the newly elected legislators as well. And while I wait for that process to work out I've been getting some experience interning for a sitting state rep.
So today I go in to my internship and the legislator takes me out to lunch (a nice gesture, I thought, for the work I've been doing). It turns out that his current aide had to give notice for personal reasons and he offered the job to me!
I haven't officially accepted (I wanted to take a day or two to let it sink in), but there's really no reason that I wouldn't accept this job. Sure, it could be more prestigious working for the new governor's administration, but that was a long-shot at best and even if I did get hired I'd probably be at the low end of the totem pole in whatever office I was working. Working as an aide to a state rep I'd be given a good bit of responsibility and have a wide set of duties. And after two years I'd be in a better position to springboard to something bigger.
Before I officially accept I'm going to at least check in with the legislator with whom I already interviewed and give him the courtesy of knowing what's going on. Unfortunately his office has been delayed in their hiring process because his outgoing aide hasn't gotten a start date yet for her new job. I also have two interviews scheduled for next week. I'll have to get in touch with those incoming legislators and cancel.
Oh, and the other exciting thing is that this job starts pretty much ASAP, as opposed to the others which wouldn't start until January. Gotta love a paycheck.
Today I drafted my first bill!
While I'm in the process of job hunting (2 interviews scheduled for next week, a few more people I've been talking to about jobs), I have also been interning part-time at the office of a state rep who I've known since last summer.
A little background info: Massachusetts has 2-year terms for all state legislators and as such the legislative sessions are also 2-year terms, starting when elected officials are sworn in and ending the day before that happens again. The filing deadline for bills is shortly before the end of the legislative session, which has been coming up.
The Rep I'm working with has accumulated over the last 2 years a list of possible bill ideas and he wants to work through them before the term is over. Right now he has about 40 and wants to pare that down to 10 or so to actually develop and submit. So I'm working as a researcher to help him with that process. It certainly can't hurt to get state house experience, considering I'm angling for a job in the state house.
The bill I've been working on is modeled on a local ordinance in Provincetown, MA that offers property tax breaks to landlords who rent units to low-income families at reduced rates. Basically it solves the problem of there not being enough affordable housing while being more affordable than the voucher system that currently exists.
So I've done a few days of research on the bill and we have it at a point where we know the broad strokes but have yet to iron down the details (how is low-income status measured? how are the rental rates set? how much is the incentive?). Regardless, today I was tasked to write a first draft of the bill and include footnotes outlining the different options we've considered. This way the Rep can take what we have and start discussing it with other interested parties and legislators and get some feedback.
So really it's a small thing but I was very excited to be drafting my first piece of legislation.
The last time a Democrat was a first-term governor of Massachusetts was in 1979 (Ed King, serving between Dukakis' first and second terms). So it's really been almost 27 years since there was a Democrat in charge of the transition into the corner office of the state house.
The result of that dry spell is that right now no one knows how this works. I know a lot of people who are pretty plugged in to state politics, but they are as clueless as everyone else when it comes to the timetable and protocol for what's going on right now.
The reason this effects me is because I'm looking for a job, and everything is in transition, but no one knows how, so they can't quite tell me who I need to be talking to or how long this will all take. Additionally, even the offices that everyone is familiar with - state legislative seats - are also in flux because there will be appointments, but again no one knows when or who.
So the job hunt continues...
Work and life (and general apathy towards the blog) kept me from posting since about two months ago after the primary, but now that all of the elections are over I have a little more time on my hands, so I'll fill you in.
As you all may have heard, the Democrats won a few elections on Tuesday. I, however, spent the day volunteering for the only Democrat in the country who didn't win. It was a state rep campaign in a district that has always been Republican and we lost by 2%, which in this race meant around 300 votes.
I couldn't stay too depressed, though, because Deval Patrick is my new governor and we took the US house and senate!
And now that the elections are over and done with, I'm on to bigger and better things. Well, I hope I'm on to something soon, at least. I've already started the job hunt and had a few interviews in recent weeks. I met with an incumbent state rep who is looking for a new aide and I met with a progressive lobbyist who's looking for an associate. The aide job is still looking promising. I know they want to bring me back for another interview, but they aren't sure when yet. The lobbyist job won't work out. The guy liked me a lot but he wants someone who's committed to putting the next decade into the job, and that's not me right now. He did give me a few contacts for other opportunities, though, and I'm pursuing them.
I also have some loose ends to tie off at the old place. Things like disconnecting phone lines, processing payrolls, etc. Not too exciting, but enough to give me a few more weeks of paid work, at least.
I feel like I should be working to get a job in the Deval Patrick administration, but right now I just don't know who to talk to for that. I'm working my connections, but things are still in the early stages of the transition, so I think it's a matter of staying on top of things and waiting to hear about what's going on.
And hey, if nothing works out there are always about 30 new Democratic congressmen who will be staffing up in DC...
Election day has come and gone, and the great news is that Deval Patrick won. Unfortunately, the state rep candidate I was working with did not. We had an awesome GOTV effort on election day, but in the end the race came down to huge turnout in the largest town of the district, where my guy didn't stand a chance next to the one who was related to half the town.
And now I have less than 48 hours before I go to LA for a week. There's quite a bit to do in that time. In addition to packing I have to make sure that everything is taken care of for work next week. So no rest for the weary. Fortunately I should be able to relax a little once I'm in LA.
Yesterday a friend of a friend mentioned to me that the PR firm where he works is rapidly expanding, and if I know anyone looking for a job, I should send them his way. This was rather fortuitous, seeing as I will soon be in need of a new job. So I said I might be interested and today he and I sat down over lunch and discussed the work and the company.
Here's my problem: I don't know what I want to be doing in 10 years. If I knew that, then I'd have a better sense of what I should be doing between now and then.
The PR firm where this friend of a friend works specializes in technology and biomedical IT. Basically, they make sure that media and industry analysyts know what their clients are up to and write nice things about them. They also have a government relations arm (and this is where I become interested) that makes sure that legislators on The Hill know what's going on in these fields when it relates to public policy and legislative issues.
Once you get beyond the state level, people don't seem to work their way up the legislative aide ladder. They spend a decade or two in another field and then cross over when an opportunity presents. So if I one day want to run for office or work for someone in higher office, what should I be doing between now and then?
My concern with the PR job would be that I'd find myself in a similar position to where I ended up in LA. I moved to LA to be a director, got a job as an editor, settled down into it, but after a while I got frustrated because I wasn't fulfilled. I don't want to put another 2+ years into a job only to find myself just showing up and zoning out.
I still need to figure out what my other options are going to be after this job is finished. There's still the possibility of finding a state house aide job, and I'm looking into different positions with non-profit groups focusing on a variety of sectors. It's going to be interesting to see how all of this plays out.
It's no secret that I can be something of a bottler, emotionally speaking. It's easier for me to keep it to myself than tell someone when they're pissing me off. I don't like confrontation and I'm not great at moderation. I'm either passive or really pissed.
I need to work on that.
My job, of late, has challenged my bottling abilities, because there's so much to be pissed at. My boss is AWOL half the time and I'm left to pick up the pieces. Some of our employees at the phone banks are good on the phones but terrible when it comes to actually showing up on time. I don't want to be obsessive about every detail, because I don't think that helps anyone, but I need to get better at telling people (especially when I'm their boss) when they need to do something better.
And I really need to give my boss a piece of my mind. My work load is twice what it should be because I'm carrying both of us and covering his ass half the time. And what's worse is that the work we're doing isn't of the caliber that it should be because everything happens at the last minute.
If this weren't a short-term employment situation, I'd seriously consider finding a new job, but since I'm going to be doing that anyways after the elections, there's no reason to unemploy myself for extra months, especially when I'm committed to the campaigns that we're working for (not to mention enjoying a regular paycheck.
I don't mind being responsible, and I'm always going to pick up the slack when things need to get done, but I need to figure out a way to do it that doesn't turn me into a tightly-wound ball of rage.
As many of you know, a large component of my job involves polling, and to complete the polls we hire callers to administer the surveys. We have a lot of people that we work with repeatedly, but occasionally we find ourselves short and have to resort to Craigslist to fill our call center.
Should anyone reading this ever feel the desire to respond to one of our job listings, here are a few pointers.
1. Notice the line, "Experience is not necessary. Good phone skills and attention to detail are!" If attention to detail is important, then why would you send me an email full of typos? I'm not even talking about commonly misspelled words here. I'm talking about omitted letters ("I just ecently read your ad on craigslist...") and sentences that show little or no comprehension of the english language. One of my favorites had a 9-digit phone number - 617-555-123. (not the real number)
2. There are some simple instructions listed in the job posting. If you want the job, you should email me with your phone number, availability, and office preference (we have two locations). Now, there are some people who send just this information, and that's fine. There are others who include a brief statement of interest, and that's fine. There are those who attach a resume, which is completely unnecessary, but that's fine too.
What you should not do is ONLY attach a resume with nothing else. I don't want to open your resume in Word. Nor should you send me a one line email saying, "hey man, im interested in this job do you still need people?" I did still need people, but the people I need include their phone number in the email.
3. Free email addresses are easy to get. I won't discount you on your email address alone, but getting an application from 'babycudlz2@-------.com' is not a plus.
4. Then there's the matter of simple email etiquette. ALL CAPS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE.
HELLO MY NAME IS ---------.MY AVAILABILITY IS M-F FROM 10-4 BUT IF NEEDED CAN WORK WEEKENDS.I WOULD LIKE TO WORK AT THE PARK ST LOCATION.MY PHONE NUMBER IS 617--------.PLEASE CALL IN THE AFTERNOON IF NOT AVAILABLE LEAVE A MESSAGE.
4. And while I appreciate the effort put into a thought-out, well-written letter of interest, I can see through the generic one that you sent to everyone else.
To whom it may concern/ Hiring Manager:
I am very interested in the call center/ phone survey position(s) opening in BOSTON, MA. in which I became aware of through Craigslist / Jobster.com.
As you can see by my enclosed resume my employment through the years have involved customer service, data entry and retail sales.
What I bring to the table, as a potential employee is dedication, accuracy& precision, efficiency, hard work and also determination to get the job done regardless of the time and effort involved.
I am looking forward to discussing my qualifications in further detail, if asked to appear for an interview. I would also provide references both character and work related at that time along with a follow-up phone call.
Thank you, for your time and consideration within this matter.
I also don't need to know your job application strategy.
5. To sum up, let me explain how this works. You email me with your phone number. I call you. If you sound half-competent, I schedule you to come in and make phone calls. It's really quite simple, so why do you all make it so difficult?
Today I got to take a meeting all by myself. I drove out to western Massachusetts to meet with a candidate for state rep and pitched him our services. Usually I go to these meetings with my boss and he does most of the talking, but today he had other work to attend to.
I think the meeting went really well. We're going to put together a proposal for the candidate and hopefully get to do some work for his campaign soon. So today was a good day.
I'm nearing the end of my first full week of paid work in nearly 10 months. It's been a pretty busy week and I'm already starting to encounter some of the things about this job that will present the biggest challenges for me.
1. Time management - In my previous jobs, I've had the benefit of only being able to work at work. I couldn't very well take the editing system home with me, could I? Even though I was freelance, the jobs had an inherent regimented structure. This one, not so much. I've spent most of my week working at home on my sofa. I'll do some research, start my laundry, eat something, make some phone calls, etc. While I'm getting what I need to done, I've had a few days where I just didn't feel satisfied because I was too scattered. It's going to be a valuable experience for me to force myself to manage my time better without outside structure.
2. People Management - Part of my job is trying to organize my boss, which is no easy task. (For the record, even if he were to read this at some point, I'm sure he would agree with me.) He's great at what he does, but I don't think I've ever seen the man arrive at an meeting or event on time. Those of you who know me know that things like being late and disorganized can stress me out, so working directly under someone who's a bit scattered may drive me crazy. I'll have to find the right balance between helping him organize what I can and being okay with the stuff that I can't control.
When I started writing this, I thought I'd have more than two points to make, but now I don't remember what else I had to say. This week has been productive and I'm definitely glad I accepted this job because it feels good to be working right now.
This weekend the Massachusetts Democratic party hosted a 2-day seminar on campaign tactics. There were presentations by some people who train on the national level all across the country and also by local campaign workers and consultants.
I honestly didn't learn a whole lot of new information. Most of what I've picked up on the various campaigns I've volunteered on was reinforced by everyone there. However, the weekend was still a huge success. I was able to meet (or re-introduce myself to) a lot of party officials and activists from all over the state. My new boss and I also spoke with some candidates that we hope to do polling or consulting for during the coming campaign season.
Additionally, I got to participate in some great discussions with people about the state of the Democratic party both in Massachusetts on the local level and also nationally. One of the presenters who I spoke with has worked with Clinton, Gore, and most recently John Kerry on both his campaign and as part of his staff. We had a great debate over better ways to incorporate younger activists into the party's efforts.
Tomorrow I'm meeting with my boss to go over everything from the weekend and plan this week. We're meeting tomorrow evening with a state rep candidate about doing polling and consulting in the near future. What's awesome is that I'm loving the networking part of this job. Just meeting and talking with so many different people has been awesome.
today I get an email about an aide position with a good progressive Rep with whom I have contacts.
Oh well.
As of today (retroactively effective March 1st), I am now a full-time salaried political consultant!
It feels good to know that I'm getting paid this month.
Right now it's 15 degrees outside...
So I'm seriously considering the consulting gig. I'm really tired of being unemployed and even if it's good for nothing else, I'll meet a lot of people and get some more experience under my belt. I'm going to make some calls this week to follow up on the non-profit jobs that I've applied for just to see if it looks like there's a chance I'd get any of them. But barring someone telling me that I'm a the top of their list, I'm taking the consultant job.
Either way, it's nice to know that I'll be officially employed within the next couple of weeks.
My pollster/consultant boss and I had a few beers and discussed the possible job some more. Though there will definitely be assistant-ish responsibilities, I'll also have the opportunity to act as something of an associate consultant. I'll be tasked to lower-priority campaigns and will handle strategy meetings and consult with candidates and campaign staffers.
As of now the boss needs some time to make sure that he'll have enough work this election cycle to justify hiring someone full time. I also need to decide what I need to be paid to do the job. (It'll technically be contract/freelance work so there won't be health/dental/unemployment benefits or anything like that.) It'll also take a few weeks before I know about the other jobs I've applied for. So during that time I'm going to be doing some part-time work to help the boss get a feel for what other consulting and polling work is available. By mid-March he'll know more about his situation and I'll know more about my own options.
Basically there are a few questions at the forefront of this decision:
- Would this job be as beneficial for me as one of the non-profit jobs? Would I be learning as much and would it look as good on a resume? Would this job help me get a better understanding of what I want my next job to be? Will this job help me get my next job?
- What will my employment options look like after this job wraps up? It would only go through the elections in November, and the last month of the year really isn't the ideal time to look for work. If I do this will I be in this exact same position next year but will a better resume? On the one hand, if I do this I could probably have an easier time getting a job as a State House aide or working communications for a non-profit. That being said, the job would still have to be available. So would I be better suited going with an open-ended full time position?
Lots of things to consider over the next few weeks.
The man for whom I've been working on the phone banks doing scheduling and organizing is asking if I'd be interested in working for him full-time. The job would basically be his assistant for his work as a political consultant. He'll be consulting on a good number of state campaigns for this year's election cycle and he wants someone to keep him organized and occasionally attend meetings in his place.
I'm going to talk to him more about the specifics of what the job will entail, but it could be an interesting opportunity. On the one hand I'll be making a lot of contacts around the state and working pretty solidly within the Massachusetts political scene. Alternately, I feel like I'd be learning more different things if I ended up with a non-profit or working for a legislator.
The pay would probably be on-par with the non-profit jobs that I've applied to, and I don't think I'll have to make a decision in the immediate future, but it's at least worth considering.
I got some more information about the job I interviewed for this morning.
1. They're going to have a final round of interviews and hope to make a decision by mid-March with a start date around April 1st.
2. I know of three other people applying for this job who are very qualified. I just have to hope that they get offered other jobs first.
I can't believe that I'm not going to be employed until April, and that's even if I get this job! This whole "unemployment" thing has gone on way too long.
I see this opportunity as something of a long-shot since I know how tough the competition is. I had to apply, but I'm not counting my chickens before they come home to roost (or something like that). In fact, I certainly hope that I hear about some of the other jobs that I applied for last week because there were other good opportunities in there.
Time will tell...
I wonder how many more posts I'll get to write that basically say "I had a job interview this morning. I think it went well. We'll see?" Hopefully I get to stop soon.
So today's interview went well. I already knew the guy interviewing me, so it was a pretty relaxed meeting. The position is an organizer job with a statewide non-profit. They do grassroots organizing for elections and issue campaigns. It would definitely be a good job to have, so I've got my fingers crossed.
I have an interview on Wednesday for one of the jobs that I applied for last week. It's with a non-profit that I'm pretty familiar with. I've worked with them before on some of the campaigns I volunteered for. This is the job where I know that the competition is tough, but they at least want to bring me in for an interview, so that's a good sign.
Today I went to a job fair hosted by Idealist.org. I found a few possibilities there that I'll write letters for and follow up tomorrow. I also spent part of today door knocking for a state rep campaign. I was able to speak with some of the other campaign volunteers who had leads on a few different opportunities. So I definitely have some things to pursue over the next couple of days, which is a nice feeling.
You know what's frustrating? Seeing a job re-posted that you applied to a while ago. Because that means that you were passed over not because they found someone better, but because you weren't qualified.
Of course, I do apply for a few jobs for which I'm not neccesarily experienced enough, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't do the job if given the opportunity. They just don't know that yet.
I don't remember if I've written about this here, but over the past month or so I've been doing some part-time work for a friend of mine who does political polling. I've been helping him schedule callers and organize and oversee his phone banks. It's been good to have a little bit of income as well as something to do with myself, but what I've found most interesting about the work is that it's the first time that I've been in a managerial position.
All of my other jobs, I've been at the low end of the totem pole. That's not to say that I was always an underpaid grunt or anything, but I was always the employee and never the employer. I never had anyone under me (heirarchically speaking, of course). Doing the scheduling and oversight of the phone banks put me, for the first time, in something of the drivers seat.
A bit of back story - I'm terrible at talking about money with bosses. The few times during my editing career that I negotiated my rate or asked for a raise I was a nervous wreck. I'm sure that my unease shone right through during those conversations. Well, doing the phone banks, I was on the other side of the conversation for the first time. I wasn't the real boss, nor was I in any position to negotiate salaries for the callers, but people did want to know when they were going to be paid. It was remarkable to see how nervous people became just asking when they'd receive their checks. What was funny was that I knew instantly what they were getting at, but the question was always full of "do you think you might know when we could possibly be getting, I mean, um, do you have any idea when the... will the... ?" Being on the receiving end of this unease gave me a real perspective of what I must have sounded like in the same position. So I've decided that, even if I am a bit nervous or uncomfortable, I'm going to do a better job of being more professional and forward about it.
And that brings us to today - it's not about salary, I'm afraid, but instead about a follow-up call. I had a phone interview almost two weeks ago and the woman I spoke with said that they would be making their decisions regarding the next round of interviews within a week or two. So today I called to find out what the status of their process was. I'm always a little uncomfortable inquiring if I've been told that they'll call me, but I realize that there's a way to do it that shows assertiveness, not obnoxiousness. I made the call with a concerted effort to just get the question out there without equivocating and I think I did pretty well. And the result? I was told that I'd hear from them by or on Wednesday of this week. So now it's back to waiting...
A few leads in the job-search department over the past week.
- I had coffee on Thursday with the Senator's chief of staff. He basically said that he would let me know about any job openings he hears about as well as be a reference for other positions.
- Today I volunteered at an event for Deval Patrick, who's running for governor. I got to meet his press secretary, who said that they're looking for people to help out with different projects. I doubt anything paid will come of it, but at the very least it's another set of contacts and experience.
- Next Tuesday is a career fair for non-profit organizations. It's a long-shot, but you never know.
So there are a few leads and I'm keeping my eyes open for job listings as they come. I'm also going to follow up this week on a few applications that are in the works. Hopefully February will be a month of employment!
That's right, this morning I had my phone interview. I think it went well. I answered the questions soundly and asked a few good ones myself. I was asked to send in a writing sample and a design sample(!) and told that they'd be making decisions for the next round of interviews in 1-2 weeks.
I had a difficult time figuring out what I wanted to do for the design sample. Basically, the job will entail creation of some brochures and other promotional materials for the organization so they want to make sure I can handle it. I put together a sample of some screenshots from some of the web pages I've designed and a flyer I put together for the state senate campaign over the summer. I really don't have much else in terms of print media. I did some graphic stuff here and there for some of the video editing, but none of that was really going to be what they're looking for.
So now, back to the waiting game and keeping my eyes open for other jobs.
My phone interview's been rescheduled for tomorrow at 11. A bit frustrating but not the end of the world.
Yesterday I sent out an application for a communications coordinator position with a non-profit focused on education.
Today (yes, that's less than 24 hours later), I got a call from the woman who got my application. She wanted to set up a phone interview for next Tuesday!
I'm very excited about this position. While it's not in the heart of government and politics, it is a job working with communications, strategy, and media; a realm in which I've grown increasingly interested.
Additionally, I'm setting up a meeting in two weeks with the Senator's chief of staff. He wanted to sit down with me over coffee and talk about my employment goals in the hopes of helping me find something. I think they feel guilty about not hiring me, and I'm more than happy to use that to my advantage.
So far I've volunteered for three campaigns, all of which have won. So I've decided I'm a good luck charm.
In other news, I got to do some serious networking last night. A few introductions were made and now everyone I know is aware that I'm looking for a job, so hopefully something will present itself in the near future.
I got a call from the Senator last night and was told that I wasn't going to be hired for the job. The reason had nothing to do with qualifications, I'm afraid. The senator wants to hire someone who lives in her district (Medford, specifically). She was criticized during the campaign for having campaign staffers from outside the district ("political operatives brought in to influence local politics... out of touch with local issues"), and so she's sensitive to being district-oriented.
I understand her position, but I completely disagree with her solution. Her largest weakness in a re-election campaign would be a strong primary challenger from Medford. Having someone from Medford on her staff wouldn't make a difference unless she hires the mayor's firstborn son. What will make a difference is that she makes a strong impression in the community as a legislator with an emphasis on constituent services. The voters in Medford (and throughout the district) need to know that she's available if they have problems. The key to this will be promptly hiring an aide dedicated to constituent services and initiating a campaign of visibility and accessibility.
As for me? Well, now it's back to the job search. I'm volunteering for a state rep race in Somerville today (special election for the Senator's old seat), so I'll definitely be doing some networking while I'm there.
No news on the job today. Grr.
However, I do now have really bad picture of me and John Kerry! So that's awesome.
It went well. I met with the Senator and one of her aides (a woman that I knew through the campaign) so it was a very relaxed interview. We discussed what the position would entail (constituent services, assisting legislative director, media tracking, pretty much everything else to some degree) and I said I was fine with the duties and would be very excited to get the job.
I wouldn't go quite so far as to say I'm a shoo-in (shoe-in?), but I can't think of any good reasons why I wouldn't get the job. My title, if I did get it, would be Legislative Aide.
They're hoping to make a decision by the end of the week, so I should know in a few days. I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed.
I have my second interview with The Senator's office this morning in a few hours. Wish me luck!
I have another interview next week! I'm going back to the state house on Tuesday to meet with The Senator and her Chief of Staff.
I think this may be my first-ever round 2 interview. Most other jobs I've had I've gotten after one interview (or not gotten after one interview), so I'm not entirely sure what to expect. It might be strange to be interviewed by someone for whom I've already spent many months working. I certainly can't embellish anything, but I don't think I'll really need to. I know the Senator liked having me working on her campaign, so that's definitely a leg up. If anyone has any second-interview tips, let me know.
This morning I headed to the state house bright and early (around 10:00) for an interview with "the Senator's" (that's how I'll refer to her from now on) Chief of Staff. The meeting lasted around half an hour and went, I thought, really well. I definitely think I made a strong impression and was able to answer his questions with grace and aplomb (two plombs, in fact). Next week he's going to report his hiring recommendations to the Senator after which there will be a final set of interviews and then I get the job. (I hope.) So it's looking like I won't know anything for sure until probably just after the New Year.
In other job news, I got an email from one of the other jobs I applied for. This is for an organizer position with a statewide non-profit trying to increase state funding for public schools and educational programs. They liked my resume and sent me a questionnaire to fill out. I'll finish that tomorrow and get it back to them.
So it looks like the job hunt is gaining some momentum (finally). I'm not expecting to have anything definite for a few weeks, but I'm hopeful that shortly after the holidays I'll be able to start work... somewhere.
I finally have a post in the "work" category because I finally have news about the job search.
Now, keep in mind that I'm trying to be a bit more discreet in this highly visible public arena than in previous times, so I'll try to be as specific as I can while still keeping things a bit less google-able.
As you all probably know, I've been waiting to hear from the State Senator who I volunteered for regarding a job on her staff. Well, she called me today to let me know that she has hired a chief of staff who will be handling the rest of her staff hiring and will be in touch with me. So that's exciting. Additionally, she asked if I'd be interested in speaking with a woman running in a special election to fill her old State Rep seat. The primary for the special election is going to be January 10th and as of now she might need a campaign manager. I'm not sure if I'm qualified for the job (I could probably handle it with help), nor am I sure that I'd even want to do it. I'm going to hold off until after Thanksgiving and see what the situation is then before making any decisions.
I'm also applying for a job as a Political Affairs Assistant with a local service union. The job would involve communications and political strategy and would definitely be a good one if the statehouse job doesn't come through so I've been polishing a cover letter this week and hope to get it off tomorrow.
And that's that. I doubt I'll have news on any of these things until after thanksgiving but it's nice to finally feel like there's some forward motion happening.