Tuesday, November 11, 2014
My Address Doesn't Want Me to Get a Job
I spend a lot of time now filling out online forms for job applications and employment-site profiles, and I've noticed that some of them seem oblivious to certain kinds of work backgrounds - for example, work abroad - just judging by the structure of their data fields. In particular, many times I get stuck at the beginning of an application because I can only input U.S. addresses. Getting around this was easy on paper forms - less so on internet forms where the "state" field is marked "required," with a drop-down list of never more than 52 options. Good luck if your most valuable experience is outside the U.S.! Without Mongolia and Japan, my resume would end up nearly empty. Eventually I figured out how to work around this by listing "Peace Corps Mongolia" with the Peace Corps' headquarter's Washington DC address, and my Japanese university with the Illinois address of the U.S. university it was partnered with in the exchange program. But it's not a great solution. It's frustrating to feel like the address field is blocking you from advancement. In a society where tons of employers drool over international and intercultural qualifications, how many good candidates are prevented from connecting with them because those same employers' forms can't handle a tiny bit of non-standard information? And what other kinds of unintentional stumbling blocks are out there on applications that we haven't noticed?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You have certainly "hit the nail on the head." Any employer would be fortunate to have a Peace Corps volunteer as an employee.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, it can be an advantage. One interviewer specifically told me he liked my resume when he saw Peace Corps on it.
DeleteGood morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Mongolia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Mongolia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Hi, I am not in Mongolia anymore, so I can't send a letter from Mongolia. However, the Mongolian post office publishes a big book of all their stamps. I think this is it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/321560865560?lpid=82
DeleteMongolia does indeed have many amazing stamps.