The Blog of Justin Loutsch

I had given up trying to find a job using my German til I spoke with some folks at the Alfred University Career Development Center who convinced me to give it another shot. I searched linkedin and bam, search results!

I was psyched about this position because I would get to use my German in a business setting, and had an interview scheduled for August 11, the day after I returned from Tucson. Things went south pretty fast when I came home and realized my power steering was just spewing out when the car was turned on, and had leaked the whole time just sitting in the driveway. Needless to say, I freaked out and scrambled to find a car to borrow to no avail, and finally made a reservation for a car rental. I got a Chevy HHR and picked it up the next morning and drove to Boston at 8 am. The interview was at 3, and I got in at 2. Exit right off the thruway to the parking garage, couldn’t have been more convenient. Learned some very interesting things about the company and was quite pleased with it in generaly and BOY do I keep getting interrupted tonight…

Anyway..I also spoke German with the German woman who heads the department and provided a writing sample, only to find out yesterday that my German writing is not at the level they are looking for. This is understandable since i am fluent in German, but hardly ever do much writing. Fortunately, I was offered a job doing the same thing but in English instead of German. I snapped that right up!

I’m incredibly excited for many reasons, especially because Boston is a brand new city and there’s much to do, so much to see. When I was in Minneapolis I just felt so bored there because I’d done all that there is to do in the 3 years I was there. I’m also very interested in the corporate world and gaining some experience, and this company is a great place to start. They prefer to hire young people and so the average age of the entire company is 24, which means there are plenty of pelple my age to hang out with through work. I hope that I will make friends through roommates so that I’m not only connected to those I work with.

Overall I am thrilled to finally have a job and be getting some corporiate experience, even though I can definitely say I am still very committed to education and learning, I really really want a corporate experience and am excited at the chance to learn what it’s like to work with a web company!

Today Jamie and I went to the Tucson Memorial Children’s Park, where Cory’s name is on the wall. We even added some stickers next to his name, something she does every 1st day of the month. Jamie calls this Cory’s birthday in heaven. Here are some pictures of the park and the walls, including Cory’s name.

So I was working on redoing my resume last week, because it’s become pretty clear to me that my resume as I wrote it was not working to my advantage. I had format of Education and then below that Employer –> City, date. Beneath the employer, there were bullet points of everything I did. This really filled up the page, so much so that I think it was overwhelming and took a long time to read.

A functional resume, on the other hand, puts your name at the top (or on the side) and lists special achievements followed by relevant skills, and then lists your education and jobs at the bottom. You list one job directly after the other, with no learned skills under them. This is much cleaner and helps the reader easily pick out what is they want to know about the candidate.

Now comes the part I’m unsure about. I was looking at some German jobs while writing this, and German resumes require a picture of yourself (among other things American resumes do not). I ended up adding my picture to this resume as a kind of experiment, albeit perhaps a risky one, to see if the picture would make me seem more like a person to the hiring manager. I’m a bit worried about this because I’ve read a lot of sites that say not to put a picture on, but since nothing I’ve been doing has worked yet I thought it would be interesting to see how this turns out. I also belive that when you can’t put a face to a resume, it dehumanizes the applicant, making it so much easier for the hiring manager to simply throw out or delete the resume. When that manager instead has to look at my eyes while reading my resume, it is my hope the manager will say "Oh, here’s a person who wants to get hired, not just some paper!"

Thoughts?

By now I’ve applied for somewhere between 50 and 100 jobs, possibly more, but I’ve really lost count. I guess some people might say that’s too low, but I’m targeting the areas I’m interested in instead of anything at all (like gas stations and restaurants, like my dad wants me to do). I’ve applied at colleges, universities, amazon, google, AmeriCorp, phone sales, multiple companies doing various things. The colleges and universities, it seems, really want someone with a master’s degree, which I am not prepared to go back to school for 2 more years and $30,000+ more debt. I’ve applied for 5 jobs with Amazon, as a German speaking customer service rep in various positions. The latest was yesterday, and I was not selected for all 3 within 3 hours of submitting my application. Very discouraging. It is especially frustrating because I have the language skills they are looking for an am trainable for all the other skills, but they would rather overlook me for a person who, I suppose, already has the needed skillset.

This seems to be a common issue many people my age are having. We are being rejected from job applications outright because, while we have a degree that says we can put up with structured learning environments, we don’t have the experience necessary to do…well, anything. Essentially companies now want a person who can be hired and walk in and do their job, something my friends have confirmed as well.

I really miss the days of job hunting while I was in high school, when I could walk into a place and fill out an application. No more. Now it’s all online, with no human interaction, making it much easier for your application to be dismissed with no face-to-face contact.

I applied at the University of AZ in Tucson for a position as an International Student Advisor but was not selected for that position, even though all they required was a bachelor’s degree, and that was one of the better options I had. Even the AmeriCorp, where young people go to gain experience, chose someone with more experience.

A friend back in Seoul has told me that the school he teaches English at is hiring, and this is good for me for 2 reasons. 1: I will make more money being hired directly by the school instead of by a recruiter and 2: they only require you to have a bachelor’s degree. I’ve already spoken with him about the atmosphere of his school and it definitely seems like a better place than my last school there…no candy is passed out to the kids every day, no games are played. Learning seems to be more important there which means I would have an easier time. However, there are some drawbacks. The location is 1.5 hours from Seoul, so I wouldn’t be able to go to the city on weeknights (missing German nights). This will, as with the first time, be my fallback job.

The most recent job I have applied for is as a data specialist with the admissions department at Alfred University (I’m an alumnus), which I just sent out today. It may be a bit boring living in Alfred, but the University definitely has a lot going on, plus COLLEGE GIRLS. But in all seriousness, the lack of things to spend money on would allow me to save money and pay off debt rather quickly. Rent is also relatively cheap there.

That’s all I have for now, sorry for the long post.

I’m off to write another coverletter.

So right now I’m back in NY, I’ve been back for 5 days, and I’d like to keep myself busy. I called the MDA of Syracuse to find out if there’s a summer camp I could volunteer at here, and was told that I was an angel to volunteer again because they are desperate for people. I sent her the contact info from the office in MInneapolis so she could get all my application info transferred over, and waited to hear back.

Yesterday I got an email saying that I could not attend the summer camp here in Central NY because MDA rules say you can only volunteer at one summer camp per year. This was somewhat disappointing because I was really looking forward to doing it again. Today she sent me another email saying that they have a need for volunteers in the office and I can come in as often as I like whenever I like to do help them out there, and I think I may just take them up on that offer so I can have something to do with my time.

I’m still applying for jobs. Right now I’m looking at jobs in the Tucson area, and will be heading out that way in July. Today I applied for a job with the University of Arizona, and I’ll be looking at more later this week. I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed.

Ok, I’m ready to write about my last week now.

I was pretty excited when I found out that my kid was a twin, and that both of them would be attending camp. I asked the director about this and she said I told her I am a twin in my interview. I vaguely remember this because I think she asked me something unique about me and I said that I’m an identical twin.

My first thought was how hard it must’ve been to hear that you’re having identical twins, and that both of them would have MD. Upon seeing these guys though, I think that they were extremely lucky. The form of MD they have mostly effects their legs and muscle strength, but they can still use their upper body to move themselves around, and needed the least care of all the kids (save one, who is a walker).

Anyway, we were told that both the kids were really quiet and we should pay attention to what they say to each other to find out what they need, and that advice paid off. They really didn’t talk much the first few days, and were quite shy overall. They were very sharp and paid attention to everything though, and were quick to laugh at things that were said and jokes that were made. Their laugh was very hilarious, a big wide grin with tongue sticking out a bit. Being 15, they brought pens that make burping and farting noises, and laughed profusely whenever they used them. Needless to say, there were lots of fart jokes that week.

The rest of the kids in the cabin were just hilarious. They all reminded me so much of Cory. So smart, witty, sarcastic, and entirely indefatigable. At one point on the last night they kept talking about going to harass the neighboring cabins, so we locked the door to keep them inside. 2 kids went to the door and struggled a bit but finally did get the deadbolt unlocked. They let nothing stop them. On the last night, the director and some other counselors joined us at the fire (to tell us to go to bed) and burned their name tags. Now, when you lose your nametag at summer camp you have to do a dance and song in front of the whole camp to get it back.

I think that the MDA has a challenging task in making the summer camp enjoyable for all the kids when the ages go from 5 or so up to 18, and interest varies so much between age groups. They did a pretty good job overall, but some things that I did not appreciate were changing the activity for my group because they thought the older kids would not be as interested or able due to the progression of MD at their age. I did not appreciate that at all, as I think the kids come to camp to be to treated equally.

Overall I had a great time, and I saw so many kids who just reminded me of cory that it felt very freeing overall. When I left I missed them terribly because it was just such a gift to be around so many people who reminded me of him.

So I just came back fromthe MDA summer camp where I volunteered as a way to remember and honor Cory, and it’s been a pretty emotional week and day for me. I don’t really feel like writing about it just now, but I will do so soon.

So I Syracuse on April 11th to go to Minneapolis for a job interview (which I subsequently did not get), and when I left I said "Oh I’ll be back in 2 weeks." Ya. When I arrived in Rochester I called a friend from Concordia Language Village and asked if they needed German counselors, and was emphatically told that they did. So I started working there the very next weekend and worked 2-3 weekend programs in both April and May. I made some good money, better friends, and really enjoyed myself. I found out too late that one of my references never clicked the submit button for my application to work there during the summer, which is just as much my fault as her’s. Had I realized sooner I could check on the status of my application and see that she had not submitted all the needed materials, I could have taken care of it earlier.

In April I visited a job fair at the U of MN, where I spoke with people from various companies including Americorps, MDA, and others. On top of that I’ve found lots of jobs through the MN non-profit council job board and Craigslist, and many of them have not replied to me at all, and the ones that have mostly said they moved forward with other candidates. Some were even nice enough to say that they were impressed with my qualifications but had chosen someone else anyway. I’ve moved forward farthest with AmeriCorp so far, which is great but would mean my expenses will be very tight on a budget of $900 per month. It was suggested to me I could get a 2nd job, or even ask my parents to support me, neither of which sound that attractive. I will be able to apply for foodstamps though, which is the best part about the program and would clear up some money issues. With most of my loans being deferred my payments will be much lower. I have an interview with a school on Friday, so we’ll see how that goes.

Today I had a phone interview with a MN based business school as an admissions representative for high school students, and as this is a field that I really want to get into, I am hopeful that I will get the position. The school I mentioned above called me during that interview as well asking to schedule an interview, as they are doing interviews all next week but I am unavailable then.

Why am I unavailable then? Oh, that’s because I’m working at the Muscular Dystrophy Summer camp from June 5-11. I can’t wait for it to start and am really looking forward to it. My dad was taken aback that I was doing it because it’s all volunteer and unpaid, but I told him I am doing it for reasons. One is in honor of Cory, and the second is to do some networking and impress some people enough to hopefully get a foot in the door with the MDA, doing work to help others just like Cory.

Speaking of my dad… I’ve had constant pressure from him to find a job, regardless of whether or not it is something I can start a career in. He wanted me to work at a gas station earlier this summer, then a bbq restaurant, Whirlpool Refrigeration in Cedar Rapids (which I did apply for as summer work, I may have a chance since my family has worked there), a concession stand at the Cedar Rapids Kernels baseball field, and Nordstrom. If they have careers, why can’t I have one? Oh, that would be because money is money. Doesn’t matter that it won’t help me move ahead professionally in whatever field I choose to enter after, it’s money.

I’ve even considered returning to Korea. I got an email from an English language village I emailed in February, and was told their computer system had some problems which is why it took 3 months to get back to me. I sent them my resume and explained that 2 mothers in my life are worried about the current political situation and asked them the likelihood of the shit hitting the fan, so to speak. I have yet to hear back from this village, but I may get in touch with a friend in Seoul who knows a great recruiter if I don’t find something within the next few months.

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while everyone. Time for a nap more, then I’ll write more about spending time with my family in Iowa.

I’ve now been back in the US for a week and a day, and it’s been a pretty long week. I spent most of it falling asleep at 7:30 pm and waking up around 5 am, but I seem to be back into the swing of things now. I surprised myself by getting a job interview set up in the middle of the first week back, something I didn’t think would happen til at least mid-March or maybe even April.

I’ve been trying to get my room back in order, pull out some things from the attic, put other things away. I’ve been preparing for my interview for the last 2 hours, and will be going to bed shortly. After the interview there is a job fair downtown, 5 minutes from the interview location actually. Not being one to put all my eggs in one basket, I’ll be going to the job fair directly after just so I have some other options.

Just planned out my route to the interview and the job fair, now it’s time to get to bed. Wish me luck!

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my skillset, and what kind of job I might be best at.

I’ve been applying for a lot of jobs in a few industries, like IT/tech support, German-speaking and international sales positions, and even the Reading Corp (part of Americorps). I’ve applied for these positions in both Syracuse and Minneapolis in hopes of broadening my chances of living where I’d like.

Through all of this I’ve been wondering what exactly is best for me. I feel I have just enough skills to be useful, but perhaps not enough experience to be impressive. I think that’s really not that true, but that feeling surfaces every once in a while as I see jobs which I could do if were not for the lack of experience.

After talking with a coworker, she thinks it would do me well to take the German-speaking sales position and work a computer business idea on the side. I could do pretty well I think in this position, it’s mostly building up a customer base in Germany and Austria. It does not require travel, but will probably involve lots and lots of phone calls and emails in German and in that aspect it is a great use of my skills. The last time I did sales was at Budget Car Rental, which I think involves a different kind of sales with a very different kind of customer than this job, and I would probably be much better at it.

I still feel a bit surprised to be back in the same position I was in last May, that is, having my life wide open once again. It was nice to have some stability and I’m thankful for the experiences I’ve had in that time, but I’m ready to come home and try something new and different.

One thing I’ve learned while in Seoul is that networking is very, very important. From the various meetups I’ve attended I have met some amazing people who have great advice and many contacts of their own. I know that because of them I will be much better off than before I came here, and I am thankful for that.