Job advice

["M Rassmussen" <mrassmussen -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

I'm approaching the one-year anniversary of my first "real" job.  Ah, the 
sweet memories of leisure time and all-night parties are starting to fade.  
This job has been valuable in teaching me one thing: this sure ain't what 
I'm doing for the rest of my life.  Not technical writing, mind you, just 
this flavor of it.  Hmmm, I shouldn't say that.  I've learned quite a bit at 
this job, but I think I've done as much as I can given the confines of it.

So,  I'm hunting for a new job, and I've found a few that interest me.  One, 
though, would be perfect.  I e-mailed my resume and cover letter at noon on 
Friday (4/5) -- if you're curious, both an ASCII resume in the body of the 
e-mail and an attached Word resume (with styles!) -- and by 2 that 
afternoon, there was a message on my answering machine asking if I could go 
for an interview on 4/15.  I took that as a good sign.

I didn't get the message until Friday night, so I called Monday.  No answer. 
 I called again Tuesday morning.  No answer.  Tried Tuesday afternoon, and 
finally got through to voice mail.  I left a message saying that I was 
returning her call, that I wanted to discuss the interview date, and I'll 
send an e-mail about it.

Now, I hate the phone.  I grew up with a keyboard attached to my fingertips, 
and I prefer e-mail.  Unless it's an emergency or requires the sound of a 
human voice, I've found e-mail is a much better way to contact people 
because it's at their leisure.  There's no phone tag involved.  You don't 
have to keep calling in the hopes the person is somewhere near the phone.  
You send your well-crafted e-mail and wait for the person to respond.  I 
like that.  After all, I'm at work (yes, even now) and I don't have that 
much time to play supersneak, trying to get in yet another phone call before 
someone notices that a) I'm MIA or b) I'm "discreetly" talking on my cell 
phone in a quiet corner outside of the building.

So, I sent an e-mail on Tuesday that said I was interested in the job, but 
the interview date wouldn't work for me.  I said I hoped we could find a 
time more agreeable for both of us, that perhaps e-mail might be a better 
method of contact but here's a daytime number (my cell phone) that I can be 
reached at, blah, blah.  It's now Friday, and I haven't heard anything.  I 
take that as a bad sign.

What do I do at this point?  Anything?  How does one handle looking for a 
job while employed?  I found my current job before graduation, and it was 
the first and only job for which I interviewed.  Hey, it seemed cool at the 
time.  So, I don't know what the protocol is in this case.  If I made a 
boo-boo, I want to be wiser for the next job opportunity.

Thanks,

Michelle

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