How I Spent The Eighteenth Week Of The Rest Of My Life

Like many of these entries, this might be entitled how I "should" have spent the week.  I did get a ton accomplished in my first full week in Woodbridge (which will actually be reflected in the next entry).  But until Thursday, I hadn't really sat down and done what I *needed* to do.  Mainly work on my resume so that I could start resume bombing (maybe that's a horrible word to use) government agencies.

On that day, I sat down with my host's Federal Resume Guidebook and re-designed my past.

It turns out that the government wants exactly the opposite of what a screener in the private sector wants.  My concise resume was completely wrong for what I was applying for.  The government wants each job description to be expounded in great detail.  Not only what you did at the job (at least what can not be inferred from the job title) but what you accomplished and what you were considered an expert at.  Any awards or special project case studies are a bonus.

That was not in my old resume.

This might be why I've been rejected for all but two of the jobs I've applied for as simply "qualified" and not a higher category which they could pass on to the departments.  The screeners at the Office of Personnel Managment are not allowed (sometimes by law) to extrapolate experience.  It has to be spelled out.

Some might say this is another example of government inefficiency versus the private sector.  But I like it.  What's the point of calling someone in for an interview for a position they're not qualified for when you can pre-interview someone based on a resume?  My resume is now between three and five pages, which is what they're looking for.

And it should basically be called "I'm a hard ass."  I think I use the word "compliance" a bit too much, but most of the jobs I'm applying for are compliance type jobs.  I made chapters comply.  I made instructors comply.  I made residence hall governments comply.  And, hopefully, Uncle Sam will see that I can make pretty much anyone comply.  Starting Monday that is.  I did submit one application with my new resume so fr, but it can probably use some tweeking before I submit more.

As for the rest of the week, I didn't goof off, but I did all of the things needed to change into Virginia mode from Illinois mode.  Hopefully, I can complete all of those before turning into Maryland or D.C. mode.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, MAY 3 (Free)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4 ($31.25)

• 10:54 a.m. Walgreens - $4.69.  This was my first experience in getting around Woodbridge without a car.  I was so exhausted on my first day here that I didn't get out of bed.  The half a mile to Walgreens wasn't bad and I bought shaving cream (which I was out of) so I felt more human and ready to begin a new life.
• 12:04 p.m. Potomac Mills Mall - $9.74.  I hopped my first Cross County Connector after Walgreens.  It was an experience to be sure.  Any bus that was in Chicago, this was twice as loud.  But there's a reason.  It goes to the Mall.  I got some grape leaves from a Mediterranean stand in the food court.  They were pretty awful.  But not as awful as the videos playing in the food court.  I don't think I much like the mall.
• 7:22 p.m. Aldi - $16.82.  Since there was construction in front of my stop, I ended up riding the bus into Manassas.  But I did spy an Aldi along the way.  It turned out, looking at the web, that there's one in Woodbridge as well.  My host drove me there.  She had been nice enough to buy some microwave burritos for me, but I figured that I had to eat more than that.

THURSDAY, MAY 5 ($14.00)

• 11:26 a.m. Capital One Bank - Free.  Even though I should have really opened a bank account on the first three days that I was in town, I couldn't decide on a bank to open one at.  Since I already had two credit cards (and the majority of my debt load) through them, I decided just to go with them.  This branch used to be a Chevy Chase Bank and they're based in McLean, so they're kind of local.
• 4:04 p.m. Ben's Chili Bowl - $14.00.  I knew that if I didn't get into the city sooner rather than later, the suburbs would probably sap me of all desire to live in the Washington D.C. area.  So I hopped two buses and a train (and went to D.C. most Yelp reviewed restaurant.  It was fun, but the food was not spectacular.  Still, it's got character and I'll be back.
• 4:30 p.m. Logan Circle - Free.  As long as I was in the neighborhood, I had to see what this park was like.  It's kind of yuppie around it, but the area between it and U Street are kind of amazing.  Too bad I can't afford to end up here and stay Logan forever!

FRIDAY, MAY 6 (Free)

SATURDAY, MAY 7 ($20.26)

• 12:41 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  I made a promise to myself that I would only go into the city once a week until I find a job.  But I got a bonus since my host wanted to go into the city for her birthday.  There was the slight problem, however, that I was still a little bit sick.  This stop was as much to take care of that as to get a lemonade ice tea.
• 1:53 p.m. National Building Museum - $5.00.  It's kind of an amazing museum and it's free (one great thing about D.C.'s public museums).  The $5.00 was for a special exhibit recreating famous skyscrapers (a lot from Chicago) out of Lego.  They also had an amazing gift shop and bookstore that I could have spent a ton more money at.  But I was good.
• 2:43 p.m. Union Station - $8.00.  The Union Station in Washington D.C. has a positively gigantic food court. Bigger than Ogilivie in Chicago.  But I didn't know if I could handle anything more than pasta, so I just went for that.  It was expensive spaghetti.  Not surprising with downtown prices.  We had gone there for National Train Day and it was pretty cool.
• 3:53 p.m. CVS - Connecticut & L - $3.26.  While we were close to a convenience store downtown, I was determined to make my stomach behave.  Or, well, my host was more determined that I was.  So we stopped.

SUNDAY, MAY 8 (Free)

MONDAY, MAY 9 ($31.00)

• 1:04 p.m. Target (Woodbridge) - $4.00.  The Target in Manassas is much more convenient to the bus, but the one in Woodbridge is far closer.  They were out of my meds but they do have a Starbucks.  I had to buy an ice tea lemonades.  The suburbs are turning me into a Starbucks addict.
• 5:41 p.m. Great Clips - $18.00.  I never did get one last haircut at the Supercuts on Fullerton so my hair was as long as it's been in ages.  I figured I couldn't complete my transformation back to a job hunter until I took care of that.  This is quite a busy little salon.
• 6:12 p.m. IHOP - $9.00.  All of the television commercials for IHOP made me crave pancakes.  There are actually quite a few good looking local restaurants in this plaza, but nothing could calm this urge short of mediocre pancakes!

So that's $96.51.  Even though I don't have a monthly pass here, if I limit myself to once or twice in the city a week (the local bus is only $2.40 round trip), transportation is going to come out to about the same as it did in Chicago so I'm not going to add that in.  The fact that it takes almost two hours to get into the city also helps my urge not to spend a lot of money there (even if the time is basically free since there are so many free museums).  After all of the craziness, it's almost good to be locked in a condo.  And I have to keep on applying for jobs.  The sooner I get one, the sooner I can get out of Virginia!  My total money spent since I've been unemployed is $3725.44.