Why?

Hi Everyone!

Here I am, back again, blogging about nothing. As many (probably all, if you're reading this) of you know, my name is Shelby and I spent the last year of my life volunteering in Africa. Now I'm home, and have been rather unexpectedly thrust in to this WONDERFUL job market we have going on here. Since I have been home I have stopped updating my old blog (http://selibabyshelbs.blogspot.com/) and started looking for a job. I naively thought finding a job would be easy, emphasis on the term naively because...well...I'm not having a whole lot of luck. Then, yesterday morning I had a conversation with my mom (whom I am living with...yes, I am one of those fortunate human beings who experienced a few years of the complete independence offered by living with ANYONE other than your parents only to decide that was just TOO much fun so I moved back in with my parents until I can really learn to appreciate those freedoms...or afford to pay rent) and this is what she said: "Hey Shell, its really wonderful having you home, we all really missed you while you were gone, but now that your home, heres what I really miss: reading your blog."

Yep...my writing is better company than me. (I'm just kidddddding Mom...don't take that the wrong way)

I thought about it though and part of what was so great about my old blog was that I had a subject that everyone was interested in, a story worth telling, and now, well...i don't. OR i didn't think i did. BUT now i realize that i might! So heres my plan, instead of sharing with you all the trials of tribulations of integrating in to a small community in Africa and the humorous situations that arise from linguistic misunderstandings and language barriers I will be sharing with you the trials and tribulations of being an entry level professional seeking employment in modern day America.

So here I am...I've been home for 37 days. I have applied to 29 jobs in 12 states and 4 countries. I am outgoing, friendly, well spoken, efficient, and resourceful. I am strong, open-minded, computer-savvy, intelligent, and confident; but everyone can play the adjective game so what else do i have to offer?

I have a bachelors of science in Environmental Engineering from a fairly good school with a minor in technological entrepreneurship, with 3 months of internship experience, management experience running a Ben and Jerrys scoop shop in college, leadership experiences from campus involvement in college, international experience and french language skills from my time in Africa, volunteer experience from dog walking at animal shelters, working as a health worker in Africa, serving as entertainment chair and team leader for my campus's relay for life, and many others. During one semester of college I even worked 3 jobs at once and maintained my status as a full time student, and that was even the same semester that I served as Relay for Life Entertainment chair, and my GPA even went up; but everyone has experience and a lot of the people I'm competing with have a lot more than me, so what else do i have to offer?

In short...not much! I'm competitive only when competing against people my own age, my own experience level, and i'm just not doing that any more so I've decided to start applying for some more unconventional jobs...like Ameircorps river sampling in the sierra nevada (phone interview coming up!), on-board shopping presenter on a cruise ship(still in the application phase, aka composing my video audition!), and more. If you have an opportunity, send me the info, I'll apply! I'm keeping a list of everything I apply to and I'll share everything I learn with you, the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Thanks for reading,
Shelby