The Size 13 1/2 Problem (Job-seeking Disgruntlement)

[Interrobang]

Good gentles of DU,

Have you ever gone to a clothing store and tried on everything, looking for something that fits, only to get some article in two differerent, adjacent sizes (say, a women's size 13 and 14) only to discover that the smaller size is too small and the larger size is too large? (What ever happened to "half-sizes" anyway, and why do they cut women's clothing from a size 6 template?)

I'm having a similar problem with job seeking. I'm more or less equally qualified to work in my profession in either technical or non-technical fields, but if I go to interviews for non-technical kinds of positions, I get lovely rejection letters from telepathic HR droids telling me that I'd be happier in a technical job somewhere, and when I apply for technical jobs (ie. in the IT industry), I get told that I don't have enough technical background (despite being a total geek, having done some software documentation for a programmer-level audience, and also being involved with a large-scale electronic, online digital asset management system with a library of 60K PDF documents!) and that I should get a job in marketing (which I hate) or in a non-technical field.

They both tell me I'd do really well in academia, but I haven't got a PhD (yet), and colleges and universities aren't going out of their way to hire young-ish MAs with only a few years of work experience...

What I want to know is, does this happen to anyone else, and what can I do about it? What neat solutions do you use to solve the Size 13 1/2 Problem?

[mhr]

1. My Resume Reads Like A Bottle Of Heinz 57

Very intelligent, but too diversified.

I have not solved the dilemma and have been unemployed for 43 months!

[Interrobang]

2. Yikes! That's not encouraging!

Well, I've been doing more or less the same thing, just in wildly different fields -- I went from writing/researching for a small retail sales biz (perfume oils), to writing for a municipal newsletter, to some technical writing (software), to writing/researching for an international education consulting firm, to more tech writing (software), to tech writing and high-tech information management (occupational health and safety).

I've only been off since mid-October, and I'm hoping that my usual periodicity (of roughly a year, give or take) is going to go down!!

[Interrobang]

3. kick

Too many darn Janet Jackson threads!