Wishlist

Great song from Pearl Jam.  One that just popped into my head thinking of a blog topic.  I am not going to list a bunch of wishes, but I will focus on one...wishing that I was happy in what I do.  I know there are others who can relate to me.  I am envious of those who cannot.  I really should have known better that working in the physics department at an ivy league school would not be for me.  I feel so isolated.  There are staff that work there too, and some of them are very nice, but there are others who I feel like hold this big giant wall up.  It has felt very unwelcoming.  I like a work environment that has a culture of being a "team".  Here it is very much like if it doesn't fall under their realm they won't even deal with it.  I try to help as much as I can with what little I know even if it doesn't have to do with grad students.  I am tired of the if it doesn't pertain to me don't bother me aura that is oozing from here.  One of my previous jobs, whenever it was someones birthday we would go out for lunch.  If someone was getting married or having a baby, we would have a shower.  Or someone or myself would bake goodies and bring them into the office just because.  You didn't feel like you were a nuisance if you asked someone a question.  It was welcomed to come over and have a brief conversation to make the work day feel less like work.  I enjoy that open door feeling, and I do not get that here at all.   I am not looking to socialize, I know that is not what work is about.  But being friendly and having a friendly culture makes those 8 hours a day just a little more pleasant.

The other day I saw a job posting at a university close by that is KNOWN for its student centered focus.  I have always been drawn to this university.  I didn't know about it when looking for colleges for undergrad, but had I known about it I definitely would have considered it.  It is somewhat similar to my alma mater and being I don't think I would want to work at my alma mater and taint my experience working where I went to school, I would think this is the next best thing.  The position was for Assistant Director for Graduate Admission.  I was like YES!  It is a sign!  So I took my time to create a new cover letter instead of just changing a few words here and there of my current one.  I wanted to take the time on this as I thought this could be it.  I applied for it on Friday morning.  Later that day I wanted to check out the description one more time.  Well it seems they changed it to Transfer Admissions...which is fine, I wouldn't mind pursuing that either, but my cover letter was geared towards graduate admissions!  I emailed the director of graduate admissions to clarify the change I saw in the job description.  She in fact said yes there was an error and the job description had been changed.  I emailed her back saying I would still like to be considered for the Transfer position as I enjoy all aspects of admissions.  However once you apply for a position you cannot edit your application.  I asked if I could send her a new cover letter expressing my interest in the transfer position and she didn't write back this time.  Jeff says it was Friday afternoon don't look too much into it, but I do.  I miss the element of admissions. And for a minute I thought I would have an opportunity, but I have a feeling my app won't even be considered now.....here is wishing that I have the opportunity that I will be eventually happy with what I do....