The Information Highway is Holding Me Hostage

Granted, I haven't had to look for a job for eight years, but Good Golly Miss Molly things have changed!  To my surprise everything is done on line.  EVERYTHING.  I must have my resume on four or five different websites.  It's such a dynamic resume I have had two whole hits from headhunters.  The headhunters didn't even want my head.  They wanted to know if I knew anyone who could fill their position for (job title here).  It's like being told you can't join the club, but do you know someone else you can recommend?  Really?  Needless to say those headhunters won't be bothering me again.

So, as I navigate the information highway I am learning many things.  Just because you have uploaded your resume doesn't mean they aren't going to ask you for the exact same information on their specific application.  I have been tempted to fill everything in with, "Read the damn resume!", but I suspect that might not give them the best first impression of me.  What's the point of asking for the same information twice?  Is it a test to see if you have read your own resume?

Each employer website has its own peculiarities.  Click here, click there, follow the instructions and then you magically end up where you started.  Not satisfied that I followed all of the instructions to the "T", I go through it again.  Same result.  Just to be sure, I do it a third time.  Yes.  Now is official: I'm an idiot.  It's like the old fashioned fun house and I keep taking the wrong turn.  My thought is that if they are counting how many times you try, you might get points for perseverance.  Or more likely, they are laughing their butts off and seeing just how many times I try.  Harrumph.

I have also learned that while I have had a gazillion years experience in a variety of nursing roles that everyone else became a specialist while I was a happy generalist.  There is a specialty certificate for everything now.  Things I did years ago without any specialized training now needs a CERTIFICATE to prove you know how to perform.  Then you find out that there isn't a class you can take to get the certificate, you just take the test after you have completed two million hours doing it.  Fine and dandy, but you can't get the job without the certificate.  Then it strikes me that this is how New Grads feel trying to get their first jobs.  Well now I can tell you it sucks.  Just put me in coach!

Do not think I have given up.  It just makes me more determined to prove that you can teach an old nurse new tricks.  I'm going to figure out a way to work with the information highway until I get to my destination.