The List So Far...

For the sake of posterity, and also just to be able to see what this list actually looks like when it's written down, here are the jobs I've applied for as of this date, along with the status of each application.

Technical Writer, Stephen Winter and Associates Architecture Firm (Norwalk, CT)
-Interviewed, Offered, Declined (too boring)
Editorial Assistant, The Intrepid Traveler (Guilford, CT)
-Position already filled at time of application
Editorial Assistant, The Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington, D.C.)
-Position filled. (No interview, just a terse two-line rejection email a month after I applied.)
Literary Arts Program Coordinator, The Mount (Lenox, MA)
-Interviewed, Offered, Declined (middle-of-nowhere location, salary too small)
Editorial Assistant, Hylas Publishing (Irvington, NY)
-"Pending," but I'm assuming it's a bust (No word in a month and a half)
Production Assistant, The Daily Washington Law Reporter (Washington, D.C.)
-Theoretically "Pending," but I received an email immediately after applying that said only qualified candidates would be contacted. Very professional.
Editorial Assistant, The Chronicle of Philanthropy (Washington, D.C.)
-"Pending" (No word in almost a month)
Part-time Editorial Assistant, The Globe Pequot Press (Guilford, CT)
-Interviewed, awaiting further information
Editorial Assistant, Great Valley Publishing (Spring City, PA)
-"Pending" (No word in more than three weeks)
Editorial Assistant, The University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL)
-"Pending" (No word in more than three weeks)
Editorial Assistant-College English, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA)
Editorial Assistant-U.S. History, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA)
-Both "Pending" (applied simultaneously through website about a week ago)
Administrative Assistant, The Atlantic Monthly (Washington, D.C.)
-"Pending" (applied through website about a week ago)
Intern, Entertainment Weekly (New York, NY)
-"Pending" (snail-mailed application about a week ago)
Legal Assistant, Wiggin & Dana (New Haven, CT)
-"Pending" (faxed resume yesterday)

I've even made several overtures to the Red Cross seeking out VOLUNTEER opportunities in the wake of the most destructive hurricane in U.S. history. I was constantly rerouted and never heard back.

I'm not usually one who puts much stock in supernatural or otherworldly forces, but I can't help but notice that after being offered the very first job I applied for and turning it down, I've had a pretty rough time of nailing down a decent gig.

I've gotten a lot of flack for turning down the few jobs that I've been offered. In my own defense, both of those offers were seriously flawed. At the architecture firm,I was basically going to be a slightly glorified photocopier technician, and I was reluctant to take a so-so job in Norwalk because I'd either have to endure a hellish commute or move to a dingy city for a job that I wasn't really that interested in. My next offer, about a month later, was for the Literary Arts Program Coordinator job at the Mount, which, for the record, is the Edith Wharton estate and cultural center. I had an extraordinarily pleasant interview with the president and vice-president of the organization, and the location in rural western Massachusetts was pristine, but I determined that it wouldn't be the best idea to move out to the middle of nowhere at this point in my life, and neither the job itself or the money they offered me were enough to lure me. So that's my rationalization for turning down the two jobs I've been offered.

Maybe I've set my standards too high. Alright, I've definitely set my standards too high. But why should I take a part-time job at a dinky publishing company in Guilford, Connecticut (for example) when there's a chance that I might get a job at Entertainment Weekly or The Atlantic Monthly or the University of Chicago Press!?! I guess that logic is the opposite of the bird in the hand being worth two in the bush, but can you blame me?