Since I restarted this Alternative Graduate project, I have found that despite having all the free time in the world (courtesy of COVID-19), I actually have very little free time.
I have spent 8 of the past 10 months without work. Three of those months I spent helping my father through chemotherapy and radiation treatments for throat cancer. Another two of those months I spent babysitting my niece and assisting my pregnant sister, who was still working throughout the pandemic and her pregnancy. I’ve spent an average of two hours a day preparing meals for my family and at least another hour or so a day in various of their activities (be it radiation therapy, vet appointments, or cheerleading practice). However, none of this shows on my CV.
In the time I have had in between, I’ve been studying various languages, new technological programs and skills, applying for jobs all over the place, maintaining three blogs, and reading as many books as I can before I fall asleep each night. All this, in hopes of finding a job within an industry that is still operating effectively through the pandemic and eventually finding my way back overseas – which has been my dream since childhood.
So how can I show these endeavours to prospective job recruiters?
To do just that, I have created a spreadsheet in which I log my hours of study and “work”, and then created automatically updating charts to display the data.
Since June, I have logged:
- 250 hours studying four languages (French, Dutch, Italian, and Greek)
- 71 hours in online / MOOC courses on Human Resources, Data Analytics, Digital Communication, Supply Chain Management, and Applied Linguistics & TESOL (earning a total of 12 certificates)
- 34 hours blogging across three different blogs (this learning blog, my Travel blog, and my new Language Diary blog), not counting the numerous posts I’ve made in various social media groups
- 70 hours reading over 20 Non-Fiction and Fiction books on various subjects, as well as religious texts in order to better understand people of other backgrounds
- 72 hours searching for and applying to 36 jobs, of which only 2 asked me to interview, and none of which hired me (yet!)
Somehow, this still only accounts for 20% of my time. The rest has been spent taking care of others, and assisting them to better their lives as well.
I guess all of this is just to prove that perhaps not all knowledge and skills can be found on a CV. I also like to think it shows off a bit of my data writing skills đŸ˜‰
The Alternative Graduate 