Job Searching

I've been workin' mighty few hours @ the Call Center ... because "business needs" didn't need ME. I have put in some applications, but stupidly didn't really start looking until recently. I didn't realize that it would take so long to really find a new job.

Yesterday I took a civil service test for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - Clerk Typist II. I forgot to practice typing and feared that I would really do poorly. After all, I haven't had a typing test in over 30 years! When I got to the testing room, I found out that we only needed to do 40 words per minute to pass ... geez, surely I could do that!

To be honest, I don't think that I've ever typed for a solid five minutes like that before - for years I've been editing or composing as I typed, which meant pausing and backspacing, etc. The young woman to my left seemed to be typing so fast! But after the first test I had 54 wpm with seven mistakes (I admit to backspacing a good bit to correct mistyping) so I didn't have to take the second typing test. The young woman was shaking her hands as if she'd gotten cramps in them - perhaps she was typing TOO fast, eh?

Then we had the written test - and it was easy. Basically, it was to show that you know how to file in alphabetical and numerical order, basic grammar and math and office behavior. It was 135 questions.

Now, I know that the state doesn't move fast, but it's even slower at the moment ... normally I wouldn't hear for two to four weeks about how I did. But now we've got to add two weeks because the computers are down ...

argh.