I got my first rejection e-mail today. It was for a copy editing position with a nonprofit organization meant to help get better teachers to lower-income and minority schools. I’m a huge proponent of that sort of thing and felt like I was qualified, so it’s a bit of a downer that I didn’t even get an interview. I was pretty sure that job was fated from the start, though. I was probably marked from the first e-mail asking to whom I should address my cover letter. The response? The job description mentions it.

I asked twice. Oops.

Also, I may have failed to mention that I absent-mindedly answered their call on my way out of a public bathroom. I’d been waiting in line and someone cut in front of me. She looked to be pretty out of it, so I let her go and kept waiting. The phone rang, and since I had it in hand, I answered just as the line cutter flushed. Loudly. Like, The Flush That Rang ‘Round The World, Through My Phone, Across the East Coast and Into the Ear of a New York Nonprofit Staffer loud.

On the upside, I’ve still got a month, and now I know my applications aren’t just going out into this giant void. And that I should never, ever, under any circumstances answer a telephone in a bathroom, no matter how close I may be to the door. Never.

August 27, 2009 at 8:32 pm | jobhunt2k9 | No comment