I have the skills and experience to be a graphic designer. While I’ve not always held a design position per se, I always seem to get pigeon-holed into being a back up designer, contract designer, or some other facsimile. Usually it comes in the form of, “Oh! You know how to use Photoshop? Here – do this for me!”

But apparently, I don’t give myself enough credit – and the State of California took notice.

I applied to take an exam to be eligible for state employment as a graphic designer. I had well over the required 3 years of experience so I figured it’d be no problem to take the test.

One thing I learned about this process is that the state minions only look for titles and keywords in applications. Apparently I didn’t have enough keywords in my application and they only calculated 2 years and 9 months worth of experience. Nevermind I designed the program and event marketing materials for my previous job of over five years. But because I didn’t specifically say what materials I designed (programs, publications, newsletters, websites, etc.), they couldn’t count it. And they wouldn’t count my design experience at another job until I pointed it out to them.

So much for trying to be modest. I guess this isn’t the place for it. I apparently need my resume to scream and shout at people, rather than just tap them on the shoulder politely. It makes sense, really. There are probably 300 other people applying for the same position.

Still – I’m applying for jobs like crazy and have an interview with a staffing agency on Thursday. This will hopefully be more promising than the last two interviews I had. One of which I just didn’t feel safe being in the office… and the other was a facade for a retail store manager position. (No……..)

I’m getting a little anxious for my unemployment checks now. These expenses aren’t going to pay themselves.