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Issues and priorities
Jul. 6th, 2006 07:55 pmThe one thing with a hard deadline which is coming up is this month's SWAPA 'zine, due by 2359 tomorrow.
Other than that, there are three main searches: job, roommate, and apartment.
The job search has got to come first. Not having heard from anyone, particularly the temp agencies I applied to, after nearly a week of having resumes in has me seriously worried. I will continue to send things in and will scrutinize the classifieds this weekend again with care. But if I don't hear from any of the things (mainly clerical or office type jobs) I applied to by the beginning of next week, I am going to start filling out applications for retail positions. Failing that, burger-flipping, but hopefully it won't get that bad. But I'm not sure, and the more I look at the costs of housing in Cambridge, the more I am convinced that failing to make some money in the next month and a half is not a viable option.
I suppose there was some level of arbitrariness in my decision to pick fire school over EMT school, knowing I wouldn't have the time to attend both or to develop competence in both. But if I had EMT-B and EVOC, and experience, I would have no cause to worry about job prospects now.
Next up, roommate search. I've set up a profile on the Harvard facebook-like site for students searching for potential roommates. I have also posted on the Career Services blog for Swat '06ers looking for roommates. It begins to seem more likely than not that I will be roomming with a total stranger, which I wish were not the case. I think I would rather live in cramped, spartan barracks with my friends than in a luxurious mansion with strangers. Nonetheless, barring my managing to find a cheap studio, this will almost certainly be necessary.
After that, apartment search, for non-singles. To do the apartment search first would run the risk of not being able to find someone to share the apartment with later, and then being saddled with a rent that would consume my stipend and consign me to a diet of bread and water. I will need to request listings from the Harvard residential office (they can only be searched online from computers on the Harvard network), and of course look on craigslist.
Somewhere in between, after a successful job search, a cell phone search. I've had several people recommend Verizon. But knowing myself, I'll never manage to settle on something expensive to begin with and which will become a significant monthly expense for the forseeable future, without angstily exploring every single option. I will almost certainly end up playing with that perverted calculus of shopping in which I try to maximize happiness with a purchase, by balancing costs against utility, when the latter is extremely difficult to quantify and deal with in a rational way. I'd probably end up doing the same with the apartment search, were it not that the necessity to act quickly and decisively to seal a lease offer would hopefully preclude excessive angst.
Timetable: by end of next week, ( 7/14): get some source of income. Generate list of potential roommates.
By end of following week, (7/21): have a roommate and a list of potential apartments. Purchase cellular phone.
Weekend of 7/29: spend weekend in Boston looking at apartments.
My mistake of mailing in the contract late, and of being too stingy to use Express Mail or FedEx, will prove to be the most costly, time-consuming, and anxiety-producing error I have ever committed. One day, or a few extra dollars, and I would have only the job search to worry about.
Comments?
Other than that, there are three main searches: job, roommate, and apartment.
The job search has got to come first. Not having heard from anyone, particularly the temp agencies I applied to, after nearly a week of having resumes in has me seriously worried. I will continue to send things in and will scrutinize the classifieds this weekend again with care. But if I don't hear from any of the things (mainly clerical or office type jobs) I applied to by the beginning of next week, I am going to start filling out applications for retail positions. Failing that, burger-flipping, but hopefully it won't get that bad. But I'm not sure, and the more I look at the costs of housing in Cambridge, the more I am convinced that failing to make some money in the next month and a half is not a viable option.
I suppose there was some level of arbitrariness in my decision to pick fire school over EMT school, knowing I wouldn't have the time to attend both or to develop competence in both. But if I had EMT-B and EVOC, and experience, I would have no cause to worry about job prospects now.
Next up, roommate search. I've set up a profile on the Harvard facebook-like site for students searching for potential roommates. I have also posted on the Career Services blog for Swat '06ers looking for roommates. It begins to seem more likely than not that I will be roomming with a total stranger, which I wish were not the case. I think I would rather live in cramped, spartan barracks with my friends than in a luxurious mansion with strangers. Nonetheless, barring my managing to find a cheap studio, this will almost certainly be necessary.
After that, apartment search, for non-singles. To do the apartment search first would run the risk of not being able to find someone to share the apartment with later, and then being saddled with a rent that would consume my stipend and consign me to a diet of bread and water. I will need to request listings from the Harvard residential office (they can only be searched online from computers on the Harvard network), and of course look on craigslist.
Somewhere in between, after a successful job search, a cell phone search. I've had several people recommend Verizon. But knowing myself, I'll never manage to settle on something expensive to begin with and which will become a significant monthly expense for the forseeable future, without angstily exploring every single option. I will almost certainly end up playing with that perverted calculus of shopping in which I try to maximize happiness with a purchase, by balancing costs against utility, when the latter is extremely difficult to quantify and deal with in a rational way. I'd probably end up doing the same with the apartment search, were it not that the necessity to act quickly and decisively to seal a lease offer would hopefully preclude excessive angst.
Timetable: by end of next week, ( 7/14): get some source of income. Generate list of potential roommates.
By end of following week, (7/21): have a roommate and a list of potential apartments. Purchase cellular phone.
Weekend of 7/29: spend weekend in Boston looking at apartments.
My mistake of mailing in the contract late, and of being too stingy to use Express Mail or FedEx, will prove to be the most costly, time-consuming, and anxiety-producing error I have ever committed. One day, or a few extra dollars, and I would have only the job search to worry about.
Comments?
