job applications

The biggest news first: I've done some preliminaries (phone interview, short written test) for a job with Professional Quality Assurance, a smallish Fredericton-based company with its headquarters about four blocks from my house. I applied through a CareerBeacon "online job fair" a couple of weeks ago, and was actually pretty pumped about this job specifically - anyone who knows my writing knows that I'm a bit of a spelling and grammar perfectionist (not as much in my blog, but I've always gotten excellent grades in papers and so forth that mark such things). It's copy editing and proofreading educational material for online university courses and things like that. I was excited enough to call them up a week later to make sure they had my resume (yes, yes, I should be calling everyone).
Since going over to write the test yesterday, I've done a little more research on the company (CareerBeacon profile, main corporate page) and I kind of wish I hadn't, because now I really want this job, and I'm nervous. They're small, as I said - they just hired their hundredth employee this October - and seem like they have a good thing going. They make the effort to make staff comfortable - a staff lounge with a pool table and foosball? - and have a casual dress code: "it’s perfectly appropriate to wear shorts and flip-flops to work when you work at PQA!", according to their terrific work life page (please check it out for the bonus Blues Brothers quote at the top of the page, these people are awesome). When I went in to write the test, the receptionist (who does the phone interviews) told me not to worry about dressing up, as she goes to work in a hoodie and jeans! And of course, that the receptionist is in charge of phone interviews is a good sign - if you don't need a full-fledged HR team to recruit forty people at a time (I'm looking at you, call centers) then you probably don't have a high turnover rate.
So I'm nervous.

In job application news, apparently Obama is requiring politicians who want to be part of his cabinet to fill out a 63-item background check asking for a summary of everything from real estate and speaking engagements to internet habits, handles, and posts. Some people may call it nosy, but from the number of embarassing politician stories that have come to light recently, I can't blame him for wanting to properly vet his team to make sure there are no nasty skeletons in the closets. It's not like they're applying for just any job.

Anyway I'm off to put up Christmas lights and knit replacement mice for my nephews, who have destroyed the original mouse: