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I finally passed all four parts of my Certified Public Accountant Examination, which I know all of you care nothing about, but it’s a pretty big deal in my field. It’s admittedly a glorious thing to have finally passed it, but it also means that I really need to start looking for a “real” job instead of the teaching that I’ve been doing for almost a year now. Don’t get me wrong, I love the teaching, but it wouldn’t really pay enough for me to sustain myself anywhere but in my parents home, where I realistically have few expenses that aren’t leisure related. And I don’t want to live in my parents home for much longer.

So, I once again am full-on looking for a job, hopefully one starting in January of 2009, as I’m teaching one last quarter at the technical college until mid December. And job hunting is always way more work than I imagine it should be.

I’m going to be honest – I think things have always been too easy for me, at least academically. Woody Allen says that 90% of life is just showing up and that’s what I did in school all the way from Kindergarten through getting my Masters degree. I showed up. And showing up was usually enough for me not only to get by, but to do very well. Then, when I went to a more prestigious university for my Masters degree I nearly failed out because just showing up wasn’t enough anymore, I actually needed to exert myself and I wasn’t used to doing that. I’m still not used to doing it.

I’m not sure that I’m saying this right though, because I it isn’t fair to say that I never exerted myself in school. It’s more that I never had to leave my comfort zone. I never had to exert myself only to fail and realize that I was going to have to work even harder after my first failure. I never had to be told t

hat all the work I had put in wasn’t good enough. The work I put in was always enough and it was usually more than enough, again at least until I entered my Masters program.

I did survive my Masters program, but I did so with a shitty GPA. I followed that up by working at an accounting firm for 4 months only to be let go. And then I was unable to find a job at another firm and eventually had to settle for a teaching gig because that’s the only place that would have me. So.

Basically, this is one of the first times in my life that I’m not in the elite of the endeavor I’m attempting. My credentials are mediocre at best and downright lousy at worst. My most valuable job experience is working at a firm for four months where I couldn’t cut the mustard. My graduate GPA is alarmingly low. I have no extracurricular activities to speak of. My resume pretty much sucks.

Granted, I know lots of you are screaming that I have a Masters degree in Accounting which, granted, is quite the nice asset, but so does every other person who is applying for the jobs that I want. No employer is going to see my credentials and just say “Oh, we have to have this guy.” I have to actually work at this. I can’t just throw a resume together and apply to the jobs I find and think it’s going to work out. I really have to put in an effort, to try to outshine other people who are just as smart and talented as I am and I am not at all accustomed to that.

So, this entry is my attempt at giving myself a wake-up call. I’m going to spend the next 24 hours turning my resume into something that is excellent instead of just being “good enough.” And then I am going to spend the next 3 months getting the job I want.