The good news of today (happy birthday to me) is that I heard from Peace Corps. The bad news (no happy birthday to me) is that instead of a phone call to discuss an invite, it was in the form of an e-mail requesting more information. This was information that I had skipped those many months ago when I filled out the original application, because I thought it was taken care of with the resume I sent in. Nope.
Here is what the e-mail said:
Dear Karin. My name is (name) and I am a Placement Officer on the Business Skills Desk. Your Placement Officer, (name), has been out unexpectedly for the past few weeks and I am following up with some of her files. I have started the assessment portion of your file and noticed that there is some important information missing. While you provided detailed resumes, you did not fill out the employment history section of the application. This is important because it captures some information not typically included on a resume. Please provide the following information for all the jobs that appear on your resume:
Previous employer name
City/State
From (Mo/Yr) to (Mo/Yr)
Job title
Hours per week
Name of supervisor
Phone number
E-mail address
May we contact your former employer ()Yes ()No
Reason for leaving
Once I have this information regarding your employment history I'll have the complete information in order to continue the review of your application.
My lesson learned in all of this is that I thought that by providing my resume that would cover the information, so at the time I applied I did not fill out those fields. Shame on me for that oversight, as it now means additional waiting. This is getting hard, to see people getting invites for MAY and I am still waiting for February. But this was my fault.
The lesson for other applicants - when they ask for information, give it to them - give them what they ask for. As a matter of fact, give them more than they ask for. That is what I did for the medical portion and that went flying through the approval process. I did not do that with the resume portion, WAAAAAAAY at the beginning of the process, and it has now come back to bite me.
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The rule is you can be asked for anything at any time by Peace Corps, and not following basic directions can be seen as a big mistake and push your timeline back, and of course come back to bite you in the butt.
ReplyDeleteI didn't double check my medical labs and it turns out I had to get a test for one thing that I thought had been ordered by the Doc. No worries though.. it will be faxed in ASAP on Monday.
Holy crud, people are getting May invites already? For where?
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel any better, I had my own "following explicit directions FAIL" moment that delayed getting my medical clearance by, oh, about a month.
(I'm nominated for SSA June ... I seriously doubt I'll be getting an invite for a loooooong time, though, with all the hullabaloo at the "Africa desk.")
Good luck!