« Nachtgalerie: Halloween spent clubbing | Home | Headline of the day »

How to get a job

Tomorrow (well, today, technically, I guess) there’s a job application seminar for the DAAD/SIP students. It’s actually a two-part seminar, with tomorrow focusing on résumé and cover letter, and a second session Monday for oral interview skills, but I’ll unfortunately miss Monday’s session, as I don’t plan to return from traveling until Wednesday or so. But hey, that happens.

A big reason I’m going to this conference is to see whether I can’t meet anyone looking for a research assistant, but I’ve been warned already by professors here that taking a position under a professor would mean I wouldn’t be getting a paycheck. Like, it’d most likely be completely unpaid, which I find kind of unreal. We’ll see how that works out.

I think that more than anything, though, I just want to be able to say I went to this conference. Its being in Prato, which is right outside Florence, might have been a small influencing factor, too.

The plan for the weekend is to head out on a night train very late on Friday, and arrive in Florence around 8am. The two German students I’m going with and I will cruise around the city for the weekend, then head out to Prato somehow (it’s close enough that I don’t think it’ll be a problem), and enjoy the conference from Monday to Wednesday.

This is of course a rather pricey trip, mostly because of conference registration fees, which are much higher than I’m willing to admit here. But the professor at my university who recommended the conference believes she’ll be able to get 60% of our expenses (travel, accommodation, registration) reimbursed! The students tell me this process will take months, due to university bureaucracy, but as long as I get it back, I’m fine. I’m staying here for a year, and it’s next semester when I won’t have a stipend or a paycheck that I’ll be hurting for cash.

For those interested, here’s some more information on the conference.