Like many people before me, and surely many people after me, I’m currently in the middle of a career switch. For the last decade, my studies and professional experiences revolved around and took place in Southeast Asia.
However I recently moved back to the US and left the career and life I had worked so hard to build. I spent a good amount of time re-acclimating to living in the states and coming to terms with this change. Now, it is time to build my new life here, and thankfully, Bublup is helping me to organize this transition!
Step 1: Getting organized
Since I’ll be based in the US, I had to determine what skills I can bring to the table here and the thought of doing so has been daunting. Questions have been racing through my mind about where I want to live and what I want to do. Can I find a job I want that’s also based in a city I actually like? I desperately needed a way to get my scattered thoughts organized so that I could begin the task of starting my new life. Bublup was the solution I’d been looking for, and has helped me make sense of the clutter filling up both my head and my computer.
Before Bublup, I had a million different ideas going in a million different directions. I was regularly saving links on my computer’s bookmarks bar, including job search websites and different job listings, but I didn’t have a way to clearly or logically organize them. They would easily get lost or I’d forget that I saved them at all!
Step 2: Searching for Jobs
Using Bublup, I finally got on top of my job search by creating a Job Search folder. Within it, I created four folders: career descriptions, job search websites, jobs to apply for, and jobs applied. I consider my Job Search folder to be a living document – it’s a place where I can add, edit, and remove links and info to keep my job search as up to date as possible.
In the ‘’career descriptions’’ folder, I have saved websites that describe various career paths I am considering. It includes the necessary steps for following each particular career path, responsibilities, and various roles that fall under the larger umbrella of the general career path.
Having this resource readily available is helpful because I can take the descriptions and plug them into job searches for a wider range of job options.
I’ve also saved a word document titled ‘Key Words and Concepts’ to this folder, and I update it regularly with unfamiliar terms I come across. It serves as a running dictionary that I can add to as I find new phrases and topics that I would like to research further. When I must discuss these topics or terms in relevant job applications, I’ll be ready.
In the ‘’job search websites’’ folder, I collated all the job-hunting websites that I have been using to find ones I’m interested in. Before I put all these useful sites in Bublup, I would bounce around unhelpful sites where the jobs weren’t relevant to me or truly match my job search. The job hunt has become so much easier now that the sites I like are all saved in one convenient place.
In the ‘’jobs to apply for’’ folder, I save links to jobs that interest me from the various websites I peruse daily. Once I have applied for the job, I move it from this folder into my last folder, “jobs applied.” This folder contains the resume and cover letters I’ve submitted so that I can keep track of my applications. It’s very satisfying to move from the ‘‘jobs to apply for’’ folder into the ‘’jobs applied’’ folder!
Step 3: Apply!
I wish I could say that I’m clear about what I want to do and where I want to live, but that would be too easy! I am still working to figure that out and Bublup is really helping me in the process. The anxiety I once had when I was trying to sort this all out in my head is gone, and I now have a designated area where I can put all my ideas about the future in one place. The last step is to apply to the jobs I love and see where life takes me.
About the author
Emily Etue has an undergraduate and masters degree from the University of Michigan. After spending the last 6 and a half years working in Thailand, most recently as the Southeast Asia Program Coordinator for Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy at Abercrombie & Kent, Emily moved back stateside in the summer of 2019 and began her new job hunt (using Bublup!)
