Prospective employer slow to respond to emails

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Background: I'm in my last semester of college. I have a job in mind for this summer that I really want while I take a few months to figure out for sure what I want to do after that. I think I'm extremely well-qualified and I'm extremely anxious about getting it. The email exchange follows. Do you think it would be appropriate for me to ask when I would know if I've got an interview or is that being too pushy? Note: The person I've been emailing is a secretary and doesn't make any hiring decisions. Also, the oldest emails are at the bottom, because Microsoft Outlook is stupid.
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From: Farnsworth, Alison
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 1:09 PM
To: Bielli, James L @ LSC
Subject: RE: VT DEC Environmental Technician Application

Yes, thank you for your interest. Friday the 12th was the last day for people to apply, so now the Lab Director is reviewing the applications he’s received and will schedule interviews.

Alison

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From: Bielli, James L @ LSC
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 12:00 PM
To: Farnsworth, Alison
Subject: FW: VT DEC Environmental Technician Application

Dear Ms. Farnsworth,

I am writing to reiterate my interest in the Environmental Technician position this summer and to inquire about the status of my application. I feel that my experience, training, and skill set make me an excellent candidate for the position. I look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter.

James L. Bielli
Lyndon State College
Class of 2013 Atmospheric Sciences/Applied Mathematics
2012-2013 President - Lyndon State College Track & Field Club
Member of Sigma Zeta Mathematics & Science Honor Society

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From: Bielli, James L @ LSC
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 4:45 PM
To: Alison Farnsworth
Subject: VT DEC Environmental Technician Application

Hello Ms. Farnsworth,

Attached is my cover letter, completed application form, resume, and unofficial transcript. I'm looking forward to further discussing this opportunity with you.

James L. Bielli
Lyndon State College
Class of 2013 Atmospheric Sciences/Applied Mathematics
2012-2013 President - Lyndon State College Track & Field Club
Member of Sigma Zeta Mathematics & Science Honor Society

I'd say you've gotten as far as you're going to with the secretary, unless you think she's ignoring you and not forwarding your resume where it needs to go. Unfortunately, many employers will take your resume and simply not call you again to tell you anything, whether they passed on you or decided not to fill the position at all or what have you. Give it time, at least a week or two, and email the person hiring directly if you can.

In my view it is too early to be asking.

Given that it is the Lab Director who will be reviewing applications and scheduling interviews, this is something that he will be doing "off the side of his desk." I would suggest that the absolute earliest that you should be contacting them is either Friday the 19th (a week after the deadline) or Monday the 22nd.

While I can't discuss my specific workplace, I can say I am close to a college and can tell you that while you are clearly an intelligent guy that your email is close to the 'pushy' zone and comes across as a form letter. It might just be me but you also come across as a bit arrogant and that you are trying too hard in your email although I am sure that it not your intention at all. Best to leave it now and if you get the interview, THEN you show you are qualified but don't get too cocky especially at your age.

I know like I sound like a bit of a jerk but you should see the crappy, annoying emails *I* sent at your age. No wonder I couldn't find a job!

Not a jerk at all, and thank you. What would you have done differently than I did?

Also, as far as being a "form letter", yeah, that's pretty much what these back and forth emails are. The cover letter I attached to the first one isn't, though, and it reads quite a bit differently and takes a slightly different tone.

Glad you appreciate my help. I know when I was 21 I had a different attitude
As for your email, let me emphasize it is NOT a cover letter. Yes, be formal in the cover letter but not in the email, even if you don't know this Ms. Farnsworth. Just say Hi Allison: I was just checking to see how the hiring process is going and if there are any updates........... and sign off just saying "James". You can leave the bottom portion in but make it look like an email signature. I know that's not how they teach you but for an email, you need to be far less formal because you unintentionally come across as a snobby salesman who thinks he's got something to prove, not an intelligent college kid. I can tell you are intelligent and let me emphasize let it come out during the interview!

Again, this is something nobody will teach you at an employment centre but I learned a long time ago their advice is GARBAGE to guys like you. Take some time and look in the dating section and much of the advice (especially about not being a "nice guy") applies to searching for employment as well. Best of luck to you!

P.S. I don't know if this is position is actually at the college but one thing that college instructors love is students who are constantly "in their face" as long as they aren't obnoxious. If I were a college instructor I would hire someone like that first. Resumes and Cover Letters are practically useless and it's just important you use proper spelling and grammar because when I helped hire someone I couldn't remember what they said 5 minutes later.

Yeah, the signature is just my default signature... I keep it on there cause I send out email for all those different things. The position isn't through my college, but the Vermont DEC Laboratory is somewhat affiliated with University of Vermont. Not sure what the Lab Director's affiliation is. I also did receive some advice from one of my professors telling me that it would be OK to ask the secretary when I might be likely to receive a response, so I did that.

What do you mean by this?

Actually my employment center gave me the best advice on how to answer the 'fault' question, as in 'what is your greatest fault?'

I make it a technical skill that can be fixed that is not really correlated to the job. So, I might say, for a database admin job, I used to have somewhat of a difficulty using 'computer language that they don't use' but I am in the process of fixing it by, or I fixed it by... and you look a hero for fixing it. You are not lying. But you are refocusing their attention from your problem to your problem solving method.

Hi Pab. It probably doesn't matter whether you ask the secretary. The Lab Director is going to do whatever he's going to do in the fullness of time, whenever that is.

I find employment hunting to be the ficklest of all realms. Jobs often dematerialize for reasons unknowable to the seekers. Sometimes the hiring manager already knows who he wants but is forced to sort through and interview applicants as a required exercise. Other times a manager is told to interview applicants for a position that never actually materializes. But sometimes, managers are interviewing for positions that will exist and someone heretofore unknown to him will be hired.

Both my daughter and myself have had the experience of being not called for an interview after application, but eventually going into the place of business and getting the job. Is it no wonder I think job hunting is fickle?

The position you want sounds great and I hope it actually exists and that you get it.

I am writing to endorse your idea of staying in VT and working at whatever you can get as opposed to going home to NY. You will be applying to career positions from either place. Your VT environment seems to have been a good one for you (cats not withstanding); you have buoyancy there. It'll cost rent which home probably wouldn't, but launching from a place where you have been successful lends confidence.

What I mean by this is that strictly in my experience, employment centers (here in Canada) are NOT geared towards intelligent guys like you and me but those with criminal records, poor work history and bad attitudes. Basically, the kind of people who if they showed their true selves no sane person would want to hire. I would love to go into detail but it would take hours to spell out what I learned and how downright terrible the advice I got was for someone in my position. You are smart enough to not need to put on a 'mask' and in a college environment, you are best just relaxing and being yourself. You obviously are very bright just by the way you write your messages and any professor can VERY quickly pick up on that.

I still disagree with the professor's advice. I know you think it makes you look eager but if I were the secretary I would start to get annoyed with you like you can't respect the fact hiring is a long process and you need to be patient and wait your turn like everyone else. The secretary has no power but if you annoy her she might mention to the Lab Director how annoying you are if you emailed say every second day asking for updates. Remember Lab Directors are NOT HR Managers and don't usually follow the ridiculous logic most HR people do (he was unemployed for two weeks? that means he's unemployable!) so there is no need for all the BS in this situation like in much of the corporate world.

Hahaha. Damn right. You have no idea... there is literally nothing that I am trying to avoid more than ever having to live in my hometown again for that very reason.

Ahhh... OK. Yeah, that's what they're like here in the US as well. I went to one of those once and the lady said she'd never worked with someone like me before and asked me why I was there. I said I was there because I didn't have a job and wanted one haha.

I did get a positive-sounding response from the secretary this morning. She told me that he would probably contact the people he wants to interview next week. But I can definitely appreciate what you're saying and was a little bit worried about that myself.

Good to see that you're looking for other avenues of employment besides meteorology as the meteorology job market is pretty much non-existent right now and is supersaturated with overqualified candidates. The National Weather Service has put in a place a hiring freeze until at least 2015 due to the sequester. Private companies aren't really doing much hiring either and research funding in academia is probably going to be adversely effected by the budget woes as well. Add to that the dramatic rise in newly minted meteorology degrees in the past decade and you have a recipe for a lot of meteorologists who are either unemployed or forced out of the field into something else.

I majored in meteorology myself at Plymouth State in NH and stayed there for the Master's in Applied Meteorology that they have going on there. I, like yourself, had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do around the time I was finishing meteorology school and have since gotten myself into a major life rut. To make a long story short, I toyed with the idea of a PhD in meteorology, but ultimately decided against it in favor of seeking employment in the field. This proved to be a big mistake as jobs are pretty hard to come by. I now have been out of work/school for 3 years and am trying to find a way into the workforce doing something else. What? I'm not exactly sure yet, but I'm working on it. I probably should've started thinking outside the box and began considering other possibilities much earlier than what I did.

In retrospect, I don't think meteorology would've been a good career choice for me had I somehow broken into the field. I won't delve into those reasons here, but hope to find my way into something. Unfortunately, due to the length of my unemployment and Asperger's, I'm beginning to doubt if I'll break into a profession at all and maybe stuck in my hometown indefinitely.

Fortunately, you're still at a point where this can be avoided, so try to break into something and soon if you can because after 6 months the difficulty ramps up exponentially as employers are unfairly biased against the long term unemployed. That said, I hope you're applying for other opportunities than the one you bring up here as your chances for success increase that way. Good luck to you!

Oh sweet, you went to Plymouth? As you might have guessed, I'm at Lyndon right now haha.

Yeah, most of my actual work experience is in the environmental sciences rather than meteorology. It's an area I've considered going into, along with physics. Lately, I'm thinking that meteorology might not be such a wonderful idea for myself either... I don't know, meteorologists are weird people, you know what I mean? And not usually in a good way necessarily, either. I'm not even sure if I want to go as far as getting a Master's in meteorology/atmo sci or not.