Options!

Amman, Jordan

On the recommendation of a new friend, I sent a blind query to Questscope, without knowing if they were looking for people or what kinds of positions they'd have to fill, but I found the work they were doing so exciting that I just had to get in touch. So Bob and I tweaked and tweaked the email last night over IM and email, and I sent it off last thing before I went to bed. I fully expected to be round-filed.

So this morning in my free period, my phone rings, unknown number. It's Questscope. The guy says, he'd love to know more about what my skills are. Well, if that's not a vague, hard to answer question, especially considering that he'd already seen my resume and email, and I thought I'd been pretty clear about what my skills were.... So then he asked what kind of job I was looking for, and I said I didn't know anything about the development sector, and was looking for some introductory admin kind of job that would help me learn the system. So he says he couldn't justify to his donors offering that kind of position to an American. But he said he'd let me in on a secret: the real money in the development sector is in writing. Well, I said, that's my best skill! So he said he's been working with Questscope since it was founded; the founder finds the donors and grants, and this guy manages and spends that money. He said they would have about 16 mos of work for someone who could write grant proposals, project proposals, project reports, etc. And he said he might be able to offer me more than I'm making at both of my jobs at once! And then he asked me if I could come and meet some project coordinators today!

I told him I couldn't make it today (I'm too sick and drugged up for it to be coherent at the moment, anyway), but have agreed to come Sunday or Monday after school.

He also said he's gotten lots of unsolicited resumes over email like mine, and occasionally he asks his secretary to write them a nice rejection note, but this is the first time he's actually gotten in touch with one of these hopefuls. I guess Bob wasn't just being a nice ex-boyfriend last night when he said he wished he had a job to offer me with such credentials, and that it was a pity it was so hard to fit all my great qualities into a readable cover letter! But I guess we managed to do just that between the two of us!

So, I'm not giving the American school my notice just yet, but it's so nice to know that I've got some options!