It seems everyone around me is trying to quit their jobs and find a new one. Unsurprising since this period is currently being called the "Great Resignation". 7.6 million people quit their jobs from April to May for different reasons. I think it's good that people may be seeking better opportunities for themselves. Having previously experienced a toxic work environment, I know what it's like to be in that kind of hell and the desperation to get out of there. In fact, I still have friends who live in jobs full of toxicity unable to get out for various reasons.

While it's great that people are seeking better employment, it also means the competition is rough. My hubby is one of the unfortunate souls trying to find a new job with little luck competing against the other millions of people in the same situation. Having watched him try and try again and after researching next steps, here are some job hunting tips in these trying times.  

1. Connections
Did you work closely with a professor in college? Is your grandpa a retired businessman? Does your friend's mom run her own hobby store? Use your connections! So often we are either too proud or afraid to ask for help, but now more than ever, people are the ones who get you into jobs. It's who you know, not what you know. You never know who might actually be looking for someone, and you never know how close they may actually be. 

Nowadays, a college degree is just a checkbox (an expensive one), and you and a million others all have one that might be relevant to a job. Or if you don't have one, you might have relevant experience but again so does the guy next to you. So if you have someone who can get you through the door, you've just put yourself at the front of the race. Take a second to look around you and ask if maybe your friend's mom knows someone who needs a hand. 

2. Job Boards
LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, Glassdoor, Google job... these are but a few job boards that you can access to find jobs. Use all of them, don't settle for one! States, cities, and counties have their own job boards too as most of them are restricted as to where they can post their jobs. The same applies to state universities or other government positions. Certain occupations may have specialty job boards such as National Society of Black Engineers, Latinos in High Ed, Springboard for the Arts, etc. Don't settle and take the time to look up other job boards especially if you're looking for a career in a specific field. Also do your research, don't sign up for anything that looks shady. There are job boards that people pay to use, make sure it's worth it before you do the same. 

As a caveat to this, if you don't have a LinkedIn, make one, ASAP. I can't tell you the number of applications that asked for LinkedIn Profiles, and it's almost certain recruiters or companies will look over your LinkedIn. Your resume should be one page, and your entire work history may not fit on that one page. Instead, link to your LinkedIn where you have the luxury of spelling out every job, internship,  and school experience you have. Plus, you're going to look pretty behind the times if you don't have one.

3. Cover Letters
Let's face it, nobody likes writing cover letters especially when you have to write dozens of them in a day. To top it off, the formatting and style of these letters changes all the time. For both resumes and cover letters, there is no real "right" way to make them since everyone looks for something different. Though there are general standards and practices for them. For cover letters, they should be short, sweet, and to the point. Read it out loud to a family member, partner, or friend, if they're falling asleep or tuning you out, maybe you need to rewrite it. 

As for whether they are necessary or not, here are some numbers from Zety and ResumeLab on cover letters:

ResumeLab

• 74% of recruitment decision-makers prefer cover letters
• 61% of recruiters require cover letters if you apply via online job boards 
• 77% of recruiters prefer candidates with cover letters
• 72% of recruiters expect cover letters even if they are "optional"

Zety

• ​26% of recruiters read cover letters and consider them critical
• 56% of employers want a cover letter 
• 47% of job seekers write cover letters

The reality is only some recruiter will read your cover letter, but the majority will still consider you more qualified if you submit one. Which sucks, it really does, to put in all that time and effort knowing that they probably won't read it; it's demotivating. But, it will give you the one-up over your competition, so take the time to create a cover letter. Create a template that you can change up, but make sure you individualize it to the company you're applying for!

4. Achievements
This might seem obvious, but list your accomplishments in your resume. I have edited a number of resumes, and it's incredible how often a promotion or award is left out because "It wasn't a big deal" or "It was a small thing." Look, recruiters aren't going to go ask your previous company if the promotion from staff to associate staff was a big promotion. They're going to look at it and see a "promotion."

I once had a client who received employee of the month several months in a row, but because it was a small department and for a retail position, they didn't think it mattered enough to put on their resume. I wanted to scream. Put your achievements on your resume, big or small. Don't put yourself down because you don't think you've done anything relevant in your life. Everything counts!

5. Don't Give Up
Ok, I admit, this one might seem cheesy, but when you're applying for several jobs a day against millions of other applicants, you're going to get a lot of rejection letters. You may also never hear back from a company, and that sucks. Rejection stings. No matter how numb you may think you are to it, it will take it's toll on you. You're going to wonder if you're worth any position, if anybody will ever hire you, if you're ever going to get that dream job... and you will, but you can't give up.

You will get none of the jobs you don't apply for. It's a fight to get the job you want, and you have to give it your all to get that sweet satisfaction at the end. It took me 6 months of applying for 10 jobs a day everyday and countless rejections to get the job that I have now. So give it your all, your hard work will eventually pay off. 

If you have any other tips or thoughts, feel free to leave them in the comments below! Let me know how your job hunt is going and what struggles you have faced. 

 Before I breach the topic of husbandos and waifus, let me be clear. I am loyal to my hubby. He's the love of my life, and the only one who keeps me sane these days. But for many of us nerds or otaku, I would say the lines of 3D and 2D don't generally cross. I think of my friend who literally thirsts so hard over every cute video game girl he sees that we forced him to get some "go to horny jail *bonk*" emotes made. He may be like that with the 2D girls, but in reality, he's actually a real cool and polite dude who would be an absolute rockstar to a real, nice girl in his life (though he might still make thirsty jokes). So you single ladies, I know a guy, HMU. 

Overview
Fair warning, this topic can go to some pretty intense levels, and I'm really only going to brush the top of it. The short of it is waifus and husbandos are 2D characters that people immensely like and would probably marry if they were real. Of course, it can be 3D characters as well but when I say 2D, I'm referring to fictional characters and not IRL (which I affectionately call 3D). Typically, the terms husbando and waifu are exclusively for anime nerds. Before you think this is rather strange and why would anyone like fictional characters so much that they would want to marry them, I'd say that this is not all that different from when someone coos over how hot a celebrity is or collecting movies/memorabilia of actors or actresses. Both certainly have different levels of intensity, but whether the person you like is a celebrity or a 2D character or whoever, it's clear that we like to attach ourselves to these fictional characters.

Attachments
Casual fans would probably not quite understand the numerous fanfiction, fanart, and smut that exists of favorite characters. It's actually quite natural though to grow attached to characters when you're someone who immerses or invests themselves in the story. Sometimes it's these fictional characters who cheer us up, and they might be the only ones to do so. Especially as the pandemic has become a thing, more and more people find themselves alone and missing social interactions. One of the things we humans do is interact via storytelling which is in anime, movies, etc. So when that anime girl is an absolute cutie (maybe tsundere) or when that dashing boy saves the day with his charming smile, we can't help but grow fond of them. It wouldn't be quite right to say all anime fans are lonely, but we certainly can appreciate the joy (and other emotions) a character brings when we see them on screen.

Personally, I love to write my own stories which means, I love taking stories that have already been written and borrowing their characters to match up with my characters. For me, when I obsess over a character, I don't necessarily obsess over them romantically. It's more something where I create a different character to join the story or romance a certain character. This way I'm interacting with the storytelling and making it a bit personal. 

Characteristics
The criteria for waifu or husbando differs from fan to fan though some characters are certainly beloved  by all regardless of gender. For some it's not a big deal and it's whoever is cute or handsome or moe, and for others it's certain characteristics like personality or traits that make them top tier. In general though, these characters have to look attractive at the very least.  A bit of mystery also tends to make a character popular like Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen or Ban from Nanatsu no Taizai. I think 2B from Nier Automata (which comes to mind since I recently played the Nier rads in FFXIV) would fall into this category as well though she also has plenty of other attractive traits about her. Empathy or pity also is a great motivator for liking a character. Do they have a pitiful background or are they an innocent puppy you want to protect? More than likely, they're top tier waifu or husbando material.

Of course, some of us (like me) enjoy the less popular characters for various reasons. The way they might be suave even if they're a dick, or when they act like a dick but are actually quite charming... I have fantastic taste in anime men, I tell you. Whether you like the popular main character or the obscure side character who dies, we, fans, obsess over them and collect all the merch we can get our hands on.

Merch 
How many anime figures line your shelves? Or are they in a box somewhere while you wait to move out so you can proudly display them somewhere? We collect the things we like. I think collecting materials has been a hobby for mankind since they pretty much existed. We in a America suffer the problems having goods imported and seeing merchandise that will never make it over here. Or if you're like me and you live in the slow Midwest who can never keep up on pop culture, then you're pretty doomed to shopping online on obscure sites to try to get your hands on anime goods. I can barely contain myself when I spot a rare anime figure or merchandise on the shelf of some pop culture or gaming store here since it's such a rare commodity. It's probably why my poor wallet suffers from spontaneous expenses. But I digress, whether you're on ebay, somewhere online, or shopping at a local store, it's still a great feeling to own a figure, keychain, sticker, or something with your favorite waifu/husbando slapped on it. One of my favorite types of merch though is when I see the character on some sort of TCG playing card, like Claude from Fire Emblem Three Houses on a Fire Emblem Cipher card. There's so many types of nerdy things to spend your money on and show off your obsession with the character.

Waifus and Husbandos
Do you have the same type of waifu or husbandos? Or do you freely love all of them? It's pretty fun to get into this topic with nerdy friends or people at anime cons. You can get some pretty heated discussions (all in good fun though, don't take it too seriously!) and learn about new characters or series that you've never heard of. In the anime realm, there's countless series to look forward to, and even more if you enjoy reading manga. More of then than not these days, I read the manga and am pleasantly surprised to see my favorite characters come to life in an anime shortly thereafter. Some of my husbandos below! Props to you if you see a pattern between them! Images all from their respective fandom wikis.