Job Search and Queries

Last updated on July 26, 2026

I spent the last two days working on two versions of my résumé: techie me and teacher me. I feel “incomplete” when I read one or the other, as if I’m not being honest about who I am.

The technology résumé is modeled on samples I found online at two executive job sites. It does look nice and I am working on the wording. The special education résumé is going to take a bit more time to refine. Generally, a long curriculum vitae is the standard in higher education; trimming content to two pages was a challenge.

As I edited these new career documents, I found minor errors in my full CV, errors that also existed in my online CV. It is frustrating, since my CV has been maintained since the mid 1990s. You would think a document that is updated every year wouldn’t have any errors. Somehow, careless mistakes do slip past my eyes. The worst error was a misspelling of “university.” The automatic spellcheck in Word should have caught that one.

The two résumés are meant for both job hunting, in the traditional sense, and to accompany query letters to publishers.

I always wonder if listing my speaking invitations will scare employers. Including presentation titles like “Life with Autism” and “Autistic Me: A Teacher’s Journey” seems like a warning to employers. One more reason to market myself as uniquely qualified on matters of autism, I suppose. I decided to omit my speaking history from the technology résumé.

In so many ways, looking for a “normal job” after the academic job hunt is tough. I really wanted one of teaching posts for which I interviewed. Now, I’m trying to remind myself to be confident and keep on task. My job for now is finding job or selling one of my manuscripts. Either or both would be good.

Emotionally, I feel lousy about relying on my wife to support us. I completed the doctorate so I wouldn’t be a drag on the household. I owe her so much for supporting my dreams, even if the dreams didn’t quite work out as planned. She’s my motivation to get the résumés right and to keep sending out queries.

Never give up. Never surrender.