Answering "current activities" question if you don't have any...

[Raindrop423]

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So, I graduated in spring 2008 and have been teaching English abroad for the past year, and now I'm applying for fall 2010 and preparing to move back to the US so that I can be there for interviews and stuff. I'm looking for a job, and so far I've applied to a whole bunch of things: research jobs, jobs off of various university websites, jobs from idealist.org, jobs from hospital websites... and this morning I found a medical scribe program that I'll apply to even though it will probably barely keep me solvent. But so far no luck, even with things I'm over-qualified for.

This morning I was looking at some sample secondary questions and one of them is "account for your time during the year in which you're applying", and that kind of freaked me out. Any suggestions? I mean, ideally I'll be working full time and also doing some volunteering (but I can't set it up until I know where I'll be working because I don't know where in the US I'll be yet), but... no job yet. Am I going to have to hold on to all my secondaries until I find a job so that I can talk about it? Because I feel embarrassed putting "uhh... unemployed so far, but don't worry guys, I'm looking!"

 

[T15]

I had the same situation and wrote that I would be looking for employment then at interviews when asked I would be honest and say I was readjusting to the US and discovering the difficulties of the current job market. Or make a joke about learning to do paperwork, most people were understanding and I actually had a good conversation with a student interviewer about how the difficulties in getting a job right now. Once I started volunteering I just sent in an update with that information. Dont hold on to your app till you get a job. Say that you are looking for a job and moving back to the US and send you ap in.