I never knew applying for things could get HARDER and more INCONVENIENT as prospective employers progress towards “easier” and “quicker” ways to apply for their positions. But they are harder and more inconvenient because technology keeps advancing.

Yes, technology is making it super efficient for me to apply for that high school cashier job at Target online rather than having to go into the store, find a manager, and ask for a paper application then return to said store again at a later date to return it. But, technology is also making me have to re-vamp my resume every three months or so because of its constant advances.

You can put down that you know how to use Photoshop but which Photoshop do you really know how to use? The newest edition or the one from three years ago? Thankfully for me and Photoshop, I can usually work my way through the upgrades and still be efficient with it.

It’s Dreamweaver that is leaving a lot of people in the dust…or at least a lot of people in my classes. I’m a pretty tech savvy person and yet I CANNOT follow Dreamweaver at all and hopefully whatever direction I end up going in after graduation in the journalism/history/French fields will not require knowledge in the Dreamweaver area.

My questions are: What do employers do when another program development or upgrade is released? How long do they wait until they require their current employees to be up to speed or require their new applicants to be knowledgable of the programming? Because really that does matter a lot to employers if they want to stay on top. How do they stay in-sync with technology, society, and competition? How do they ONE UP that competition? 

Will I constantly have to worry now that I’m not up to speed on all things media, programming, and technology? Will I have little reminder tabs on my Google calendar telling me when the latest upgrades and develops of the iPad, Photoshop, and Microsoft programs will be released?

Regardless, it’s a reality that I must face head on and that many must face if they or I hope to ever obtain that long desired job. To do that, I must stay even one more step ahead of the game and know these programs and upgrades before I’m told I need to learn them. Not only will that help me look somewhat snazzy but perhaps it’ll help to expand my opportunities, as well!

But I wonder how many days of my life I will lose slaving over my computer screen trying to master the latest commands and tricks on iMovie or Garage Band…