109 credits in 10 months

[Kartvelian]

My resume is pretty clear, if they'd read it at all they would see that the library job I did for 5 years was essentially an administrative assistant position with pretty much the same duties.

I used to be a director for a large educational department, and regularly had to hire staff and I promise you that your average hiring manager gets hundreds of resumes a day and spends MAYBE 15 seconds on each one before putting it in the 'no' pile. What may be clear to you after having spent hours on your resume about your own lived experience will not be at all obvious to someone who's never met you, has a sea of resumes to read through, and a bunch of other duties and interruptions.

Rather than throwing out your resume to every job you see, I'd recommend changing your tactic up a little and adapting your resume for each job you see. So if your library job was similar to being an admin assistant, and this one job wants someone with admin assistant experience, you need to paint your library job in that light. Call it a 'library administrative assistant' If you want. Under your job duties, check to make sure each bullet point relates back to a point in the job advertisement itself. Pick out the key words in the job advertisement, and use those in your duty descriptions.

'Essentially' the same isn't good enough. Unfortunately, you'll have to hand-feed the hiring manager with your capabilities and capacities.

It's more work, but when you're job searching, your job is to find a job. Which means making it as easy as possible for the hiring manager to hire you. Assume they will spend no more than 10 seconds on your resume before deciding whether to have a better look - does your history and experience overtly relate to the job position? Can I immediately tell you are perfect for the job? Or do I have to read through your entire resume and try to guess whether your job in the library will have enough transferable skills to the job opening I have?

If I have to spend more than 10 seconds trying to work out whether a resume is even a potential match, then it's a definite no. Hiring managers don't have time to determine 'close enough' - it's a harsh dichotomy, and if you need to be a definite yes to even have a chance.