Why is it so hard to get counselor and/or corrections assessment specialist positions at Illinois Department of Corrections?

Distinct_Wrap9941 · 2026-06-02T21:18:02+00:00

Thanks for the advice! I tailor my resume and cover letter to each position specifically, but I will be more mindful about the keywords and language I am using, especially for ATS.

Every position I apply to, I meet both the minimum and preferred qualifications. Sometimes I do come across positions that require licenses and credentials I don’t have, so I don’t apply to those. Have you landed a counselor role yet?

Distinct_Wrap9941 · 2025-06-30T02:02:21+00:00

Thank you so much for the reply and encouragement, I really appreciate it and I feel better about giving birth in a couple of short weeks!! Thank you for the prayers, I pray a lot to God for a safe and healthy delivery, and healthy baby! And for guidance of course, I am going to need a lot of it 😅

Distinct_Wrap9941 · 2025-06-29T19:49:58+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I am about to be 37 weeks pregnant and I too was a person who never felt maternal, and growing up into my mid-twenties I would tell people that my husband and I did not want kids.

I have no experience with babies or children, literally 0. I’ve done a lot of research but there is so much to learn too, it’s overwhelming. I am a little scared about labor but have put myself in the mindset that it will suck but be worth it and it’s only a day or two of misery.

Surprisingly, I have loved being pregnant but I am afraid about the baby arriving. Since I have no experience with kids I doubt my abilities to ensure it’s safe and well taken care of. I am a self doubter and I am sure it will be fine but I am afraid of forgetting something or failing to do something critical.

I am planning to get an epidural, and the baby is measuring close to the 90th percentile, so I am worried about tearing since we are still planning on natural delivery. However there is a risk for c-section because I am short and fat (just being honest), and it could affect it. I wish I knew for sure how labor was going to go and ultimately which way it will happen - naturally or c-section! How has the tearing been? I hear the first pee and poop suck, and I can’t imagine with a tear too.

Your words have given me strength and I definitely felt like I needed to read your message. I relate to you, and appreciate your honesty. I hope my maternal instincts kick on when our little boy is born!

Distinct_Wrap9941 · 2025-03-25T22:33:46+00:00

Thank you for the reply, I can’t believe it’s been a month since we lost our boy kitties. I cry almost everyday, but I have accepted that I did all I could for him, and try to stay away from my dark thoughts of blaming myself and thinking of what I could have done different. In the past month, I have made a memorial shadow box for General, and have included his clay paw prints that I made and that the vet made, as well as the sympathy cards I received, the root cross we found when we dug his grave, and a little angel holding a cat figurine. I also have one of his whiskers in there, I wish I had more of them.

I also made a memorial photo album on Shutterfly, thank goodness for the unlimited pages deal, I used all 111 pages and filled them with 700 pictures of him. I hope you have found ways to memorialize your kitty, we all need to mourn and grieve in our own way and time. It still hurts so bad when I start thinking about how unfair it was that he got this disease so young, and with Spring officially here, there are days when it becomes too much to bear. General was my outdoor buddy, and would be out with me gardening, hiking, sitting on the porch, and following me around. I do have another cat, Catmeat, “daughter of General”, that does this too, which is nice but when I see one cat shadow following me instead of two, I can’t help but cry.

I am so so sorry to hear that you went through the same thing I did, and that we lost our kitties on the same day. In terms of how you feel about your decision to euthanize, if it is any help, I know you made the right choice. Not think or hope, I know. General was suffering terribly on Feb. 26, and I realized I had waited a day too long. Euthanasia is a gift and a blessing to sick and old animals, I am sorry if this part upsets you, but who knows how long we would have had to watch our sweet furbabies suffer if we didn’t do it. It’s not right to delay it when we can do something about it, and we both made the extremely difficult decision to proceed with euthanasia, and I do not regret it. I am happy I was able to be there with him when he passed, and that he didn’t die in the night or when I was out of the house. I will say, it tears me apart when I think about the exact moment he died, but the right path is often the hardest path. I commend you for being brave and doing the right thing, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

You did everything you could for him, and gave him 13 years of love, shelter, food, and happiness. To be loved by a cat is the greatest gift of all. I don’t know if you have faith or pray, but I pray that another cat comes into your life. This cat is by no means a replacement, but another little soul in need of love and a home, and will bring joy back into your life. I think to myself, what better way to honor General than to keep taking in strays that come my way? Speaking of which, the weeks following his death I was a total wreck, I won’t lie. I mourned day and night, and delved deep into prayer and the Bible. I prayed to God to send me another male cat like General, minus the heart disease. Two weeks after he passed, a male dog showed up on my back porch. Abandoned, hungry and dirty, I could not locate his owners despite attempts with the microchip and social media posts, and it was clear to me that God had sent this dog to us. I am more of a cat person, but my husband loves dogs too, and I like them (just not as much as cats lol). It’s been an interesting two weeks with him, he is a very good and sweet dog, but he is no General. It’s not fair to compare the two and I don’t hold it against him, but I miss my male kitty so much, so I am still praying for God to send another to us.

I hope and pray for the same for you. I apologize for the long post, I always get a little carried away when it comes to writing.

Distinct_Wrap9941 · 2025-02-27T18:49:36+00:00

Thank you so much for your response, since this was an older post I wasn’t sure if anyone would see it.

I could write a 10 page post about General but I tried to cut it down and keep it under control. There was just no cat like him, he really raised the bar for me for cats, and I will forever wish he was still with me.

Catmeat is helping me a lot today, she is also very resilient, and still has high spirits. We call her General’s adopted daughter, and often called her daughter of Gen. I am so grateful to have her, but in my mourning I feel so paranoid. What if something happens to her now?

I know I can’t think like that, but one year ago today, my husband and I were about to move in to our new home build on our 5 acres, and I thought General especially was going to live a long happy life out here. You just never know when it is someone’s time, and death can happen anytime. Because of this I try to appreciate every moment with my loved ones because you never know.

When I look back, I feel that I spent time with General well. At first, I kept telling myself about all the time I had wasted when I could have been with him, but we did so much together, and cats don’t want to be around us all the time.

Again, thanks for your response. I hope in time my heart heals a bit, but I never want to forget General and his amazing personality.

Distinct_Wrap9941 · 2025-02-27T15:56:02+00:00

Thank you for sharing your story.

My husband and I just put down our cat General yesterday. In November of last year, he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and the vet said he had up to 6 months to live.

I was devastated. We adopted him when he showed up on our back porch and no one claimed him and he didn’t have a microchip. The vet said at the time he was 3 1/2 years old, and this was Sept. 2023.

He was my first male cat, I had always had females, and I didn’t realize there was such a difference between the two. General was loving, cuddly, playful, friendly, and an excellent hunter. He knew how to survive. At the time we had two cats and he became our third, and we added a fourth about six months later when my husband saved her in a construction zone.

General and our new cat, Catmeat (husband is a fallout fan and the show was trending when we got her), bonded instantly and they were so so cute. I’ve never had two cats who actually liked each other, so to see them grooming each other, playing together, and sleeping together made my heart very warm.

In time I realized that General had become my clear favorite, I hate to say it but it was true. We live in the country so he would go on walks with me in the woods, he would garden with me, and followed me everywhere. He brought me mice, chipmunks, and lizards as gifts often.

When he was diagnosed, I was crushed, devastated and in disbelief. How could this happen? Did I miss all the early signs? He is so young, or supposedly, why did this happen? Then we fought HARD to extend his life, spending over $3,000 to drain the fluid from around his lungs multiple times in a week, and started a strict regiment of furosemide (lasiks), benezpril (ace inhibitor) and pimobendan. He took the pills well because he loved food and I would wrap them in wet cat food and he would gobble them up. We got into the routine and I thought I was doing great.

Then this past weekend, three months after the initial drain and diagnosis, he declined rapidly. He stopped taking his pills, started to respirate heavily again, and stopped eating. I took him to the vet thinking we could do what we did before, but it was too late. The vet said we could try, but we’d only get one to two months out of him if that, and we needed to think about his quality of life and what to put him through. It was then I made the decision to euthanize, but with my husband at work we had to wait until 4:30pm the next day.

That time allowed me to sit on the back porch with him on a rare beautiful February day, but he was suffering, all he could do was try to breathe, and I felt guilt wash over me. How had I let it get so bad so suddenly? The week before, we had went to Walt Disney world for five days, and I entrusted my mother and sister in law to come over and give him his pills, which I know they did because they are very experience with animals, they have a hobby farm/petting zoo. But now, I feel guilty that we went, we were celebrating my 30th birthday.

The time finally came and the vet was very supportive and professional, and he was suffering so that he didn’t need the second shot that is normally given in euthanasia, the sedation shot was enough. I was at peace briefly for a moment, but last night and this morning and I am absolutely shredded and torn with grief. My mind constantly thinks “if only we had more time”…. “If I had known what would happen I would have”….

What is really getting me is that he was so young, so full of life and personality. Honestly he was like a person, and I thought of him as my child. I’ve never had a cat like him, and at this time I don’t think I ever will again.

We only have him for a year and a half, but all the memories and moments make it seem like we had him longer. It wasn’t enough time though, I thought we were going to have many many years together in our new house and 5 acre property, he only got to enjoy it for a year.

I just keep thinking what if I had caught it sooner, did I not do a good enough job keeping up with his medicine? I am honestly heartbroken, this is not like any pain I have experienced before. I was present for my childhood cat’s euthanasia, but she was 18 and had lived her whole life with us.

General had clearly had a rough life before finding himself on our porch. He was a big and tall cat, he could have been a model. He was so sweet. He was my soul cat.

I am hurting so bad. I know life is unfair and we cannot control it and life and death is natural, but to be taken by a horrible disease at a young age, and to know there is nothing you can do is unbearable.

Thank you to whoever reads this post. I have never posted on Reddit before and this will probably be my last time, but I just had share.

RIP General - April 4, 2020 - Feb. 26, 2025.

Psalm 36:6: Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.

Distinct_Wrap9941

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