job searching

I've been applying to jobs. I'm hoping to work for a university so I can take graduate school courses while working full-time. I know it'll be a lot of work, but with a tuition waiver, I'd be able to make some nice payments on my undergraduate loans and save some money. Not to mention--I really want health insurance with a dental plan. I have a tooth that is all sorts of messed up.

The only reply I've received came from a University which wanted a writing sample. I had to respond to a chosen prompt. I wrote a little over three pages and did a lot of revising and proof-reading.

In case I haven't mentioned this, I work on a linux platform. I use Open Office to do all my word processing. It's great--except for the header and footer feature. I put headers on the pages, then I have to apply a special page style to the first page to get rid of the header on the first page (which is proper MLA formatting).

When I save as a doc file so somebody with MS Office can read the file, I lose these settings. My headings are all lost. After several attempts to fix this, frustration ensued. Open Office is pretty intuitive and I love it so much more than MS Office. But why, oh, why is it so complicated to have my headers saved correctly?

In the end, I inserted a manual page break at the end of the first page so the conversion to a doc file won't lose the page settings. I still don't understand, though, that when I have already converted to a doc file and put in my settings, I still lose them upon closing the program.

Very frustrating, especially since anyone who has come close to an academic environment knows how important it is to be able to remove a flipping header from the flipping first page.

I sent in my writing sample and I am just hoping that the formatting isn't screwed up when the person who is responsible for making the final decision on who to hire receives it.