I'll spare you the long rant paragraph about how hard it is to find jobs. I'll do that, while itching my head and trying to drown out the voice of my dad telling me "you gotta know somebody to get a job these days". It burns like hot fire, I tells ya. It's nothing new, but it's irritating. I'm wading the waters of temp jobs, odd jobs, and contemplating adding on more debt to my already stocky amount owed to Sallie Mae. I'm walking my own path and feeling all eyes and commentary on me. How did a hard-working engineer and a brilliant, artistic teacher bring forth such a hippie with bad luck? I dunno. It was the 80's. I just....I dunno, Google it!
Working with friendly helpers mailing me job leads, I've signed up with a lot of websites. I've also exposed myself to....Craigslist. Yes, right next to the roaches and couches for sale, I've put my resume on good ol' Craigslist. Why? Someone in my inner circle said to try it. So, I did. I did it, anticipating some kind of result. Were there plenty? Sure! I got a LOT. By a lot, I mean Fastmail constantly emailed me to clear my inbox. The few interested parties I got responses from were too far away. Like, car-havin' far away. So, imagine looking at a great interview outfit, but realizing the CTA, Metra, AND Pace can't help you get there.
The worst part? Those insanely vague responses. I considered those to be spam. I mean, think about this good and hard for a second. I want you to marinate in the frustration with me. Deep breath.
Working with friendly helpers mailing me job leads, I've signed up with a lot of websites. I've also exposed myself to....Craigslist. Yes, right next to the roaches and couches for sale, I've put my resume on good ol' Craigslist. Why? Someone in my inner circle said to try it. So, I did. I did it, anticipating some kind of result. Were there plenty? Sure! I got a LOT. By a lot, I mean Fastmail constantly emailed me to clear my inbox. The few interested parties I got responses from were too far away. Like, car-havin' far away. So, imagine looking at a great interview outfit, but realizing the CTA, Metra, AND Pace can't help you get there.
The worst part? Those insanely vague responses. I considered those to be spam. I mean, think about this good and hard for a second. I want you to marinate in the frustration with me. Deep breath.
- Go to email account. See inbox is stuffed with job leads.
- Proceed to open said emails. For the sake of conversation, let's say there's at least 26 in the inbox.
- 6 of them are asking me if I'm looking for a job. That's it. No offer, no nothing. 5 more have horrible syntax, grammar, overall content. Similar questions as previous emails. For added spice, they're sent from a gadget and say so in the sig. Remaining emails? The worst copied, pasted you-know-what about babysitters, drivers, "check processing", and personal assistants. Never changes.
- Rinse and repeat, watch jobless lady furrow brow and eventually consider setting small, controlled fires.
I get that I pretty much put myself in the line of fire, posting on the good ol' Craigslist. What, did I expect the other people using the site to actually follow the "no spam, no solicitation" rules? Well, yeah, but a part of me anticipated a poo storm of crappy, unoriginality. When it came, it made me feel horrible. It made me miss my first job, terribly. I gotta be honest--some days it just outright depresses me! I don't like being poor! I don't like feeling bad because I see friends and associates going for theirs all the time. I wanna go on vacations and buy nice stuff too! I get spurts of luck to buy things. I'm no different than anyone else in this struggle, but it's frustrating when people who do have it tend to....look down on you.
This isn't laziness! It's a lack of luck. Maybe employers I've applied to just don't like my style. Maybe I'm searching and signing up with the wrong sites. I can't give up, though. Although my heart will always be writing, I need a day job to finance myself! It's personally embarrassing for me, 'cause this dame has been planning a life since 16. Getting thrown off track and having to re-start...ehh....it's hard.
I really hate the vague descriptions, though. If we're talking about offering someone a legit job, what good does it do to ask them if they're looking for a job? Especially when you're teasing them with an email subject like you have one? What's worse is when there IS no subject. This is how I usually weed out the frauds and phonies. And lemme tell ya, there are a lot of frauds and phonies. I almost want to say "don't waste your time". The worst part are the emails that just flat out reek of b.s. Give me a break! It's torment, digital style! I'm out here trying to find a way to carve a life for myself. Sure, nobody's special in this life, but when's it my turn?
These are probably bots, anyway. They seek, they generate, they email. While some are people, I get the feeling that I've basically tacked myself onto robot city. Beep boop boop. As I burn the candle of applying for the "Starting small" jobs and the ones that fit my lil degree, I hope and hope for a break. I think of other people who are going through the same thing. We're all going crazy at the same time.