But can't you just shut up?
I seem to have fallen out of love with blogging.
But.
I need somewhere to complain. So here I go.
I still consider myself "mostly unemployed", although I do work sometimes. I do freelance and temp work, but it's never consistent or predictable. I had 6 straight weeks of full-time freelance work, which helped me catch up on my bills and last through the beginning of the dry spell that came after that. I get a day here, maybe three days there, of temp work, but I still collect unemployment checks most weeks. Since my unemployment benefits run out this week, there's a greater sense of urgency, and I'm hoping to find something seasonal pretty soon. (In other words, I'm hoping that someone needs to bulk up their employee roster quickly, and won't be too picky.) Lots of people have offered suggestions, and while I'm grateful for the help, I get downright PISSED OFF at the implication that anyone can just go out and get a job somewhere if they "really want to." So, all those applications and resumes I submitted were ignored because I didn't really want a job? When a restaurant manager loved me on the phone, asked me to come for an interview, and looked disappointed the moment I walked in the door, that was because I didn't really want it? When I go through periods of sending out dozens of resumes per day, get one interview, and get no offers from that interview, it's because I just didn't try hard enough? When I take a half day off from hourly freelance work so I can go to an interview, thereby gambling guaranteed money against potential future money, it's because I wasn't putting enough effort into it? Oh, but I could just go get some food service job, or something in retail, right? Except that I've applied for lots of jobs like that, and not gotten them! Starbuck's? Doesn't want me. Borders? Nope, not them, either. Caribou Coffee? Kohl's? I lost track of all of them. (It's very telling that the people who say "But can't you just..." are nearly always people who haven't had to apply for a job outside their usual area of experience since they were just out of school.) The only thing I can surmise from this is that they don't want someone who hasn't worked in those industries in years, and obviously isn't planning to stick around very long.
In the end, I don't really know why I can't find anything steady. I've dropped all but the following standards: 1) Nothing naked, 2) Nothing involving direct sales, because I'm terrible at it, and I'd get fired anyway, 3) Nothing involving multi-level marketing, for obvious reasons, and 4) Nothing illegal, harmful, or dangerous. And 5) I will not work in a nursing home. I don't know why this is a problem for me, it just is.
A big part of the problem is that work from the temp agencies has dried up. Like anything else, it goes through cycles, but this has been a long dry cycle, and not just for me. The recruiter from one of the agencies told me they're just not getting as many requests for workers as they usually do. That's the other problem- fewer jobs over all, and more unemployed and underemployed people trying to get them.
That's it. That's all. I'm just frustrated with well-intentioned but ignorant people who think they're helping me when they suggest I apply for a job that involves a 2-hour commute and for which I'm not qualified, or when they ask me why I haven't tried something I've already tried, or when they suggest I do some commission-based sales job of the sort that has never gone well for me in the past. Or when they say, as one person did, "Why don't you try playing to your strengths?" Oh my god! I never thought of that! Play to my strengths! Because all this time I've been deliberately playing to my weaknesses! *headdesk* That's right up there with "What would you do if you didn't have to work?" (Nothing that would translate into an obvious career path, that's what.) "But there's always stuff being advertised." (I know what you're talking about, and those are scams.) "Can you go back school?" (I'm in school, but I still need to work while I'm doing it.)"I get e-mails about jobs all the time!" (You got one e-mail, about one job, and that e-mail was sent to 5000 people.) "But you have a college degree!" (It's worth a lot in life experience, but still won't get me hired.) "Can't you just sign up with a temp agency or something?" (*headdesk*)
But.
I need somewhere to complain. So here I go.
I still consider myself "mostly unemployed", although I do work sometimes. I do freelance and temp work, but it's never consistent or predictable. I had 6 straight weeks of full-time freelance work, which helped me catch up on my bills and last through the beginning of the dry spell that came after that. I get a day here, maybe three days there, of temp work, but I still collect unemployment checks most weeks. Since my unemployment benefits run out this week, there's a greater sense of urgency, and I'm hoping to find something seasonal pretty soon. (In other words, I'm hoping that someone needs to bulk up their employee roster quickly, and won't be too picky.) Lots of people have offered suggestions, and while I'm grateful for the help, I get downright PISSED OFF at the implication that anyone can just go out and get a job somewhere if they "really want to." So, all those applications and resumes I submitted were ignored because I didn't really want a job? When a restaurant manager loved me on the phone, asked me to come for an interview, and looked disappointed the moment I walked in the door, that was because I didn't really want it? When I go through periods of sending out dozens of resumes per day, get one interview, and get no offers from that interview, it's because I just didn't try hard enough? When I take a half day off from hourly freelance work so I can go to an interview, thereby gambling guaranteed money against potential future money, it's because I wasn't putting enough effort into it? Oh, but I could just go get some food service job, or something in retail, right? Except that I've applied for lots of jobs like that, and not gotten them! Starbuck's? Doesn't want me. Borders? Nope, not them, either. Caribou Coffee? Kohl's? I lost track of all of them. (It's very telling that the people who say "But can't you just..." are nearly always people who haven't had to apply for a job outside their usual area of experience since they were just out of school.) The only thing I can surmise from this is that they don't want someone who hasn't worked in those industries in years, and obviously isn't planning to stick around very long.
In the end, I don't really know why I can't find anything steady. I've dropped all but the following standards: 1) Nothing naked, 2) Nothing involving direct sales, because I'm terrible at it, and I'd get fired anyway, 3) Nothing involving multi-level marketing, for obvious reasons, and 4) Nothing illegal, harmful, or dangerous. And 5) I will not work in a nursing home. I don't know why this is a problem for me, it just is.
A big part of the problem is that work from the temp agencies has dried up. Like anything else, it goes through cycles, but this has been a long dry cycle, and not just for me. The recruiter from one of the agencies told me they're just not getting as many requests for workers as they usually do. That's the other problem- fewer jobs over all, and more unemployed and underemployed people trying to get them.
That's it. That's all. I'm just frustrated with well-intentioned but ignorant people who think they're helping me when they suggest I apply for a job that involves a 2-hour commute and for which I'm not qualified, or when they ask me why I haven't tried something I've already tried, or when they suggest I do some commission-based sales job of the sort that has never gone well for me in the past. Or when they say, as one person did, "Why don't you try playing to your strengths?" Oh my god! I never thought of that! Play to my strengths! Because all this time I've been deliberately playing to my weaknesses! *headdesk* That's right up there with "What would you do if you didn't have to work?" (Nothing that would translate into an obvious career path, that's what.) "But there's always stuff being advertised." (I know what you're talking about, and those are scams.) "Can you go back school?" (I'm in school, but I still need to work while I'm doing it.)"I get e-mails about jobs all the time!" (You got one e-mail, about one job, and that e-mail was sent to 5000 people.) "But you have a college degree!" (It's worth a lot in life experience, but still won't get me hired.) "Can't you just sign up with a temp agency or something?" (*headdesk*)