Five frustrating things about job hunting
1 - Explaining to my mother that her suggestion of the position of Barnes and Noble salesperson doesn't pay quite as much as the job I've been doing the past fifteen years. (She suggests this around once a week.) Even though, yes, I do love books, I can't afford to work there. In fact, I ended up with negative earnings at my last bookstore job in high school. Also, my husband is tired of building shelves.
2 - Having Career Builder email me exciting opportunities near me at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Hmmm...I worked at a regular restaurant in my teens and felt like the grease and food smell would never leave my clothes and hair. I'm thinking no. Also? Not exciting. Really.
3 - Fifty billion jobs that are perfect in Boston. Except--they're in Boston. And they won't hire me anyway no matter what the recruiter says, because coming in for an emergency with over an hour of commute time is...not optimal. "Is it fixed yet?" "Uh...no. I'm stuck in traffic...the sleet is kind of slowing things down..."
4 - "You're overqualified." Translation: We think you'll be too expensive or get unhappy and leave us if we don't pay you enough. I want to throw myself at their feet and make them understand that I would kill for even an underpaid job in my field as long as it was nearby. I like seeing my son every day and frankly the gas price to commute added to Massachusetts income tax takes a huge chunk out of an otherwise decent salary.
5 - "You don't have government clearance." I'm contemplating applying for an admin position just to obtain clearance. Go figure, for that position they'll accept no clearance and apply for you. It takes about a year to get. Of course, by then, my credit cards and loans will probably be run so far into the stratosphere that they'll consider me a bribe risk or something and turn me down.
Sorry for the grumpiness. I'm also doing a bunch of data entry to help my overworked husband and it's truly mind-numbing. So that's probably part of it. I'm hoping it'll leave now that I've vented. Back to entering product pricing! Woohoo.
2 - Having Career Builder email me exciting opportunities near me at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Hmmm...I worked at a regular restaurant in my teens and felt like the grease and food smell would never leave my clothes and hair. I'm thinking no. Also? Not exciting. Really.
3 - Fifty billion jobs that are perfect in Boston. Except--they're in Boston. And they won't hire me anyway no matter what the recruiter says, because coming in for an emergency with over an hour of commute time is...not optimal. "Is it fixed yet?" "Uh...no. I'm stuck in traffic...the sleet is kind of slowing things down..."
4 - "You're overqualified." Translation: We think you'll be too expensive or get unhappy and leave us if we don't pay you enough. I want to throw myself at their feet and make them understand that I would kill for even an underpaid job in my field as long as it was nearby. I like seeing my son every day and frankly the gas price to commute added to Massachusetts income tax takes a huge chunk out of an otherwise decent salary.
5 - "You don't have government clearance." I'm contemplating applying for an admin position just to obtain clearance. Go figure, for that position they'll accept no clearance and apply for you. It takes about a year to get. Of course, by then, my credit cards and loans will probably be run so far into the stratosphere that they'll consider me a bribe risk or something and turn me down.
Sorry for the grumpiness. I'm also doing a bunch of data entry to help my overworked husband and it's truly mind-numbing. So that's probably part of it. I'm hoping it'll leave now that I've vented. Back to entering product pricing! Woohoo.