always a bigger fish?!
27 Jan 2011, 2:04 pm
I had a job interview today. It's a dumb job that serves as only a stepping stone into a training program that's a new career. I think most people take this job with this motivation in mind. So, I had a good interview but didn't walk out with the job, which always worries me. On my way home, I saw that another place in the same industry was looking for a receptionist. Receptionist = People Job. Ugh. But I've got experience in spades with customer service, despite my fear and loathing of it. So I stop and fill out the application.
As I'm handing my application back to the current receptionist, a woman steps away from the counter with a clipboard and application. That woman is wearing scrubs. They're not hiring for a vet assistant so that means she's filling out an app for the same position... and the scrubs mean she's likely already working in the same industry. Crap crap crap crap.
I've been a freelance photographer for five years. I'm doing okay but it's really nothing I'd call a living. But I've been out of the 9 to 5 market too long and while it's a great opportunity for me to switch industries (from legal/government to animal care), I'm facing a pretty big hill getting anybody to consider my resume. I know there's always a bigger fish interviewing for these jobs, but I really hated SEEING that bigger fish right there filling out an application immediately after me. Ouch!
Other than doing Stuart Smalley positive affirmations in the mirror every morning, I have no idea how to keep my confidence up during this insanely depressing job hunt!
04 Feb 2011, 7:53 pm
Long-term unemployment is so stressful and demoralizing that it can lay almost anyone low. You don't have to have an ASD; my NT brother-in-law has exhausted his unemployment benefits and it's making him miserable.
Our society defines us by our jobs: I'm a computer programmer. I'm a fireman. When you don't have a job, all of a sudden, in the eyes of the world you are *nothing*.
When a lot of people are out of work, as is the case right now, employers almost seem to make the process of seeking employment more depersonalizing and more demeaning, on purpose. Because they know that prospective job-seekers will put up with it due to desperation.
