Tried the Classifieds?
If I rule the world someday, I am going to make it a felony if someone asks a person if they've found a job yet. And if you think that's extreme, then you certainly won't like my flipside ruling: if someone is asked if they've found a job yet, and in response they assault the questioner, then I'm calling it justifiable assault. (I'd go further to justifiable homicide, but my father the attorney would probably have a coronary.)
I get that people ask out of care and concern, but stalkers who harass their ex boyfriends, or girlfriends or celebrity crushes can make the same argument. And they still get restraining orders. Or jail time.
The thing is, people care about a lot of things in their friends' lives, and yet they know enough not to ask. For example, people might tell a friend that they're trying to have a kid. Do you think for a second that the next time they're all out to brunch that the friend asks, "So, how's it going with trying to have a kid?" Of course not! And that is because of two main things: 1. everyone knows how painful and tough and personal trying to have a kid can be if it doesn't happen when and how you want it to, and so they don't want to put their friends through the ordeal of detailing the process of such an experience, and b. everyone knows that if there's good news to share, it will be; nobody needs to hear about failed attempts. So, nobody asks about how it's going. They just wait for the good news, and when it comes, they celebrate with their friends. That's how they show their care: they talk about everything BUT trying to have children, and once the baby's coming, they talk about nothing else.
I'd like to think that people would extend the same courtesy to job hunting, but no. People aren't even satisfied with knowing that I don't have a job yet. They're actually interested in the details of my failure. Right after someone asks if I have a job yet, and right after I momentarily contemplate harming this person, the immediate follow up is: "Where are you sending your resume?"
Umm, why? Do you want a list of everyone who's rejected me? Or just a list of places where I am definitely NOT working?
And after that line of firing, I get this: "Have you interviewed anywhere?"
Umm, yes. I've interviewed with several people who obviously found something wrong with me. Or, no, I haven't interviewed with anybody because nobody has deemed my resume worthy of such a glorious event.
It sounds ridiculous when I write this, but these are conversations I actually have. On a daily basis. With people who are supposedly socially adept.
I know it probably seems like I'm bitter about the job search, but I'm not. I can deal with the daily failure; it's the recounting of the daily failures that gets me. Is it really that much to ask that after a day of going through the online job postings, not receiving any response emails, and not going on interviews that I can go out for a drink or dinner and talk about something else? I don't think so.
And so, I stick by my plan of criminal charges for anybody who asks job questions, which will happen someday, when I get to rule the world. I've submitted my resume for the position, but, as with everything, I have yet to hear back.
I get that people ask out of care and concern, but stalkers who harass their ex boyfriends, or girlfriends or celebrity crushes can make the same argument. And they still get restraining orders. Or jail time.
The thing is, people care about a lot of things in their friends' lives, and yet they know enough not to ask. For example, people might tell a friend that they're trying to have a kid. Do you think for a second that the next time they're all out to brunch that the friend asks, "So, how's it going with trying to have a kid?" Of course not! And that is because of two main things: 1. everyone knows how painful and tough and personal trying to have a kid can be if it doesn't happen when and how you want it to, and so they don't want to put their friends through the ordeal of detailing the process of such an experience, and b. everyone knows that if there's good news to share, it will be; nobody needs to hear about failed attempts. So, nobody asks about how it's going. They just wait for the good news, and when it comes, they celebrate with their friends. That's how they show their care: they talk about everything BUT trying to have children, and once the baby's coming, they talk about nothing else.
I'd like to think that people would extend the same courtesy to job hunting, but no. People aren't even satisfied with knowing that I don't have a job yet. They're actually interested in the details of my failure. Right after someone asks if I have a job yet, and right after I momentarily contemplate harming this person, the immediate follow up is: "Where are you sending your resume?"
Umm, why? Do you want a list of everyone who's rejected me? Or just a list of places where I am definitely NOT working?
And after that line of firing, I get this: "Have you interviewed anywhere?"
Umm, yes. I've interviewed with several people who obviously found something wrong with me. Or, no, I haven't interviewed with anybody because nobody has deemed my resume worthy of such a glorious event.
It sounds ridiculous when I write this, but these are conversations I actually have. On a daily basis. With people who are supposedly socially adept.
I know it probably seems like I'm bitter about the job search, but I'm not. I can deal with the daily failure; it's the recounting of the daily failures that gets me. Is it really that much to ask that after a day of going through the online job postings, not receiving any response emails, and not going on interviews that I can go out for a drink or dinner and talk about something else? I don't think so.
And so, I stick by my plan of criminal charges for anybody who asks job questions, which will happen someday, when I get to rule the world. I've submitted my resume for the position, but, as with everything, I have yet to hear back.
