Rude

I've been looking for a job since April. 

I had planned on going back to school to get paralegal certification but for a variety of reasons, financially it's not going to happen right now.  I decided to try getting some on the job paralegal training.  I figured my nearly twenty years of clerical experience and the fact that I'm not stupid might open a door for me.  I wrote what I thought was a very compelling well-crafted cover letter outlining why I wanted to become a paralegal and my willingness to learn. I nitpicked my resume.  They both looked very good, I thought.  I sent this nice little package out to over twenty local attorneys.

I received one response.  That response wasn't to talk about employment or to tell me that it was a stupid way to go about finding a paralegal job.  It was instead to ask about a local case that remains unsolved.  I had referenced the case in the cover letter as something I had written about.

In the meantime, I have applied for hundreds of jobs.  If I am remotely qualified for it, I'll apply.  Most of the time, it's like sending my resume into an abyss.  I might as well put it in a bottle and toss it into one of the Great Lakes and expect a response.

The few interviews I have landed, I have not received any sort of follow up at all.  Phone calls I've made to see if the position has been filled and to express my continuing interest are not acknowledged, forget about a return call. 

Obviously, the task of interviewing me must be truly odious, painful and wretched in the extreme. The sheer act of will it would take to contact me and let me know that the position has been filled is overwhelming and far too brutal for a mid-level manager such as yourself to tackle. You're not that much of a company tool to stoop that low in the spirit of teamwork.

The few moments it would take to send out a mass email or a form letter via the post office to those who have applied and not been chosen would be far too time-consuming and take twenty minutes away from the crucial task of pimping whatever is your particular brand of schtick.  You have obiviously lost your telephone privilgages at work since you no longer answer your phone, ever, nor do you return phone calls, ever.  The only reason I think to blame that glaring lapse of ettiquite on would be the loss of said phone.

Also next time?  I'll be happy to take a physical and a drug test, when I am offered a job.  I'm not going to waste an afternoon just because you get to fill out a form and send someone to the local quickie clinic for a cursory once over and the joy of pissing in a cup with an audience.  Unless, of course, your time is equally as vaulable as mine and you plan on accompanying me and cooling your jets in a shabby waiting room somewhere with neither cell nor laptop.

Yet I still slap a smile on my face and sally forth with my best self prostrated in the hot seat.  I answer inane questions and take tests that have nothing to do with the job I would be performing.  I am careful to think before any response I give, I sit up straight, I make eye contact and I have a firm no-nonsense handshake.

Yet I can't get anyone I've interviewed with to even pick up the goddamn phone and tell me someone else got the job.

Comments

[Dawn]

Just a thought...Mt. Brighton is always looking for waitresses, especially during the winter. The money can be great!!!

[ronni]

It's ageism. They want some fresh little tart right out of school. Eye candy. Not that you are not drop-dead gorgeous, because you are, but those little girls who work for cheeeep and look like models...well...you know.

[Martin]

Yep, Lisa is describing the way things are (and have been for a while) in Michigan. I could have saved a great swatch of rain forest if they had just said right up front: "Don't send your resume we won't look at it or call you anyway" right in the ad. Sigh.

- M

[moi]

Ditto what martin said.
Chin up girlio, if they don't call you call the ones you are really interested in. Be relentless. The first job I had after 22 years out of the market while raising 3 dotters was a fluke.

Originally I interviewed to be a kindegarten teacher. That job was advertised but was filled in house. My Spanish credential got moi a call-back and I wound up doing a totally different thing. After several years I went into a co-teaching position with Jaine teaching K/1. The demographics always had us scrambling around in Sept to rearrange the teaching and classroom sizes. I always did continue teaching the handful of latinos/germans/iranians/persions etc. One job can take you to another job and once you get your foot in the door, even as a temp, things will start to happen. Have courage dear Lisa.

[Nadine]

I was told to try the temp agency that supplies workers to the County and City offices.

That can get you into civil service (good pay/benefits/etc.) and bypass a lot of the red tape applying the "regular" way.

[moi]

Or else, maybe you en famille will move to England/NewZealand/Austrailia or any points in between. I really sense (although my dear friend robin does not want my sense) that all of you need to get outta dodge, that would be Brighton, Michigan. Trueheart, believe moi when I say faint heart never won fair maid. In your situation, the dilly-dallying around with the frustration of your demographic reality seems to indicate a move to a new opportunity and a move to a new energy. You are comfortable in your community and niche of enjoyment of said community. However, it is not supplying you with the energy and occupation that you need and desire. I am (one more time, Robin would tell me to but out of sensing anything about her) sensing for you and your family that you need an enormous change in which all of you can thrive. It will be uncomfortable to make the change. Moi of all people loathes change as a cancer. However, as I have mentioned to myself in the past and others have mentioned to moi and just tonight I mentioned to Loretta: there is no progress without pain. This is the essence of our learning experience on this planet. The quip-ish excercise motto of no pain no gain really does not apply to the physical body, but to the growth of the soul. Exercising one can damage oneself with that pain/gain deal. Looking at true progress of the total being is a balance of going through whatever pain (mostly emotional) to achieve the goal for your life. Believe moi, it is worth it. Pain is extempraneous and transient. The results are real and tangible and bring the true bliss that each of us deserve. Hmmm. Accepting the fact that we do indeed deserve bliss is a reality that often takes many mistakes and painful experiences to realize. Chew on it and put it through your mental computer and let moi know what you come up with. xxoo

[Beth]

Lisa:

MICHIGAN is full of anal retentive assholes!