2011-05-18 - Job Hunt

I’m working on writing something else but it’s not done yet. Well actually it is done but I’m trying this thing called “editing” where you read something over and over again to make sure it’s good. I’m not quite sure about it but we’ll see. Anyways, as an aside I want to talk about jobs.

I don’t think I have the qualities needed to find a job. I have the qualities to do most jobs or at least to learn how to do most jobs but not those to find one. The problem I think is that I like to see progress in things that I do. When working on a problem the wrong solution tells you just as much as the right one. You learn from the process and from failures, they help you to understand things better and to figure out the right solution. However Job hunting doesn’t work like that, most roads don’t lead anywhere and those that do tend to end abruptly without anything being gained. You go through the process of finding a job and then applying to that job only to find an empty email inbox or a quiet phone. There’s no way of knowing the status of anything or the reasoning behind your application being ignored. Even if you do get to go for an interview they rarely give you any idea of what you did right and what you did wrong. Even if they do tell you something you tend to be talking to HR people who are skilled in the art of not telling you things when you think they did. They may tell you they’ll call you but then they never do and you have no idea why. It’s a whole lot of waiting for things that may never come without anything to gain from the experience.

Sadly no one ever tells you about that life enriching time they spent trying to find a job. You know I remember someone saying insanity is repeating something over and over again and expecting a different outcome each time. That sounds like job hunting to me.