Before I get started here, I need to preface this article by qualifying a few quick things.
First and foremost, I have been gainfully unemployed for nearly a year now. I won't explain the circumstances, other than that they are related to the recession, which is far from being over, no matter what they tell you. Thank you, Mr. Bush.
Needless to say, I'm also not real happy about it. Just ask my landlord. Better yet, ask my fellow editors here at Blogcritics.
I'm not sleeping well. I'm not eating right. I'm downright irritable. I live in a dump, I drink more than I should, and my feet probably stink to boot. I'm generally a pretty agreeable fellow and all, but these days even my loyal cat Smokey knows when to get the hell out of my way.
But I'm not a complainer by nature (well, okay, not on most days anyway).
I understand why most employers require background checks, and I've also become more than accustomed to filling out very lengthy job applications. Even so, these are often quite invasive on a personal level, and require an accounting of one's personal life that is, well... extensive to say the least.
In the interest of rooting out all the sex offenders, the alcoholics, the terrorists, and the criminals, corporate America is doing a fine job of providing a template worthy of what, I'm quite sure, God Himself will use, come Judgment Day. Beware all ye sinners, because even God knows how to Google search your past.
But the thing is, somewhere along the line we, as a society, surrendered our rights to information that, in a decent world anyway, is supposed to be kept private. Even though I don't necessarily agree with it, I've learned to accept it.
But secondly, I just want to work, dammit.
Honestly, I do. Some folks on the government dole would prefer to stay there for as long as Obama grants those unemployment extensions. Much as they have thankfully sustained me for the past year, I'm not one of them. Three hundred bucks a week just doesn't cut it in an economy where filling the tank for an interview costs the same as the grocery bill. Never mind the smokes and the beer.
Article comments
1 - Glenn Contrarian
Glen -
Excellent article. You speak for a lot of men and women whose livelihoods have been shattered thanks to the greed of Wall Street.
Here's a possibility - if you've got a degree, you can probably teach English overseas. You won't make a ton of money, but you may well have the adventure of a lifetime. My niece in the Philippines makes a living teaching English to Koreans over a cell phone! Just a thought - and good luck!
2 - Glen Boyd
Thanks Glenn. Sometimes writing can be a good substitute for venting when your friends aren't around. I never did get that English degree by the way, but I appreciate the sentiment.
-Glen
3 - KIM MURRELL
Hey glen,...that's why I moved out of Chicago.....It's a lot easier to be a big fish in a little pond...of course there is something to be said about "QUALITY OF LIFE" outside of going to Walmart , there sure isn't much to do in Texarkana!!!
4 - El Bicho
first, I don't see how it's Bush's fault.
second, if those sites gave people viruses, there's no way they'd be still functioning
5 - Glen Boyd
It's not the sites Bicho. It's the job postings -- many of which are for fake jobs where the fun starts once you go to their websites, and fill out a fake application, and then the e-mails start arriving.
There is nothing wrong with sites like Monster and Career Builder themselves -- they just don't screen the people who post "jobs" there very well. We've even received alerts from the state dept. of employment security about it.
As for Bush, don't get me started...
-Glen
6 - Glen Boyd
Kim,
I have no doubt you'll find some kind of trouble to get into in Texarkana. So are they hiring anywhere there (well other than Walmart anyway)...
-Glen
7 - Glen Boyd
I probably should've also mentioned Carigs List in the article. They're probably the biggest magnet for job scam ads.
-Glen
8 - Baritone
Glen,
I suppose most of us here at BC have been there - out of work - and going through the hellish process you are now involved in. I have had more than one extended period of unemployment in my adult life, and I'm not sure there is anything more emasculating. It scars you for life.
I don't envy HR people with the task they are burdened with, but, nevertheless, I came to hate their guts.
Fortunately, I have not had to job search during the internet age. I have been self employed for almost 25 years.
One of my nephews had a pretty good job with a publisher in NYC and he chucked it to move to California to be with his soul mate - or some such garbage. He's been out there for over a year, and he can't get arrested. He couldn't have picked a worse time to voluntarily go unemployed.
BTW - the teaching English abroad is not a bad gig. I don't know if they all require a degree. My son moved to Halle, Germany and taught English to adults for 2 or 3 years before he was able to launch his singing career. He didn't make great money, but it paid the bills. I think they pay a good deal more in Asian countries. Someone mentioned to my wife that their daughter had moved to, of all places, Dubai to teach English and was making the equivalent of 6 figures. Of course, I think it takes like 8 figures to get a burger there.
Now then: Are there any birth marks on your second cousin's clavicle? And, if so, does it in any way resemble the outline of a third world country? Elaborate.
B
9 - Christopher Rose
After the last time I got made redundant, I decided I wasn't ever going to work for another company full time unless I was in deep trouble.
So far I've managed to keep that going for nine years now and I am doing everything and anything I can to make sure that I won't have to again.
I have employed people in the past, and hire and occasionally fire freelancers quite regularly these days, but I make it a point of honour not to treat people in any way that I wouldn't like to be treated myself.
This trend of unnecessarily intrusive employment requirements is also going on in Britain but it is nowhere near as bad as it seems to be in the USA. Yet...
10 - Matthew T. Sussman
I haven't been unemployed as long as you, Glen, but I cannot for the life of me relate to anything you're experiencing, other than the difficulty in finding something permanent.
Personally I don't think Monster/CareerBuilder/Hotjobs are all that effective. They're too generic but they're where people instinctively log on to find something. That's probably why they stay in business.
Try industry-specific job banks, or a state-sponsored one, if such one exists.
11 - handyguy
I've spent 12 of the last 14 months out of work. It certainly eats at one's ego. On the bright side, I have had lotsa free time to go to the gym and art museums and such.
I did finally land a two-month contract gig [ending soon]. By the way, I have not experienced the intrusive personal questions on job applications. Of course they want to know your work history and whether you've been convicted of a felony, etc.
I named some job sites I recommend in an earlier version of this post, which apparently got it rejected. But some are definitely better than others.
12 - Glen Boyd
Thanks for all of the comments and advice everyone.
As for specific job banks related to my own areas of expertise, I've tried them. The way I see it, the two things I know really well are music and writing. The music jobs out there are of course all geared towards twenty and thirty somethings, which is probably as it should be. Unfortunately this doesn't help me.
The writing sites are mostly geared towards computer geeks writing advanced code. Although I'd like to think I'm a half decent writer, my only experience with code has been learned right here at BC and I'm still very much learning through trial and error -- and right now, the error part of it usually comes up winning.
Anyway I'm open to suggestions, and as always appreciate them. And if anyone reading has an offer, of course I'm all ears.
Baritone, I'm not sure I take your meaning about birth marks shaped like countries, but I can assure you there are no Gorbachevs in the Boyd family tree.
Now If you'll all excuse me, I've got some job-boards to wade through. Thanks all.
-Glen
13 - Dr Dreadful
I have in the past found temping to be a good source of fairly regular income whilst 'between jobs'. Of course, you have to not mind travelling anywhere at a moment's notice, being the new boy all the time, doing the excruciatingly boring and mindless jobs that nobody else in the office wants to do, or being abruptly and randomly told halfway through a workday that your services are no longer needed.
Still, I do recommend it. It can - and did in my case - lead to something permanent.
14 - Glen Boyd
My last experience temping (just two years ago) was one of the more depressing times of my life.
I enjoyed the job fine, and was more or less promised I'd be hired permanent as soon as something came up. Then one day, everyone was invited to a pizza lunch. I skipped lunch to go, and when I showed up they said it was only for "real employees" and made feel like a hobo at a banquet.
So I picked up a slice and went home.
-Glen
15 - Baritone
Glen,
My birthmark reference was just a ludicrous tongue in cheek example of the kind of questions one must answer on some job applications.
While being self employed has its ups and downs - sometimes some REALLY BAD downs - I can't imagine working in an office. I actually took an interview a few months ago for a job at an appraisal management company. They even offered me the job. I thought about it for about 2 seconds and turned it down. Had I taken the job, I would now be sitting in a cubicle amongst a veritable warren of dozens of other cubicles working in a high pressure atmosphere with 10 hour days, 6 days a week for about 2/3rds what I make on my own. I went for the interview because of the possibility of getting health insurance and some other perks. They do have a fairly good insurance plan, but it just wasn't worth it. Hell, I'd have to go to meetings. I never go to meetings. I hate meetings!
I'm much happier plunking away down here in my cozy little basement office with a TV to my right and my music behing me. And hey, I can go upstairs and take a nap whenever I want.
B
16 - Glen Boyd
I'm much happier plunking away down here in my cozy little basement office with a TV to my right and my music behing me. And hey, I can go upstairs and take a nap whenever I want.
...sounds exactly like my situation, except of course I'm not making any money.
-Glen
17 - Greg Barbrick
Nice article Glen. As you know, I am in a similar situation. But I have a sure-fire plan to never have to work again.
The Lottery! I invest my entire weekly unemployment check in it, and I just know it will pay off for me one day!
Hell, I won $32 about a month ago, and that was just the beginning. Happy days are here again!!!
18 - Glen Boyd
You always were a gambler Mr. Barbrick. I believe it was you who once urged me to "roll the dice" more often. Fat lotta' good it did me...
-Glen
19 - handyguy
I'll try this again: job sites I recommend include 'the ladders' 'linked in' and 'idealist dot org' [for nonprofits]
Maybe writing them that way will get around the filters.
They all post jobs that a reasonable person might actually choose to work at.
20 - Glen Boyd
I'm already signed up at the Ladders and have a profile at Linked In Handy. I'll be sure to check out the other one though. Thanks for the tips (and glad they got through)...
-Glen