Interview?!

I had an interview yesterday!  I was super excited about it: an office manager role at an alternative medicine clinic (5 practitioners).  I thought, well here I can get more practical experience working with patients before I go back to school for a clinical mental health degree, perfect!  The interview went really well and I think the head doc really liked me.  Then it came time to discuss salary.  Wow.  That’s all I have to say.  I am not sure how anyone could survive in NYC on a salary that low.  I literally would not be able to pay my bills and I live in a VERY inexpensive apartment in a pretty ghetto neighborhood.  Now I am stuck with a dilemma: do I take the job knowing full well I can’t actually pay my bills with what they’re offering or turn it down and keep looking?  I don’t think I would have time to keep looking for work since the job is around 55 hours per week, and the commute would not be insignificant.  Tough questions.  And this is all assuming that I even get offered the job.  Another one of the problems we’re all facing: As we see prices rise due to inflation, increased costs of petroleum and petroleum based products, and global food shortages we are looking at lower and lower salaries, or multiple part time jobs with no benefits.  But yeah, we’re out of the recession now, right?

A Recruiter Called!

I've just had my first call from a recruiter in over five months.  To be fair I spent the last four months taking classes at the local college in an attempt to "keep my skills relevant" and "show that I am still active and interested in growing" on my CV.  I tried to sound eager but not too eager.  Excited, but not overly desperate.  I started using a bunch of different job boards, alternating which ones I search on different days.  I have been trying to keep a kind of routine up where I do a particular kind of search on Monday then a different kind of search on Tuesday, etc.  I’m hoping that by changing up my methods I will be able to hit all possible markets and not miss any opportunities.  It’s hard though.  The recruiter I spoke said that if she had my CV a month ago she could have gotten me a job.  It is frustrating to hear things like that, even if they aren’t true.  In any case, check out this mashable post, which lists a bunch of different job boards and career sites.                

Part of the reason I have been attending classes is that I really don’t have much desire to go back into financial services.  This Guardian Careers Blog offers some pretty helpful advice on how to switch careers during a recession.  

(Photo by: Kristian Bjornard)

One Among Many

I know I am just one more of the millions of Americans out of work, so what. I realized something this morning: there isn't really a voice for all of us out there. I read the news and I see journalists listing off reasons why the economy is improving but jobs are still scarce. I see articles explaining how to keep one's skills relevant, the best interview techniques, how to land that next best gig. All of this is meaningless to me. I have been doing all the things that everyone says I should, and still there is no job for me, no job for you. We are stuck here, in this morass, floating away our twenties and thirties, sitting in our parents' attics or basements wondering when we will get our lives back. Our educations don't seem to matter anymore. I often wonder, even if I did have a graduate degree, would it help? There are plenty of unemployed MBAs and JDs out there. What can we do? What should we do? It seems that this high rate of unemployment is here to stay. Those of us with the misfortune of being caught out in the cold in our unmentionables are not likely to be invited back inside to the warmth of the middle class abode and a “secure” corporate career. We can push away our feelings of loss and rejection, we can ignore the reality of what we face, but what will it change? Can we ignore what is happening to us any longer? Of course not. But the question remains: what can we do about it? The frustrating answer is that on the surface it appears there is nothing for us to do but simply keep trying. But what if there is something we can do…