This OP is a sort-of follow-up to an earlier Pit thread, where I bitched about the difficulties of the job market.
I’m still unemployed, and still job hunting, and still finding myself trapped in that nasty Catch-22 of “can’t get the job without the experience; can’t get the experience without the job”.
Three weeks ago, during one of my late-night Internet job hunts, I find a part-time job listing for an audiologist at a children’s hospital. What initially surprises me is that job listing was posted at that hospital’s website in January, 2001.
That’s not a mis-print. January, Two Thousand and One. They’ve been trying to fill this position for a year and a half, with no success.
I apply for it online via their website, including my resume with references.
They get in touch with me the following morning to arrange a telephone interview. Fast response. Good sign.
The interview takes place three days later.
During the following weekend, one of their speech-language pathologists is vacationing in Portland. The hospital asks her to call me up and make herself available for questions about the hospital and the area. After answering my questions, she then proceeds to basically sell me on the idea of relocating there and working at this hospital.
No potential employer has ever done this with me before. I take this as another encouraging sign.
In an e-mail, one of my former colleagues who I listed as a reference lets me know that she was contacted by this hospital. They’re checking my references. Another encouraging sign.
A second, more in-depth interview is done with a clinic manager by telephone. I’m then told that they will discuss my application amongst themselves and come to a decision on whether or not they want me to fly out there.
A week passes.
I try calling them back, but apparently the week of the 4th of July is a nightmare of scheduling, with lots of people gone. I’m told to try next week.
I call back today, and get the clinic manager on the phone. She said that they STILL haven’t had their meeting to discuss whether or not they want me to fly out there for an interview, and then spends the remainder of the telephone conversation to tell me that what they are REALLY looking for is someone with more experience. Three years would be nice, five years would be even better.
Yeah. I know. I’ve heard that from EVERYONE ELSE.
But you’ve been looking to fill that position for a fucking YEAR AND A HALF! It’s a part-time job! And from the look of its description, it seems to be an entry-level audiology position as well. Do you think there could be a reason why it’s been so hard to fill? Pediatric audiologists are hard enough to find anyway, and in this lousy job market, the situation favors the employer right now. Why do you suppose that you’re having such a hell of a time finding someone to fill this position?
And if you had such concerns about my level of experience, why did you bother calling me in the first place for an interview? It’s not I like hide anything on my resume.
Instead, you strung me along for three weeks, and only now do you talk to me about what you’re really looking for. I know what you’re really looking for. You’d like to find someone with three to five years experience to work in a part-time position, in a specialty that most audiologists avoid. So far, a year and a half later, you’ve got nothing to show for it. And here I am, someone who is not only perfectly capable of doing the job, but also practically throwing himself at you, and you can’t decide whether or not you want me to fly out there for an in-person interview.
FUCK! :mad:
I can do this job. I wouldn’t have bothered applying for it if I wasn’t, for I don’t believe in wasting a potential employer’s time if I’m not really capable of what the job requires.
I just want the chance to prove it, and no one seems interested in giving me that chance.