Joblessness Madness (or, I Thnk the Smarmy Blond Just Winked at Me)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve mentioned it before, so you may or may not know, but I am an immigrant from Canada living here in the US, and I’ve recently received my EAC, so I can work! YES!

Yes…

Well, it started off nice enough, I just submitted my applications and cover letters and resumes to everyone and their mother. I’m a hard worker with a great work ethic, why wouldn’t they want me? I’m in the big city now, not the one job town I grew up in! The opportunities are everywhere, the possibilities endless! What a wonderful, wonderful…

It’s not even been two weeks yet, so I know, I know I shouldn’t be panicking. But you know, it’s been more than just two weeks of looking for a job; I’ve been out of work for two and a half years, due to not being legal to work. I’m getting a little cabin feverish, know what I mean? So, although the hunt has only been on for a short while, I feel as though I have been looking and waiting patiently forever and ever.

No one has called back.

And I begin to curse myself for not having gone back to school when I could have, and I won’t go back to school until I have earned the money to do so, but that requires getting a job, but getting a job requires experience, and everybody’s looking for RNs or people with BAs, or even the things I am good at, they want people who have been doing it in an office for two or more years… I have no experience. I was a labourer from the time I graduated up until two and a half years ago. I can really pile a box. The only people hiring labourers are too far away, and I can’t drive. Baristas! All over the place they want baristas! This is Seattle! Of course they want baristas! …with experience.
I have piles and piles and piles and piles of post-it notes with names, numbers, possible leads, bus schedules, things crossed off, things added on, stuck all over my computer, my walls, the windowsill beside me, on the phone base, in my hair… they speak to me
I don’t want to flip burgers, but who does? Now I may have to. Dear god, the walls are closing in around me… gasp! And all I really want to do is open my own little business and write children’s books on the side, and right now I want to apply to a local department store, since hehehe cashiering wouldn’t be so bad, right? The walls are melting… I can do that, I can do anything, people!
gets shifty eyed
But then the website seems to be malfunctioning, and everytime I hit the retail job application button it doesn’t do anything, and I’m not allowed to call them, nono! No, you can’t call them, you have to submit your application, okay HEEHEE, just breathe… breathe… and everytime I hit the button nothing happens, the mirror keeps talking to me and there’s just this smarmy looking blond lady with her arms crossed and smirking staring back at me, and she’s not going away! The page… it won’t load!

GAAAAAH!!!

pant pant

…

Okay.

No more caffiene. I’m taking a** bath**. Also, I think I’ll scratch “Telecommuting” off of my lists. Might be a good idea to see the sun once in a while. You think? :dubious: Sun?!

2

Have you considered temp agencies. That’s a great way to get your foot in the door of a company even if it’s just for a lame receptionist job. If you do well, someone will recognize it for when a better opportunity arises.

3

Having watched my wife go through the process of getting an EAC, let me just say: you have my deepest sympathies, and congratulations for obtaining it successfully.

4

Thanks - I am so sorry for your wife or anyone who has had to go through it, so she has my sympathies as well, and congrats to her. I mean, lessee… it only took two years and counts fingers from week after we got married and sent in paperwork oh, almost three months to get there. The only word I have for the whole ordeal is this: gruelling.

hajario, I keep my eyes open for temp jobs, and have no problem starting at the bottom rung. There are some companies I’ve talked to that help “place” me, but so far, nothing’s come up. But then again, like my husband says, it’s only been two weeks, after all. Heck, not even. It will be two weeks on Thursday. It just feels like it’s been ten years.

Heh. It doesn’t matter where you go, there will always be challenges. Back home, it was no problem getting a damn job, there was only one huge place doing any hiring. They paid well, but it was a spectacularly crappy job, where they treated their employees like shit and we had no union. I was good at what I did, and I like getting my hands a little dirty sometimes, doing some tough physical labour. But I think I’m ready for a change, and would like to find somewhere that I could get ahead - in my backward town, women just weren’t hired in places of any authority, unless they were married to a man of authority. Hell, I was frowned upon and laughed at by my supervisors when I first stepped up and asked for a physical labour job. They told me it was a man’s job. I asked them if I could do it, would I get paid men’s wages, and they laughed and said “Sure, honey, sure!” And I did it, and goddamn right, I got paid. However, the plan somewhat backfired when my boss called all of us into a meeting, and then used me as an example of what the women “should be able to do”. I didn’t have many fans that day.

So I’m tired of playing factory-labour games. I want to play office games! :wink:

But I’ll take anything. I’m not picky. I’ll play burger flipping games, too.

5

Have you mentioned to the temp agency that you’d like to try office work? When I went to a temp, they had me take a test in Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint, and that pretty much overrules the experience thing.