Job hunting makes me wish I could see into the future
Gimme this superpower please.
Question: What is job hunting like?
Answer: You’re essentially sitting at the computer asking it to love you. In a message not quite clear but ringing true all the way through, you are asking it to find you a proper job.
Proper as in it pays, doesn’t drive you crazy, and doesn’t upend your current life. In my case, my current life is owning a beautiful home at the corner of a busy neighborhood in south city St. Louis with my wife, son, and five pets (me not included).
No one should like looking for a job. It’s awkward, spread across the vast internet sea, and carries potential heartache. You scan, look, scroll, scan, read all of the sixteen requirements and qualifications for the job, and a headache forms.
The wife peeks in at least once a day, asking if you have found something and sending 1-3 postings your way. Yes, finding a job if you are in a family and connected through your endeavors can be extra tricky. This affects her so it involves her, but there’s a pressure that comes with the search.
More money, yes! More anxiety and the great unknown… nope, that sucks.
New beginnings, for real! What if the place you’re going to work at quietly sucks. The owner is burning money when he or she isn’t bleeding it, and the whole operation stinks of “we don’t give a shit.”
But, I have enough experience to be a copywriter! Sure but if the job market is so needy and businesses are begging for work and have postings up, why haven’t I gotten a single interview after applying for seven jobs?!
Job hunting sucks because you shell out big cash to get the resume cleaned up, LinkedIn page polished, and a cover letter then cuts through the bullshit--and find that doesn’t trim down on the search anxiety one bit.
It’s where I really wish future peeking was my special superpower. Seeing into the future doesn’t quite shape it. You get a peek, or a glimpse as Don Cheadle once told Nicolas Cage in an underrated Christmas movie. Check on things, see where the happiness meter sits at, and then go back to the present. That’s what I would like, especially if time manipulation and unfiltered time travel aren’t available.
Let me see into the future and see if the new job leaves me and the family happy, or has us crawling up each other’s necks for safety. Third world problems are still fucking problems. It’s true that I don’t live in Ukraine and didn’t have my house and home blasted into the sky. But the fact that I can only read about that hardship doesn’t dim the lights on my struggles. I wish it did.
Imagine that. Feeling bad about someone else’s current predicament can take the spotlight off your own shit. It’s called what people do every day when they’re mean to others because their life sucks. It’s important to remember that, those syrupy political ad campaigns aside, America is not a community; it’s a business. And out here, as Andrew Dominik’s terrific “Killing Them Softly” preached, we are on our own.
Job hunting sucks, and I wanted to come here and write about it. Now, please help me feed my kid and pets, and become a paid subscriber. It’s not much, akin to what one spends on a soda and chips at a deli shop. How much of me and my mind would you like for free?
Photo Credit: Military Hire