Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Master Babysitter

In case any few who peek at these musings were wondering about my post graduate accomplishments let me sum up:

I have been babysitting a few hours a week.
I start training at a neighborhood restaurant tomorrow--that'll be a few nights a week.
I applied for umpteen receptionist/secretary/administrative assistant jobs and heard nary a peep from any of them.  

Overqualified?  Not using enough "key words" in my cover letter/resume?  It's a very different world, this job hunting job, than it was a decade ago when I was looking for work.  Before, you called a place, you mailed or faxed or dropped off your resume.  You called back a week later to check on the status.  Now, you email or upload or copy/paste your materials to a website.  And you can't call.  And you can't check the status.  It's unsettling.  It's as impersonal as impersonal can be.

Besides, it was discouraging to know that I was applying for jobs that were very much NOT what I want to be doing and trying to convince myself that this would be a way to move up in the company.  And maybe it would.  But maybe it wouldn't.  I don't want to answer phones, make coffee and fill soda refrigerators or office supply cabinets for a living.  I prefer to get back into restaurant work, volunteer at my old internship and network within the library/archives community.  

I may be the most foolish unemployed adult with looming student loan payments walking the earth... guess we'll just have to see how it all turns out.