Stupid job hunting.

October 20, 2003

I installed iTunes for Windows the other day, and I must say I’m impressed. iTunes is Apple’s online music store where you can pay $0.99 for a song or $9.99 for any album (at least of the ones I’ve seen). You can put your songs on a portable music device like an iPod, burn the songs to a CD however many times you want, that sort of thing. I browsed through their store, and I found a lot of stuff that I’ve been trying to…ahem…”acquire” for some time, but I haven’t bought anything yet. I was mostly impressed with the speed and thoroughness of the catalog. Microsoft immediately released a press release saying that the iTunes store was “limiting and incomplete.” Yeah, 400,000 songs sure is a pretty bad selection. I think that they’re just trying to play down the outright success of the iTunes Store so that they can create buzz for whatever online service they’re working on. I’ll have to play around with the Store more, but so far my only negative thing about it is that it somehow messed up my iPod’s connection to my PC. Good thing I have 4.5 GB of music already on it that I won’t go crazy listening to the same songs over and over.

I looked through the classifieds section yesterday, and it was a bit frustrating going through and seeing so little that I could do. I sent off two applications last night and downloaded two more, so I guess I’ll get those done this week. One of the applications I sent out bounced back to me, username unknown. I went to the website and looked for myself, and there was a misprint in the classified ad. Oops. Maybe that means that less riff-raff will apply and I’ll have a better chance. Or not. I also finally heard back from the man I interviewed with two weeks ago, though I had to chase him down to get an answer. They did indeed hire someone else who had more direct experience with DSL, which is exactly what I figured. Man, this is getting old. I thought I had a good chance with that one–of course, I thought I had a good chance with the job in Salem, too. The whole application process is getting old, really. I’m tired of applying for jobs knowing that I’m not going to get them. I’m really tired of filling out my employment history with no way to easily copy over the information. Having to do it by hand just plain sucks. That’s why resumes were invented, employers! So that job applicants didn’t have to fill out application after application after application!

I mean really, what’s the point? I’d be willing to fill out applications to turn in if employers would at least get back to me. I sent in my resume for a job last week–one that had been open since early September, so they obviously are either being picky about the potentials or not many people have applied–and what do I get back? An automated email with an attachment JPEG image with the “Thank you for applying, we will keep your resume on file blah blah blah.” Not even an email response, but just an IMAGE that was tacked on. Other times I send stuff in, and I never even hear back from an employer. I mean come on, my email address is ON THE EMAIL I SENT TO YOU. Just respond and say “Thanks for your submission.” I can understand not replying to everyone who submits a resume when someone is hired, but man, at least notify people in a way that doesn’t make them feel like cattle. It’s just a big black hole out there. Resumes go out, but nothing ever comes back out, especially not a ray of light representing hope.

So yeah, I’m beginning to get a bit frustrated. I estimate that since May, I have applied for maybe 60 jobs or so. Quite a few of those were through Monster.com that guarantees you no response, but I’d say close to 20 of those have been real applications and not just an automated submission through Monster. Of those 60 jobs, I’ve had two interviews, only a handful of total responses overall. This bites. I have about $300 left to my name excluding the money that’s sitting in my PayPal account from auction earnings that I have earmarked for a new laptop. I mean, it’s not like I’ll be getting one anytime soon, but I was saving up, you know?

Yeah, I could get a crap job for the time being, but I need to find one that I’ll actually want to go to. It’s not going to be at Papa Murphy’s, and it’s not going to be bagging groceries. I’ve done both of those, and I dreaded going to work each time I had to. I’ve done warehouse work, and that’s not too fun, either. If I’m going to get a crap job, I want to at least get one that I don’t mind going to every day. I don’t have to love my job, but I just need to find one that I can tolerate going to every day.

That’s not going to be bagging groceries–at least not at Bales’ Thriftway–and that’s not going to be working at Papa Murphy’s. I can’t get a delivery job because my car is…questionable…at times, and I certainly don’t know how to drive a truck (which is a prerequisite for other delivery jobs). I’ve done retail sales before and I didn’t enjoy it too much, but I think that I could tolerate it again as long at it’s not in a damned mall like before. And especially not if I have to be the person who stands at the door welcoming people to the Store of Knowledge. What a screwed-up job that was. No wonder the company went under.

So you see, I’m sort of at a bad place regarding jobs, and all I can do is keep filling out the same applications over and over, even though I can’t just do a master application and give them to various employers. Again, that’s what a resume is supposed to be for! Ug.

So I think that today I’m going to take a walk or use the exercise machine for awhile since my knee is coming back to full usage very nicely, and then I think I’m going to go have a beer tonight. I just need to get out of the house, as I’m sure you can understand. Take it easy, all.

Another week, another chance for more job rejections.

Posted in Geekery, General