Manic Monday

When you're unemployed & looking for a job, you have a lot of bad days. Because I spend all day, every day, applying to jobs, I get at least one 'Thank you for applying, but...' emails a day. At least one. It's especially fun to get turned down for jobs that you could do in your sleep, like Receptionist. Or! To finally get an interview for a job, only to find out that it pays under $30K/year & doesn't offer health insurance. To put this in perspective, I've been working professionally for over 10 years & I have a master's degree.

Back in February, a friend of mine hired me as her part-time Assistant. She was leaving to take another job & was hoping that I would become her replacement. I got in, I applied for her job, I sent in about 100 letters of recommendation, I was interviewed -twice. In fact, in my last interview, I was told I was still a candidate & that I was to have a phone interview with Corporate. Well, that phone interview never happened & yesterday my friend's replacement walked in the door.

To recap, I was not hired for the job, nor was I given the professional courtesy of a heads-up that they hired someone else & that she was starting yesterday. Keep in mind, I WORK HERE. This is where I am Mon-Thurs, 9am-5pm. Oh! And, her name is Kim, too. Awesome.

This is what's out there people. It's not just that there are no jobs, or that it's hard times. It's this: it's working somewhere for 3 months; still not being able to get a job there; & then not even being thought highly enough of to be told that the job you applied for was filled with someone else & that she's starting on Monday.

Oh, and the only other job I'm still in the running for went into a hiring freeze yesterday until late June/early July. Again, awesome.

So today I'm going to a job interview for a job that pays less than I made when I was 23 & doesn't offer benefits or health insurance, but I will probably accept because the thought of spending one more day at my current job is suicide-inducing.