I've been absent for a bit now, due to my ever present and never ending job search. Literally every free moment that I have is consumed by my search. So much so, that I haven't even been planning my wedding. To say that it has been frustrating is putting it lightly. I've gone on interview after interview, sending thank you and follow up emails and then.... nothing. I don't even get a "no", which I think is more frustrating than anything else. Just complete silence. When did this become OK? When did the professional world decide it was OK to just not say anything? And it's not just one company, it's been pretty much all of them. Even thank you and follow up emails go un-responded. Which is rather ironic because everything that I read in regards to email etiquette states that you should respond to emails within 24 hours.
But that's not the best part. The best part is "you're great and I love your enthusiasm and personality, I'm just a bit concerned because you don't have that much experience in ______." Really? REALLY?! First of all, I can learn, I think my two Master's degrees prove that I'm apt for that. Second of all, HOW AM I GOING TO GET EXPERIENCE IF I'M NOT ABLE TO WORK IN IT?!?!? Sorry, I've been wanting to yell that for a while. But really, how am I possibly going to get experience, if no one will hire me because I don't have experience? I am baffled by this whole concept. I understand the hesitance in hiring someone that doesn't have a lot of experience, but everyone is inexperienced to a certain extent. Unless you're applying for a six figure job, which I'm not.
I have to take a moment and apologize if I'm sounding ungrateful. I am grateful for what I have. I actually have a job (a rather menial one that I was kind of bamboozled into, but that's a story for another day). And I perfectly aware that there are thousands of people that don't have jobs. I'm reminded every day of this when I go to work, by the homeless people sleeping in the train station. Thank God I'm not one of them. I have a loving and supportive fiancee, who is always there for me, building me up when I knock myself down.
Again, with the irony that is my life, lately I've had the opportunity to work on two awesome projects that I do outside of work, that make me happy and satisfy me to no end: being part of the creative team of a fantastic micro-budget feature and being the local producer for a seminar for Producers here in Miami. I absolutely love working on both of these. Only one pays, and that's in October... But I love what I'm doing! I actually get to apply the things I've learned in school and all my skills in both of these. And there's definitely something to be said for working with great people and actually being part of a team.
I just want to wake up every morning and actually feel good about going to work. Actually look forward to it. Enjoy the work that I do. Is that too much to ask?
OK, rant over. For now. Back to real life. It's like Mick Jagger says "You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes you get what you need." Here's hoping that at some point in my life, what I want and what I need will intersect. Wouldn't that be grand? 'Til then, the beat goes on.
