“Oh my God…with your profile? You shouldn’t even be applying for jobs…companies should be throwing themselves at you!”
This chipper ass lie came by the way of this new headhunter I’m working with now. She was a friend-of-a-friend connection from a happy hour Zoom I was invited to a few weeks ago.
“Let’s do this. Send me your resume, and I’ll make some calls. I promise you; something big is coming.”
* * *
It’s been over three months since I was laid off from work. And while I have been keeping myself occupied during this time with a steady diet of video games, taking calls, and ogling hot men on Instagram, I’d be lying if I told you that any of this has amounted to being productive at this stage of the pandemic.
The rejections over the past few weeks have been particularly crushing since they’ve come from companies I applied to months ago. I’d almost prefer an instant rejection instead of being hung out to dry for months on end, but this is the job market I’m in now. As of this message, over 13 million people are out of work due to the pandemic. The employment numbers are looking better than they were back in March, but the reality is that there are still tons of people who need jobs, which means even more competition for roles. On top of that, many US offices are closed due to stay at home orders, so they have pivoted to remote work roles until that changes. This greatly increases the pool of candidates for these jobs, but they’re only temporarily remote. I’m seeing a lot of businesses push to go back to their brick and mortar locations by the beginning of 2021, meaning that sweet remote gig of yours has the lifespan of a temp job unless you’re willing to relocate. (Some large companies like Slack, Google, and Microsoft are offering remote work roles for much longer periods of times — in some cases, permanently.)
All of this makes searching for good jobs tricky. I’m only applying for jobs one day out of the week now, which helps stave the anger from the rejections and non-responses from companies. Is there anyone out there that actually enjoys the modern job search? Because I’m not good at any part of it. Getting my nontraditional career path to look good on a resume ends up having nearly a decade of experience handwaved away as “a hobby”. Mentioning I went to an accredited for-profit college for my Master’s degree ends up making me overqualified and underqualified at the same time. And if I happen to make it past the initial screen, then there’s jumping through hoops for interviews, take-home assignments, etc. I had one company advance me to the interview round, only to tell me after we’re done that they already filled the role but wanted to chat with me because they’re a fan of my work.
It’s demoralizing. I know my value and what I can bring to the table, but this job search can make you feel insane because it appears you’re the only one who sees your value. And you’re trying your best to show your value and that you have what the company is looking for in a specific role, but then the hiring algorithm in their application process immediately screens you out for a missing keyword or some shit.
I’m exhausted.
* * *
Remember the headhunter I mentioned earlier? Her ass has been useless. Each job she’s referred me to hasn’t even responded to me, and now she’s stopped answering my messages about updates. It’s been that way for the past three weeks now. I fucking hate it.
I don’t know what this “something big” is that she promised, but it ain’t looking like a job anytime soon.
