Searching For a Job in a Digital World

I have been unemployed for two months.  That’s not very long, I know.  There are people who’ve been out of work for months, years even.  I’ve read articles about executives who went from making 7 figures to mopping floors.  I haven’t even managed to burn through my severance pay yet, so why am I stressing so hard?  I’ll tell you why.  This country’s manners are getting progressively worse.  From rude movie patrons to people allowing their children to run screaming through previously fine dining establishments, it’s hard to go anywhere and find evidence that people even know what manners are anymore.  So it’s not surprising that the job-seeking process should fall prey to the same lack of decorum.

Since I launched into my search, I have had two serious job interviews.  The first interview was with a religious school that offers Hebrew High School classes, and undergraduate and graduate degrees.  I was more than qualified for the position having held a similar one for three years.  The interview went well, I gave all the right answers, and I thought the interviewers liked me.  They balked at my salary request, but I tried to make it clear that it was negotiable.  Hey, if former executives are willing to work for less, then so am I.  Anything to get a job that I might truly enjoy or that could enhance my resume!  The interviewers assured me they would be in touch with me either way but that I could feel free to call in a few days and check in.  I gave it a few days and then called.  My inquiry was met with thinly veiled annoyance and the response, “Uh, we haven’t decided yet.”  Considering they told me they needed to fill the position ASAP, I took that as a no.  Why, though?  Why would they make a point of saying they’d call either way or inviting me to call if they had no intention of hiring me?  No one likes rejection, but rejection following dishonesty only hurts more.  My second interview went much the same way.  This time it was a recruiter trying to hire for a law firm.  The interviewer gave me resume tips and told me how hard she’d fight to get me this job.  I figured it was win-win.  She’d only get paid if she got me hired, after all.  So, what happened?  I called when she told me to, and she never called me back.  I e-mailed her, and she finally responded that she had a definite meeting with the law firm and she’d call me right after.  I never heard from her again.  I can take a hint; the law firm didn’t want me. 

As bad as those experiences were though, nothing is more disheartening than applying to work for a major university.  “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”  Most universities employ digital filters and refuse to have any human contact with applicants.  I made the mistake of calling one such university.  There was no thinly veiled annoyance here.  This was flat-out anger.  “Why would you call us?  Who told you that you could call us?  If we had any interest, we would have called you!”  Ouch.  The only blessing was that there was no gap in the conversation in which I could have left my name.  Unless they took the time to trace my cell phone number, they still have no idea who had the audacity to think that they could call human resources about a job.  So far, Temple is the only school that has treated me like a human, and I haven’t tried to prove otherwise by attempting to call them.

So, why the blog?  I am setting out to prove that humans can still relate to one another.  I am not going to stop applying to jobs online, but I am going to start calling every company.  I will let companies know that there is a person behind each digital application and e-mailed resume.  Failing that, I am going to start hitting the pavements a la the pre-digital generations.  Follow me on my quest to prove that we don’t have to let computers take over every part of our lives.  

P.S.  I’m aware of the irony of blogging my Luddite tendencies, and I’m comfortable with it.