job hunting sucks
because i don't live alone in this bomb shelter, i have been forced to go outside in my yellow radiation suit and forage for scraps of garbage that might be useful. that is one of the many reasons that this blog has lain fallow for lo these six months. [another is that we've got better things to do than sitting around doing this, but that's another story.]my colleague and i have been conducting an ongoing experiment, namely: on the road to making a living for oneself and one's family that involves doing whatever the hell one feels like at any particular moment, which is worse - employment or unemployment?
perhaps it's due to our white male privilege, but my associate [well, he's not really "white" and i'm not really "male", but that's another story] and i have found that somehow we have failed to die, or to cause or allow our families to die, during our period of unemployment. [this may be due to the fact that our spouses are more industrious than we are, but that's another story.] however, the constant stress of our situation might be construed as a fate worse than death.
for instance, i have a funny feeling right now that i've acquired walking pneumonia. and all because i've been job hunting for six months. i am beginning to believe that job hunting is bad for your health.
here is something of interest for you to consider. recently i sat through an 80 minute job interview, as well as performing a number of onerous research, writing and design tests for which i easily could have charged a client a month's salary for, all for a job that salary.com describes as starting at 40k a year [peanuts to some of you, i know, but to struggling family men, nothing to shake a stick at] at the bargain-basement-entry level.
i was then offered the job. at an hourly rate.
of $12.
half-time.
to quote a sign that was recently put up at the counter of seattle's famous allegro cafe:
"what in the world is wrong with you all?"
