The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Posted By kage ~ 4th May 2010

Tom Petty sang it much better than I ever could begin to.

Waiting.  It’s hard.  It’s terribly hard.  For many, many people these days, myself included, waiting is the new national pasttime.  Send the resume, wait.  Resend the resume. Wait.  Get an interview!  Hurray.  Go to interview.  Go to second, and third interviews.  Wait.  Wait some more.  Send “hey, Hi there…um…remember me?” letter.  Only worded much better than that.  Wait.  Go mow the yard, paint the walls, scrub the floors.  Wait.

Phone rings.  Try not to pee pants, realize it’s your mother.  Gibber and jabber with her for a while, promise all is well, everything is fine.  Hang up.  Wait.

Check phone to make sure it’s charged and on.  It is.

Wait.

Send resumes, call people who might be able to help.  ”Sure, send my your resume and I’ll pass it on.  Swear to god”.  Send resume.

Wait.

It really has become the national pastime with so many people out of work.  In March, according to government statistics 9.7% of the population was out of work.  6.5 MILLION people were unemployed for more than 27 weeksw.  That’s a Houston sized city of people sitting around watching Spongebob.  While I”m sure that we all enjoy Spongebob, I think that I can speak for many of us when I say we’d rather watch it on TIVO after we get home from work.

What’s funny/irritating?/bothersome/etc.  is the amount of people who offer advice that they all swear is the best.  Go network, go to job fairs, always be working to get that new job, always be on your best behaviour, dress like your going to an interview, wear clean underwear, brush your teeth, cut your hair, network, network and network.  While this is all pretty good advice, I think that people are getting a little tired of being networked.  Also when I’m mowing the yard I don’t generally wear coat and tie.  I mean…sure sometimes it’s nice for a change to dress all fancy to cut the grass, but when it’s hot, it’s pretty uncomfortable.

I wish us all luck.  Everyone of us who is looking for work.  If you’re not looking for work because you’re one of the cool kids who actually have jobs, then more power to you.

In the mean time think I’ll wait around and do some networking.  With the cats.