Lesson learned

You will never again hear me just toss off a "just get a job",... at least not without having some information about the person in question.

What prompts this? In case you didn't know it: I have been unemployed for 7 months of 2017, and I still have NO income.  And you know what? It's really easy to say, "just get a job", but it is far easier said than done.

Why? Wow, I wish I understood why.  For the first month I spent more than 5 hours a day looking for and/or applying for jobs on the Internet.  And in the first week I had visited 3 local employment agencies, and called my former employment agencies in another county.

I had 6 actual interviews.  I have over 20 years of practical office experience.  Would you not think that I could find a position as an Administrative Assistant or Office Manager?  Yeah,,.... easier said than done.  And I am screwed by my most recent position, which was not strictly Administrative Assistant, (the job title was not Administrative Assistant) ..HOWEVER: 85% of the duties were administrative in nature. I did not forget how to be an Administrative Assistant,.... in fact I also performed in person Customer Service duties. That's right, I was face to face with the customer.  I trained technicians.  I spoke before groups of 4 to 65 people -I have voice training for that very purpose, although not for that exact job (that I worked at for nearly 10 years).

Having held the same position for nearly 10 years I did miss the sea change of the job search.... these "new" rules of interviews.  This "tell me about a time when" method of interviewing.  Guess what? I don't have the stories to tell. If I solved a problem, and I am sure I solved a lot of problems, but I put the problem behind me when I solved it. (Does that make sense?)  If I solved a specific problem I promptly forgot about,...partially because the only real problem was that someone else thought that there was a difficulty that did not actually exist.  That is because, for nearly 10 years no one asked anything of me that I could not handle (or fix).

Anyway, if you are in my presence do not say to anyone, "just get a job."  You cannot purchase a job -that would be idiotic.  Neither can a person walk into any establishment and demand a job.  It doesn't work that way.  Maybe it is because they figure out my age (DISCRIMINATION!!), or because they think that I will not be willing to commute up to 70 miles for the right salary.  I am more than willing to commute up to 70 miles, as long as it does not take longer than 90 minutes to arrive at my destination (most of the time).... i.e. the destination must be along the toll road or freeway corridors from my home -which is less than a mile from a toll road entrance.

Look, just don't say, "just get a job." It simply is NOT that easy.


You will never again hear me just toss off a "just get a job",... at least not without having some information about the person in question.