unemployment

Yeah, that’s right, today I tried out for a reality show. Not as a job prospect, actually, not even on purpose. As I was doing my usual troll through Craigslist ads, I filled out a form for one that I thought was just for a free haircut. I see ads for free haircuts on Craigslist all the time, and I’m getting pretty darn shaggy, and with interviews (hopefully) coming up, and my financial situation in question, it seemed like a pretty natural thing to sign up for.  I didn’t stop to think why they would be posting for free haircuts in the jobs section, and it wasn’t until I was probably 3/4 finished with the online form that I realized that it was for some sort of reality show. At that point, though, I figured I was nearly done with it anyway, and it still was a free haircut, so I might as well at least finish up the form.

They called me yesterday and set up an appointment for this afternoon. With the horrible weather today, it seemed like perhaps a bit too much effort to go through to save fifteen bucks, but I’m not one to cancel appointments.  The truth is, it out to be a lot of fun.  I went over and chatted with this woman for maybe fifteen minutes while being taped, which was a bit weird, but I tried to ignore it.  It was kind of like a job interview, but instead of trying to impress anyone and talking about employment and goals and strengths and weaknesses and skills, I just gushed about my favorite bands and told the story about when I played ukulele at a Guided By Voices tribute show (she actually claimed her friends played at the same show, which is amazing if that’s true) and some other fun topics.

At the end she told me a little bit about the show, which she says is about how people develop real relationships with their stylists at salons, and how she, herself, tells her stylist everything. I think I made it clear that I’m more interested in free or cheap, quick and easy haircuts than any sort of bonding experience, but obviously “reality television” is just a name, and I don’t think it would be too disingenuous for me to try to be friends with some dude cutting my hair and pretend that this is something I seek out generally. Who know, maybe I’ll make a new friend or enter into some sort of salon therapy relationship. God knows I could use some sort of therapy. So we’ll see if I get a call back about that. I’d be getting my hair cut on either the 21st or 22nd. And probably not too short - she said she liked it shaggy.

But, yes, that is not a job. She was one of 4 people that I contacted thus far who got back to me - all of which I filled out online forms for instead of sending a resume with cover letter email, which is telling, I think. One of the others turned out to be for a political PARTY as opposed to a political ORGANIZATION, which definitely made me uncomfortable about the whole thing. I’m a political guy, and I’ll happily get behind a wide range of issues, but if it’s a party with an entire platform and everything, I want to make sure that I’m not fighting for 5 positions I believe in deeply, and one I’m mortified by.

The other two were both for staffing companies, which are frustrating in how they rope you in. They post for a single job, and you follow the series of links as though you are applying for said job, but you end up signing up for a staffing company instead. They want to place you as a receptionist, executive assistant, or the like, but would also happily get you temp jobs, which, I think, is a more lucrative outcome for them. I saw each of them this morning, which was an interesting experience.

I put on my actual suit for the occasion, which got drenched repeatedly in the terrible weather. The first one felt pretty awkward. After being given the paperwork to fill out, I sat in a line of chairs with two other suited gentlemen, listening to the quiet opera music they were playing, and pondered what it must be like to work as a receptionist for a company that staff’s receptionists. Was this girl once a client herself?  Would she one day advance herself, or is she just waiting until she’s placed elsewhere?  I also noticed that this entire office was staffed with nothing but attractive women. Not pharmaceutical rep attractive, but young, sweet natured, pretty-ish girls.  I recalled that the other agency I was seeing afterward boasted on it’s website being owned and operated by women, and I wondered, shaking hands with my smiling counselor, a woman only a few years older than myself, why this might be such a female-dominated industry. Nurturing instincts? I’m not going to pursue this line of thinking any further, just throwing that out there.

My first counselor made it pretty clear that she wasn’t staffing me in my new career.  Clearly, I’m so creative and have so many networks on the side, I really just needed a day job to support myself with while I got my myriad of masterpieces in order, and that’s exactly what they could help me with.  I didn’t really think it was worth my effort to contradict her.  They do work with some media clients, so they might have something that I might potentially find interesting, or that might become something real and permanent, but I’m not terribly optimistic about it. Of course, that would also mean going back on my plan to get out of self-indulgent media jobs and start saving the world. I guess I should have said something about that to her, but I had sent them my resume because they had listed a media job on Craigslist. I need to be a lot stronger in my resolve if I genuinely want to get out of media.

At the next place, I DID tell my pleasant looking, slightly older female counselor that I was looking to help people, and she seemed genuinely excited to hear that. I felt more comfortable with this one for some reason, maybe just because the office didn’t resemble a doctors office as much, or perhaps that this wasn’t my first time meeting with such a counselor.  As I was talking, she immediately thought of a job that just came in that might be exactly what I was looking for, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her I had already applied to that very same one, having seen the Craigslist posting. Who knows, though - maybe with their recommendation I could actually get it.

I did remain strong in one way. Both of them wanted to start me out immediately on temp assignments, and I made it clear that for now, I was feeling out my situation and my prospects, and working on my own projects, and that the temping could wait until I really need some money. They did have a pretty sweet deal, though.  Insurance, paid vacation, everything, all through the placement service.  Not bad.  Definitely something I can fall back on, but it’s also definitely not what I want to be doing.  I must stay strong and stay focused!

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