Good-bye

That time is here! This is my last blog and thank you for reading.

This morning,  I woke up and read a yahoo news article, that has summed my situation. The article said, I quote, "Hundreds of job opening listings posted on Monster.com and other jobs sites explicitly state that people who are unemployed would be less attractive applicants, with some telling the long-term unemployed to not even bother with applying."

These hiring managers should have something in mind for setting that as a reason.

How long has it been for me? 7 months of job search? I think I am in that long-term category already. And I am done looking.

If you have been in my situation, I wish you the best of luck in your search. I am sure you will get one. All the best!

Unemployment articles and my first interview

I have been reading unemployment articles from YAHOO!'s site for the past two days now. Two key ideas I read are these: (1) Long- term job-seekers has recently started giving up looking for jobs, because the unemployment rate has been rising. (2) "In 2010, someone unemployed for less than five weeks was three times more likely to get a job than someone unemployed for 27 weeks or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

I am in my 27th week as of this week! Woohoo!

It's okay though. At least on my 26th week, I got an interview through a friend's friend.

It was for an assistant position, and the person I was supposed to assist is only 2 yrs older than me, at best, if not younger.
Of course, having a Master's degree, - I thought- I could teach this person about film, but I still have to work for/ under him.

I thought the interview went so that I made it clear that I was knowledgable in my field.
I also thought I was interviewing this person for the position because I asked 5 questions to his 2 questions. I was very polite though.

But from the half-assed answers I got in regards to when-will-you-make-a-decision, I figured, they were going to keep looking.

The good outcome from the interview was that I impressed myself as to how knowledgable and great I am- a feeling that disappeared the year I started my Master's degree... Afterall, I thought, I could do this person's job; that's what I am trained to do...

If only dreams made money, bought my groceries and did the laundry...

Upcoming farewell...

Dear (mostly non-existent) Reader,

Thank you for following my blog about my misadventures in looking for employment after getting my Master's degree.

You will notice, I have not blogged for a while. This is because I have been doing a lot of thinking about my future, instead of writing. I have a few last thoughts and ideas that I would like to blog about before I bring this journey to an end, but I am not certain I will.

When I started this blog, I had guessed I would have a job by my 6th month of job-search, since that is the maximum amount of time anyone I know has ever had to look for a full time job. After the 6th month, my blog would be about my "employed" life.

During my 7 month-long job search, I came to realize it was not going to be at all possible for me to get a full-time job. There are reasons -I am choosing not to elaborate here- that I have discovered along the way. That is to say, I realized there might not be a "land of opportunity" for everyone here, after all.

This isn't to say I am going to stop looking for a full time job. But just that I think this blog should come to an end.

This is not my last blog entry; but the farewell is soon coming...


Alas, this blog has been a great journey of self discovery for this Educated Slave.

Thank you for your patiently following my journey.

All the best,

Educated Slave

Passion and Career Success

There have been three occasions this past week that I came across the notion of "success" and "passion."

One of them was at a film screening, where the director's advice to a room full of film students was "find your passion and run with it." He had a point. If you know what you want to do with your life (and you have recently graduated college) you are 50% there. I knew and I got a master's for it. So, I figure I am 75% there. Well, what's that last 25% depending on for my ultimate success, then?

The second occasion occurred when I was watching a foreign movie. You know how deep they can get...One of the characters was telling a story of a boy, who saw a picture of a location. The boy just kept staring at that picture for days. In his twenties, he moved to the city where this location was at. He immediately went to that location. At first, he started by cleaning the leaves in the garden and he repeated this again and again everyday. Everyday, until the location owner noticed him and hired him for this job as a caretaker. The boy- then a young man- had no place else to stay. But this location had only one small room that had the best view of the city. So the location owner gave this small room to the young man in return for him completing the chores in the location. The character who told this story ended up summing this up as, "to have the impeccable view out of your window, you have to work with passionately& hard at it."

So, that last 25%  of my success is dependent on working very hard at what I am passionate for.

Finally, third occasion happened when I was watching the trailer of Vanilla Sky- one of my favorite movies. The quote was "What is any life without the pursuit of a dream." I don't want to sound cliche and quote a main-stream movie for you, but it is just so applicable to my situation, that I cannot not quote it. I am passionate about the field I chose and I have been ( and am going to continue) working hard for it. I also am satisfying my life's purpose in pursuing this dream. So this sounds like, even if I might end up considering myself a failure, I will still have lived a life worth living, just cause I will have spent it in pursuit of something I have dreamt about for so long.

That makes me feel great about my life.

Now, I need to get back to work. Until next time, think about if your life's going to be worth doing it all over again, if it ended today.

Freedom, Free time, "Work" and Positivity

There has been three occasions in my temp assignments so far, where people showed some reaction to the fact that I have a master's degree- the highest level of education I can get in my field. The reactions were along the lines of, "you've got a master's and you're doing this?"

I have been feeling exactly that way - obviously- and have been complaining about it. But still, I couldn't stop taking those jobs. You've been my witness!

But recently, I think I have turned it all around. I declined work, because I have been "unavailable."

It is the truth! Instead of dead-end jobs, I have been working on the list of things I have been meaning to do ( especially during my master's) but I hadn't gotten a chance to. I am now catching up on all the books I wanted to read, all the films I wanted to see and other things I wanted to put on paper. And for a moment there I wondered, who really spends days reading and watching films and call it work? After all, you can work a real job (ie: reception) AND read or watch movies when you get home, right? Wrong!

At this time, I realize it truly was a waste of time to work for the minimum wage. I have been so emotionally drained, doing all sorts of crap work, that all I'd do when I came home was eat and go to bed. May be, I'd check my emails, if I felt up to it.

Now, I feel I have more time to spend. I have more energy. I am more positive. Probably because I no longer commute, or answer phones. Suprisingly, I haven't gotten bored (yet) - considering my personality, I could have. I keep my eye on the prize: my satisfaction with the limited time (limited, because I hope to eventually get a job) that I have free.

I have been worrying though: does that make me lazy? For a couple days, I thought so. Then, I started a notebook where I listed all that I have accomplished for the day. It has been a whole a lot. And now, I don't think, not working a lame gig makes me lazy. I am not making that 5 bucks an hour (after taxes) but I am investing that time for my future. And I think that is one of the greatest satisfaction one can have in life.

The Half-Truth

I took this temp gig for two days. Or at least, so I was told it was going to be two days.

I get to this company to work on time, even a little earlier. I start working, thinking it is going to be a full 8 hours. It turns out they called me in about two hours later than when everyone actually started working. But I didn’t care much since I figured what they were having me do would go longer than their regular business hours…

I can be so naïve sometimes. In four hours, they told me they didn’t have anything else for me to do. They wanted to sign my time card. What am I to say at that point? “No, I was promised 8 hours?” Of course not. Do I even have that right? Well, I let them sign it and  ended up literally wasting the best part of my day, working for the minimum wage.

Then, I went back the next day. I was still hopeful that my first day was just coincidental. But NO!! They worked me another 4 hours and said, “Thanks for coming, it was very nice meeting you.” That was, indeed, all they needed me to do. They just called me in the peek working hours and paid me minimum wage for that work. Wow!

At the end of the assignment, while I was hoping I would get 16 hours of work, I ended up getting 8 hours and I spent 2 days for working those 8 hours.

You’d think, now that I’ve a master’s degree, I’d be smarter. May be not.

Who do I blame? Of course, the temp agency. If they had told me it would be a total of 8 hours, I would've declined. But oh well. I should know better to see the temp agency's too trying to make money off me, so of course they'll tell me the partial truth...

For the next time, I know better.

The Job Market

Officially, six months since my graduation and nothing! Not even an interview!!

Recently, I wasn’t the only temp at this one assignment I took, so I chatted up with other temps to see what their story was. It turned out they were all at the same age, if not a little older than me. They have been laid off during the financial crisis within the past two years and were looking for a fulltime position at that time. Wow.

Many people I meet at these jobs –temps- are often quite honest about their financial situations. Most are aware they deserve better, but also accept that they need to be paying bills too. So that’s why they temp.

I have started questioning the worth my master’s education every day. Was it worth it? Is it going to be worth it? My “competitions” have at least 3-5 more years of work experience. I have a master’s degree and some experience, but still at least 3-5 years less than theirs. Will this Master’s degree help me earn more in the long run? If at all?

Thus far, I seem to think, my master's wasn't worth it. May be it would have been different if I had done a MBA.

This is not to say I am going to give up on life though. I might be giving up on finding a stable job, but I think I am going to come up with ways to start my own business. I have already started brainstorming. Afterall, who -with a master's degree- would like to work as a receptionist anyway???