On Seeking Employment

I have been job hunting for the better part of the last year. It's important to note that I lost the job that I had for two weeks shy of one year in October of 2008. I won't go into details, or even list the company, but it was abundantly clear to me, and everyone who worked there or had worked there that I was terminated because I was coming up on my one year of employment and due a dollar an hour raise (putting me at a whopping $10.00 an hour).

At the end of November 2008, a friend of mine who had also received the Ole VME Special (as we like to call it) called to let me know that the hotel she was working at was hiring. I immediately drove 30 MINUTES across town to put in my application. I was hired for training purposes and washed windows for three days, after which I was informed not only that I was "not the right fit" for the team, but also that I would not be paid for my training.

Late in December, around Christmas I believe, I managed to secure a position at a call center. Training began in January, so I had a few more weeks to stress about where I was going to find money to pay my bills. By this point, I had borrowed god only KNOWS how much money from my parents, and written what ended up being a bad check (of course, I wouldn't know until they tried to cash the check for Dec's rent in APRIL).

Training at that job came and went. The week I transitioned onto the floor was the same week that my dad kicked my brother out for some really bad choices (that's the subject of a WHOLE 'nother blog, y'all) resulting in my brother moving in with me. So, in addition to the stress of being set free onto an escalations team and being flat ass broke, I had a recovering pillhead and confirmed thief living with me. He and I made it. The job and I did not.

In April I accepted a position offered to me by my friend Bekah. It was a summer camp in Maryland. This, blog...THIS job would change my life. But not before I would be shafted by yet another job, this one at a very popular and famous regional frozen custard chain, robbed by a man my brother was trying to help, and evicted from the apartment that I had lived in for nearly two years.

Camp came and went, and it was a summer that I could spend days and weeks detailing for the world and still never come close to describing the essence, the very life of what it was like to be there. That, too, is an attempted blog for another day.

When I came home from camp in August, I immediately began putting applications in for jobs all over. I submitted applications for jobs in town, I submitted applications for jobs on post (at one point, I had SEVEN open applications with AAFES), I submitted applications in Springfield. Nothing. No calls. No interviews. No biters.

And so, I did round two. Applying for many of the jobs that hadn't called me in September again in October. To no avail. And now. Now I discover that the root of my problem is something so very small: I am apparently over-qualified. With a two-year Associate's Degree in GENERAL STUDIES (that=nothing, people), I am too well-educated to sell cigarettes and gas, to stock shelves or check people out of the PX, to stock and sell liquor, to deliver pizzas.

I spoke with my grandma on the phone Sunday. She suggested that I might have more luck if I stop putting my AA on my resume. I considered the suggestion, especially since she was not the first person, ultimately, to give me that advice, and I decided that I would NOT stop putting my AA down. For one thing, I do not lie. I hate lying, it makes me feel like this horrible, terrible person. But more than that, there is no reason for me to lie. I mean, come on, it is not a master's degree, it is not a doctorate. I know you are thinking "if it is not that important, then why make the big deal about not listing it?" BECAUSE I WORKED MY ASS OFF FOR IT, THAT'S WHY!!!! What is the POINT of going to school, of getting an education and trying to better yourself, if you are not going to put it out there for people to know? I realize that if I am applying to be a delivery driver that I am not going to be making $15.00/hr. I UNDERSTAND THIS! I don't CARE because right now I am making $0.00/hr and that just IS NOT CUTTING IT! I don't want to make $7.50/hr forever, but by god, I am not too good to START there!

Today Samantha and I went to get some paperwork signed for my insurance settlement and picked up a couple of applications that I am going to submit tomorrow. I listed my AA on both applications. I am not ashamed of my hard work but I don't expect to be paid any more than a fair wage. I deserve that much.