No Calls Please

Job hunting sucks. It is especially dauting at the moment when it seems like every company in the world is in a holding pattern, waiting for the tides to change; winds to change direction; economic funk to blow over...Take it from my friend Orion who has been looking for a job since January.

After months of fruitless efforts, I sympathize with the May 08 graduates. Here I thought I would have a leg up on the competition, graduating in December, but I find myself in the rat race with the rest of you all.

Network, network, network…you won’t find your job on Monster.com. Well I have to say, I have exhausted all of my networking connections, made some new acquaintances, ye they see to have expired as well. No luck there.

I searched through a list of over 3,000 non-profits in DC Metro area of which I found about a dozen with posting openings I felt to be qualified for. This is of course, after going through my short list of ‘dream’ organizations I want to work for. Yet as you may have guessed, no of them have offered me a job let alone want to interview me. What do I do next when they all explicitly state: “no phone calls, we will contact qualified candidates for interviews”…so much for the idea of follow ups and persistence.

The problem is I can’t find anyone one to pay me part time while I wait for the big offer. I am listed with 3 temp agencies, and I have received 4, one day assignments in 2 months. I am overqualified to work in retail or my other dream job, at a beer distributor; and the banks don’t want me to be a teller either because a Masters in International Relations doesn’t prove I can add or it’s because I don’t speak Spanish.

I think once I get a job, I am going to go around to a bunch of the places that would rather employ high school that won’t show up for work and ask for my resume back.

-Orion Wenczel


Some research published in Businessweek says that not only are this years grads screwed this year, but if we take lesser jobs now, we will have lesser jobs and make less money for the rest of our lives.

I'm thinking its time to travel.