Tag Archives: Unemployed

The joys of Unemployment

Posted by Steve on August 20, 2013 No comments

The emotional roller coaster that is Job Hunting is still ongoing. Some weeks are great with lots of phone calls and emails back and forth. Then there are the weeks where everything is in motion and all I can do is wait. Various interviews, both in person and on the phone, where I get to be the subject of “Stump the dummy”.

It’s kind of exhausting.

The best part about it is the comedy that it generates. I have gotten pings from jobs that are nowhere near what I have listed on my resume. Things like Insurance salesman, car salesman, iOS Developer, and then there is this guy:

“Your resume was selected because it includes words or phrases that indicate these qualifications. In order to continue expanding the sales force, I am conducting preliminary interview meetings for top-level candidates to fill these business-to-business sales positions”

When I asked him what the job description was:

“Thanks for sending me your information (Which I didn’t). I’d love to work out a time for us to meet and go over our position. I cover and hire for all of Northern Virginia, but my office is in Fredericksburg, which is where I conduct interviews only.”

Again, I asked him for a job description and how it fits my resume (which he claimed he had).

“The person I am hiring will be responsible for making personal visits to owners of companies in order to continue or improve upon their existing benefits. This is not a door to door sales position. I will be happy to explain further and answer any of your questions in person if you choose to meet with me.”

After pressing the 3rd time for an actual job description, I haven’t heard from him since. I was seriously very o_O afterwards. Good chance I would have probably gotten raped down in Fredericksburg.

So the search continues. If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen some of my various “Cover letter” jokes. These will continue until I find a job! (And they may get worse so you should pray that I find a job soon!) The plus side to all of this is that I was thinking of rolling the whole experience into a routine and trying out one of the open mic nights.

In the meantime, I am taking things slow. Reviewing the jobs I am applying for and making the most of the time off.

Officially Unemployed!

Posted by Steve on July 15, 2013 No comments

And just like that, I have officially become a burden on society. Didn’t realize it was that easy. So July 12th was my last day on record at my previous job, and as if yet I have had no offers from any of the 50 places I have submitted to. I do have one hopeful that I feel the interview went well, but we’ll see. (If you have any leads, please feel free to e-mail me!

Fear not, Sarah and I have enough socked away to sustain us for quite some time. So, in the meantime I am catching up on my photography and writing (thus this post) and looking into other things to keep me busy. I am not going to fool myself into thinking that I am some future great novelist or think that my Photography can sustain me. Mostly it’s just things to occupy my mind so I don’t go crazy.

In other news, I broke my toe! Yeah, great segway right? On the 4th of July I became a statistic by going into the emergency room with a non-firework related injury! What happened? Well, after our little BBQ and meet and greet, when everyone else had left (except James, who got to witness this delightful event) I went to get an ice cream out of the freezer. On the way back to the family room I was walking down the stairs and slipped. My left foot shot straight into the metal railing and I fell the rest of the way down the stairs.

After screaming in pain for a good 5 minutes, I finally got around to asking Andrew to remove the sock on my left foot. I took a picture of the result, but to save your stomachs, I have decided to use this artist’s rendition of what my foot looked like. As you can see, I tried to make it a little happier. The actual foot looked much, much worse.

After screaming in disgust for a good 5 minutes, everyone else in the room decided that a trip to the emergency room was in order.

Fun fact about me. In stressful situations, I use humor as a defense mechanism. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed. On the way out to the car, I made sure that Sarah grabbed my phone and my iPad (so I have them) but totally forgot about things like, my insurance card, my shoes (at least 1 of them) etc. I needed my phone because I totally needed to post a picture to Facebook and twitter, right!?

When we arrived at the hospital, we didn’t see the normal patient entrance to the emergency room, only the ambulance entrance. I rolled down the back seat window and asked one of the paramedics “Where do I go for this?” with my foot outside the window. He happily pointed us in the right direction.

Thankfully the emergency room was fairly empty and we didn’t have to wait for hours on end to be seen. The whole staff was great and dealt with my “current state” with a smile. I got dosed up on morphine and the doctor straightened out my toe (to much screaming from me).

If you are really interested in what it looked like, the x-ray can be seen here. (warning, it’s not pretty)

That’s been my July so far! My project 365 is still going strong. I think it’s really helped me work on some of techniques, as well as getting over my fear of taking pictures of other people. Turns out that the average person doesn’t mind an artistic picture taken of them!

Here is a link to my Flickr page with all of the latest pics on it!