judecorp | Jul. 31st, 2002

I think the most ridiculous thing in the universe is the cover letter. I mean, really, what is the point? You send your resume, which is the "beans and potatoes" of the whole shebang, and then you have to attach this namby-pamby letter where you lie and tell this company why out of all of the other resumes, they should look at yours more carefully. You need some sort of gimmick. I've been using the same stupid cover letter for two weeks. I'm tired of trying to come up with something new. Yes, they should hire me. Why? BECAUSE I NEED A JOB AND I'M CUTE!

Today I got the clever idea (How's that working for you? What? Being clever.) of going up and down the list of United Way organizations and checking their respective webpages for openings. I submitted resumes to the HR departments of 4 or 5 agencies that way. I don't know if the postings are old or not, but at least I got my resume in there. With the stupid cover letter. 300 words that mean, "Hire me. I'm desperate. You like me."

I learned today that my employment as a full-time graduate student, even though I had to work certain hours and earned a wage which had taxes removed, doesn't count as employment. It's financial aid. So for the past two years, I have no "wage record." This means no unemployment. Feck. I also learned today that you only get the grace period on your student loan once in your life, and so I don't get the six months of no payments post-graduation. Oops. At least I don't have a payment due until September because OSU took their sweet time telling the Direct Loan people (damn you, BU!) that I was done with school. Feck times two.

I think it's interesting that you can go to a job interview and the people will really like you, but then give the job to someone boring. Why would you want to hire someone boring? I mean, you have to work with this person! They should be fun! (Like ME! I'M fun!!) (Oh dear god. Hire me. PLEASE!)

Today the guy I met in Steve's parking lot called me back with the address I should send my resume to. He stayed on my phone blabbering to me for twenty-five minutes about /nothing/. On my precious daytime minutes!! He must be totally bored at the VA. Maybe I /do/ need that job. Still, he took my name and said he would tell the HR Director person to look out for my mail. That's something.

The most exciting (though so far ahead it doesn't really count) news is that Kaleidoscope is applying for this enormous grant for slightly-radical, social-based queer youth organizations. If they get it, they'd hire a full-time person or two, and Bucky wants me. That would rock my ever-loving pants, but this is probably months and months in the future. I was flattered, though. I love my Bucky.

You would think that with all of the messed up kids and families in this country, a promising young, energetic child and family therapist would find a job easily. NOT SO, MY FRIENDS! Time to go back to being an unemployed flop.