My Job Description

For my first blog post, I might as well lay out the mission and the circumstances in which I’m starting this.

This blog is not a platform for me to whine, complain, and yell about the job hunting experience today. Rather, I hope to accomplish a few things:

1. I want to provide a forum for people who are going through the same experiences - to express their concerns. I cannot be alone in this, and I don’t want others to feel that way. We aren’t losers who struggle for months to find even entry level jobs, we are overcoming some major hurdles.
2. This will also work as a great way to show your friends and family the experiences that millions of us go through in the job hunt today. Things have changed dramatically, and maybe reading my posts will encourage them to cut you some slack. We are trying, we really really are.
3. Finally, just like pay or working conditions, the more we share our experiences the more likely change is to happen. Who knows, maybe employers will look at how their processes affect workers and make positive changes. Honest conversation about what exactly job hunting today entails can also educate younger job hunters about the journey that lies ahead – but hopefully it doesn’t stay this way for long.

Additionally, here are some ethics of mine in writing these posts:

• I will not use any company or employee’s names. I may describe the work that they do if the context demands it, but only as much as is necessary to tell the story. My intentions (seen above) do not include bashing these employers, they have their own struggles when it comes to to today’s hiring processes.
• I will not embellish or lie about these experiences. That’s silly and it doesn’t further this cause.
• I will not tolerate shameful commenting on these posts. I encourage people to share their experiences, but I will not have people shaming or down-playing others’ stories. If you think that they are silly or that we brought it on ourselves, fine. But I bet even you can relate to a lot of this, so just don’t bother. Again, it doesn’t further this cause.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s why I’m starting this. I have recently been bamboozled out of a job that the employer promised was mine. My husband and I started looking for jobs in larger cities than the ones we were from - searching for bigger and better opportunities. We loved our town, but we saw the cap that it would put on our careers if we stayed. After a few months of looking and saving up, I got a job through a staffing agency at a government office in Philadelphia, PA, so we quit our jobs and moved to the city of brotherly love. 

Once we moved in and got settled, I got a call from the staffing agency saying that my background check had been rejected. There was a very small and insignificant blight on it, which I had discussed with the hiring managers at length before I accepted the job. They assured me repeatedly that it was fine, that I had already passed the clearances that I would need to pass, and that it wouldn’t be a problem. Low and behold, when it did turn out to be a problem a month later, the company told me that because they only hire for government agencies, there was nothing they could do to help me. Every other job they were filling would reject me for the same reason. “Oh well, sorry.”

So, having moved several states over for this job, I was thrust back into the job market. At least I had a degree and a solid work history, right? Wrong. Things are looking up, but it has been a struggle for us to get on our feet after that happened. So I continue with the job hunt, hoping that someday this move will have been worth something. My husband is having a worse time than me, he will be the subject in a lot of these stories, too.

With all of this experience being slammed by companies and ghosted from applications that I’d spent hours on, I figured I might as well put it to good use. I found a lot of blogs with advice for job seekers, but none of them were really truthful about the horrid experiences of those searching. No advice here, except to KEEP GOING. That’s all I’ve got, because at the end of the day, very little of the process is in your control. Most of it is pure luck, so don’t get discouraged about your resume or cover letter. Keep going, and check in with us from time to time to vent and air out your concerns about the hurdles and challenges you’re facing. You are not alone.