Thursday, February 7, 2013

Have you been struggling to find work? Tell us your story and get published.

So read the title of the News24 Article that finally convinced me to document my ordeal of trying to find a job. And here follows my response to the editor after his gracious offer:

"Well funny you should mention that, just yesterday I created a blog to document my job hunting misadventure.
Being 26, highly intelligent with a law degree and 2 years management experience and proven management track record obviously makes it impossible to find a job.
Its preposterous to think that just because you spent four years educating yourself that you can just waltz in to a sales position in a call centre for instance, I mean you have to remember while you were studying the person who is interviewing you was most likely working their butts off so that they can have the pleasure of someday turning down someone more qualified than them.
Moreover just because you spent a minimum of four years paying obscene amounts of cash in order to get a degree does not mean you will be more employable than the person who started working straight out of school and thus has more experience and most likely less debt at this stage. That person will most likely be interviewing you for your first job.
Furthermore, before you can buy your Bentley and Penthouse in the CBD you first have to survive the first two years of articles where you can look forward to being treated as a glorified messenger boy and earn less than necessary to survive.
So you have a choice, starve for two years in hopes that you will survive long enough to be admitted and can thus start hopelessly overcharging for your services. Or look for employment outside the field of your degree.
Of course then you have to come up with an explanation of why you are not doing articles, and why you as a 26 year old, highly intelligent and highly skilled individual should be given an entry level job when you could be doing articles and earning a truck load of cash ( as the general consensus seems to be among those conveniently not in this position ).
Yes my dear interviewer I would love to be a flashy lawyer with a big house and bigger bank account someday, but at the moment I am just trying to earn enough to pay my rent and maintenance, yes i do realise I am over qualified for the position. But should that not rather count in my favour ? I am not asking to replace the CEO, all i need is a foot in the door so that I can prove to you that I could be a valuable asset to your company.
"We are sorry to inform you that your application for position as toilet cleaner was unsuccessful. Perhaps in the future when have you have been shat on more by the employment market will you have the necessary skills and experience to handle the responsibility."

Feel free to comment or debate and remember the world would be very boring if we all agreed, so feel free to disagree and also agree to disagree as we cannot all share the same views and one can only be convinced by what you have experienced.