Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Job search... another name for torture?

So, when I was forced to tuck my tail and run home to mommy, I was hoping that the job market here in Oregon would be a little better than in Podunk Idaho.

When I first moved to Idaho, against my better judgment and good sense (and thanks to the ex-hub's job transfer), I had decided to make a go of it on my own and start my own business again doing what I love - graphic design and marketing. The first year and half I was there was great. I had great clients and tons of work. I was able to bank a lot of cash and get a ton of stuff paid off. I even bought a brand new computer and updated all my software.

Then the market turned.

I was forced to get a job I hate doing tech support for a sat TV company. But, doggies and horses needed to be fed and I had no work coming in for my own business. But, boy, was it depressing... nothing like getting yelled at for 10 hours straight making a miserable $10/hr. Just kill me now. The good news about leaving Idaho was that I got to leave that miserable job behind as well.

After looking for a week plus a few days with no nibbles, I'm beginning to think that it wasn't such a bad gig after all. There is nothing worse than putting yourself out there for a perspective employer only to be turned down again and again. At this rate, the bank account is going to be very sad, very soon.

My new strategy is to branch out and send out resumes for anything that even remotely sounds interesting. Who knows, maybe I'll fall into something that really turns out to be a good thing. I keep thinking the universe is about to show me the way, but I'm still blindly feeling around like a bat with stuffed up ears. Not a good way to be flying.

So, what's the worst job you've ever had? Give me your best shot in the comments. If nothing else, it will be therapy for you and definitely make me feel better.

3 comments:

  1. Well, I've only had a couple of them, but the worst by far was the eye doc's office. I was on phones the whole summer (I worked 1 yeasr straight through on that round) and I felt sorry for the people who did it all the time. Operating switchboard from the '50s, this wasn't!

    With 13 incoming phone lines, 4 people to handle them or send them off in appropriate directions, at least a thousand or so patients in the practice split between 9 doctors, it was a madhouse. Most of the phone calls were from cranky old retirees that had to schedule an eye appointment around their Florida snowbird trips, and don't even THINK about making it before 10am because those appointments early in the morning (anywhere from 7:15-9:30a) were just TOO EARLY, even though it was one day out of the year! "But ma'am, I'm sorry, the first 10:00 annual we have is 4 months out--" "BUT MY GLASSES ARE WEAK!" They weren't quite balanced out enough by the genuinely nice people who talked to us as if we were real live humans and actually cracked a joke as we ran to get their chart for the triage nurse.

    It's no wonder I hate phone calls with a passion. I think every teenager that's ever ran around with a cell phone glued to her ear needs to work this job. Too bad it doesn't work the same way with texting...

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  2. YIPE!! That's brutal... and makes me feel better :)

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  3. I feel your pain. I've been a stay-at-home mom for 4 years, and all prospective employers seem to feel that my skills went to pot because of it. Hmph.

    Could be worse. I once worked for a real estate law firm. I was in charge of foreclosures. Oh, yay. You can imagine the kinds of phone calls I got all day. Combined with that, the office manager hated me because I was the only one in the office who wasn't her relative or high school friend! I stuck it out for 2 years before I developed a bleeding ulcer. Then I quit.

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