A Job Clearing House

The more jobs one applies to the more one realizes that the system is set up for us to fail.  I recently started approaching my job hunting in a different way.  I was simply looking at opportunities through various media sources and searches, but then more recently I started focusing more on networking type of opportunties, volunteering, etc.  My chances suddenly looked up.  People tell you about jobs you might not have found otherwise, maybe you even have conversations with people about them.  They'll "put in a good word... blah blah blah".  But then what?  I still have no interviews.  Friends, family, acquaintances, professionals, etc.  It doesn't matter how qualified I am.  Companies have hundreds of applicants to hire from, if I don't have the job title on my Resume/CV, ten others might, and probably do.

This is one of the foundations of capitalism - a 'reserve' labor force.  That is why they always say that 4% unemployment is actually good for the economy.  This 'excess' puts the strength at the negotiating table in the hands of the producers rather than the laborers.  This keeps wages down, as if one person doesn't want that job for that wage, there is always another one that will.  Think sweatshop labor in the developing world, they'll take what they can get just to have a job - no matter how suspect the conditions are.

So... what can be done to better employ others while we wait for 'systemic evolution'?  I had a thought the other day about how the job search process could be aided.  As the current problem is that the people that you are applying to really have no clue of who you are or what your work capabilities are (other than the two pieces of paper that you sent them), why not find a way to neutrally evaluate people.  A clearinghouse of sorts that could act as an evaluator of personal ability for prospective employers.  A way for them to 'know' more about you specifically, the things that don't necessarily fit neatly into bullet points on a piece of paper.  It is people, not experience, that get jobs done.

I guess the bottom line for me is that my experience doesn't fit nicely into a cookie cutter.  I have lived in many places, had many different jobs, and studying a quite a few different things.  But I don't have the step by step employment history that seems to be desired.  Does this mean I am not capable of doing the job or even perhaps doing it better than others?  Of course not.  As a friend of mine said, "I can't believe that these people I work with have jobs and someone as capable as you does not."  But that's the system we live in.  Everything is subjective and specified.   Gone are the days when you would walk into an office, shake a person's hand, and deliver your resume.  They see you, they interact with you for a moment, they get a sense of 'you' - not the narrative you.  Everyone interprets things differently and one piece of paper is never enough to sum up a life's work.  

So how about it?  What if there was an neutral agency that would evaluate people and give them a score or evaluation of some sort to show there current day capabilities.  There could be an interview process, resumes, recommendations, whatever. This would give everyone the chance to be 'interviewed'.  To become more than a piece of paper.  If a person can never sit in front of someone and state their case as a living breathing human being, how can they ever differentiate themselves from others?   

Depressingly Real...

So many people in America right now are in dire straights.  They can't pay the bills, they struggle to eat, lose their homes, can't find work, whatever an individual's reason is, so many are truly struggling.  The toll that this life style takes upon an individual can be immense.  Most everyone seems to have some aspirations, goals, desires, things that motivate them and things that they would like to get out of life.  When a person can not attain these goals, or at least feel like they are working towards them in the right direction, it is very easy to get down and to even sink into elements of depression.  The true problem with this is that our society seems only to accentuate these issues.  The system that we live in singularly promotes the individual and the individual's primacy in affecting all aspects of their life.  All of the onus for success is put in the individual's hands.  If a person is hard working, diligent, and talented they can easily find a way to success.

But what happens when society itself takes opportunities away from this person?  What happens when through no fault of individuals themselves, the world crashes into crisis, recession, depression?  A person with no job, no way forward - yet still with dreams, goals, and desires - is forced to face that life of need and want every day.  They apply to job after job - each one bringing a huge glimmer of hope - only to hear nothing back.  Every job application a person puts in has a piece of their heart and sole inside it. They spend hours writing a cover letter, redoing a resume to specifically fit each job, references, samples, getting other people to proof read it all.  An entire day can be spent on one job application. 

What then happens when over and over again, they receive nothing.  No response, no "sorry we decided not to interview you", no nothing.  They are left with a littel hole in their heart where all that effort and all that imagining went into an application.  And it slowly festers until they come to an evolutionary place of realization that that job is not going to call.  Every day, every week, job after job.  Its like cold-calling; you don't know the people at these companies and they don't know you.  You keep trying anyway, dial after dial, but they aren't interested in buying what your selling - you.  They have 300 plus applicants from all over the country.  What makes your piece of paper any better than anyone else's?  If you don't have the job title on your resume already, best of luck.

But what then?  What happens when each day you wake up and have less and less motivation to keep that job search going?  You start new pathways, networking, volunteering, friends, family, starting your own business, whatever.  But then if things still seem not to move in your direction, what's next.  Hopelessness sets in, your on food stamps by now, you struggle to pay rent and bills, an underemployed existence, degrees sitting on the walls collecting dust, right next to your intellect and your heart.

There you sit, is it really worth it to keep looking for another job?  What is the use?  What is it they say? Doing the same thing and getting the same bad result is the definition of madness?  At what point do you just start trying to maintain an existence?  Maintain sanity.  When do you just stop wasting your time?

But the true problem with it all is that it may not even actually be up to you.  The road paved above is one of despair, it is one of depression.  That is where this story seems to end up.  But then how does that play out?  How does one pull themselves out of a depressed state?  No health care to see someone about it.  No motivation to keep pushing.  Even knowing what needs to be done isn't enough, because you still have to get up and do it.  A general feeling of hopelessness as no help is to be found.  This is what our society does.  It puts all the onus on us as individuals to make our lives successful but then truly and fundamentally affects us on a systemic level.  How do you harness the power of your intellect, courage, and drive, if the system takes it away from you?  How do you work hard as an individual when medically speaking you have lost the capabilities?

People in states of depression don't take initiative, they don't jump up and keep fighting, they dont' care about the American dream as they have been defeated by it so many times that they are tired of fighting the same fight and continuing to lose.  It becomes biological, not just mental.  Yet our system still puts everything on our own shoulder.  How do you rise up and keep trying to fight the idiotic fight when you don't have the strength to stand?  How is this possible?  How is this fair?  How can we do this to good people?