Back in the saddle again

After a long, satisfying weekend cavorting with fellow members of the Austin Diaspora, my mind is largely drained of Interesting Thoughts. This does not, however, prevent me from posting. It looks to be a promising week chock full of interviews, so cross your fingers that SueAndNotU can project a facade of competence and initiative.

At my last interview, the gentleman I spoke with was comfortable enough to break decorum and mock my fellow applicants. "See that reject pile over there?" he asked, nodding towards an impressive tower of paper. "Those are a bunch of 'hard-working go-getters.' I don't want to speak with people that are 'hard-working go-getters.'" I laughed with him at their folly, but inside I was indignant on their behalf. How is Joe Jobless supposed to guess which organization wants to hear the cliche and which doesn't? It is just as likely that my interviewer would have thrown out the stack of resumes that didn't indicate 'initiative' or 'problem-solving skills.' As a fellow job-seeker recently confessed to me "My interests are whatever the fuck the person hiring wants them to be. My skills are whatever the person hiring needs them to be. My personality is whatever it needs to be to get me a damn job." This is just a teeeeensy cynical, of course, but Dorothy, we're not in the mid-90s anymore. You aren't going to have much luck projecting your unique and off-kilter self and just wait for the companies to drool over your originality and gusto. The dot-com sneaker millionaire age is kaput, and we seem to be back to good old fashioned, tried-and-true, ever-lovin' ass kissing. These folks who have been continually employed for the last decade or so forgot what it is like in the trenches. And I, I feel a bit ashamed for betraying the solidarity and snickering at a comrade-in-arms. But what the hell. My interviewer liked it.