Indeed. Linkedin. Upwork. Aggie Employees. I’ve scrawled through these websites and many others to find a job. Only on occasion do any of these potential recruiters come back to me with an offer to do an interview. And of the interviews I have, only a handful have ever given me a follow-up to them, even if it is just to tell me that they don’t think that I am the right fit for the position. From what I’ve heard from the Internet, this is a common experience among young millennials and zoomers.
When you do something over and over again with no hope of gaining something from it, it wears you down. There’s an expression that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If so, one must be insane to go job hunting. I don’t know whether it’s the nature of the internet or something that has always been the case, but trying to find the right job through advertisements is discouraging. Of all the chores I have to do, it’s my least favorite.
In a lot of ways, looking for a job is like playing a video game. Gamers invest hours of their time on a particular problem, pressing the same buttons over and over again. The only thing that changes in games are the numbers on the screen– character levels increase, new high scores are achieved, etc. In the end, when you beat the game, you may feel accomplished, but when you look back and see all that you’ve wrought, you come to realize that you’ve wasted your time. For all their effort, gamers gain nothing tangible. The game is all a waste of time, and when the game ceases to excite you, you stop wanting to play it. Come to think of it, this is probably why I stopped playing video games.
There could be more things I could do to prevent this. I could just spend more time each day looking for jobs – perhaps even several hours a day. Perhaps by applying for a greater volume of jobs, I can increase my chances. There may also be websites that I’m not considering, like Fiverr. However, I don’t think my failed chances can be chalked up to any personal fault of mine. It’s also the case that employers tend to judge a person by their resume. They seek to have someone who has an excellent GPA, graduated with the right degree, and worked many years in the relevant fields. Since I do not meet those requirements, they (or rather, the computer program that they use to scan resumes for keywords and phrases) do not give me a second thought.
The frustration I feel towards being let down so many times would have caused me to give up were it not for the support from my parents. They always remind me why I want a job so badly. They encourage me to keep trying, to keep moving forward. The invaluable support they provide is irreplaceable. Even though my entire goal is being able to afford my own home – a goal that, when completed, would cost them a reliable dish cleaner and dog-sitter – they support me selflessly. Perhaps with their support, I’ll one day get a job and share my experiences of it with all of you.