“As a recent college graduate, I am enthusiastic to begin working for your company” is how some of my cover letters start. In bitter disappointment and dejected sadness do many of my applications end. Almost everyone above the age of 18 understands the “joys” of job hunting. And if you forget those pleasantries, let me remind you:
Every day I wake up with something bright, and shiny throbbing in my chest. It’s called hope (I’m not Iron Man). Hope brings me down the stairs and on to the computer. From there, I log onto numerous job websites; hoping, wishing, pleading that there will be an entry-level writing position open. And every day, when I realize there are no new opportunities, or there is a listing, and it has been open for 3 days (might as well be 3 years in my field because it is already closed), I start to feel defeated. Hope whispers kindly that we will try again tomorrow, after we have spent hours on one cover letter with no results.
And usually, at this point, I punch hope in the face.
Because with hope concussed, I don’t have to think about the long-awaited rejection letter, the horror you feel when you find a typo long after you’ve hit “send,” the feeling that all of your materials are being fed to a monster that thrives on resumes and dreams, and can be the only reason that you receive no reply from a particular company. (Maybe Monster.com is named after that same creature?)
But in reality, we have made it so much easier on ourselves. In a way, hope is right to egg me on and encourage me because technology has made the job hunting process wildly simple.
We can write the one page cover letter that we need to apply to our future careers in our pajamas and in bed. And we can type that aforementioned page in about 5 minutes flat. That is, if we do not repeatedly revise and judge ourselves and cry. We don’t need white out, we have backspace. We have websites for our personal industries, and to create personal connections with potential companies. Everything is electronic for our convenience, and while we may find it maddening when we apply to a job that has been posted for 2 days but is already filled, we still have it better than our grandparents and the generations that came before us.
In this economy, all we can ask for is an interview after we’ve sent in our resume. Before computers, all the unemployed could ask for was that they might stumble across an opportunity by accident, or in the newspaper, which can be even more of a gamble.
In some ways, we are strained as a society. In others, we are completely comfortable.
So, the next time you are begrudgingly answering situation questions after situation question just remember: you’re allowed to hope. Actually, I encourage it. Because when the resume-eating-monster under your bed comes calling, you’ll be able to feed it something other than your dignity.
Don’t worry. Hope can take a hit.
A WORD FROM YOUR BLOGGER:
HIRE ME!
Okay, fine. I know, it’s two. I haven’t always been eloquent…
Bailey Dailey 