Of futile efforts, HR, hiring practices, and hopes...

In all my time of looking for work, ever since I relocated, I would have to say that this has been the hardest period of searching, and most trying for my patience.

For those of you unawares of my current predicament, I have been unemployed for over six months. I have been trying to get back into my chosen profession, which prompted my move halfway across the country.

You're trying to work for us? Sorry, but you're not cool enough.

While I do have the chance of going back to work to my employer that laid me off due to RIF, I am trying to land a job in my chosen field, and thus far, the hiring agencies that I have applied for, of which I have spent many hours filling in their automated programs, not to mention the countless hours combing their websites for jobs I feel I would be a strong contender in, have absolutely no problem sending me a generic, scripted rejection letter that they most likely black carbon-copy to every other job-seeker whom didn't qualify, due to their automated data collection process most likely botching up.

At least, that's what I think is happening. Their rejection letters are so damned generic, I feel a former C.E.O. with 15+ years of experience and a convicted rapist whom just got out of prison could be given the same letter, and neither one would be the wiser as to why they were rejected (though the former con would probably have more of a clue than the average Joe looking for a job). Would it be so hard for them to do the following?:

Dear Mr. Rick,

After reviewing your application for specified job X, we feel that you need to develop your expertise in the following areas: (insert potential weaknesses here). I feel you would have a better chance applying for job Y that has recently come available, as it seems to closer reflect your skill sets.

Or:

Dear Rick,

After reviewing your application for specified job X, we feel that your ability to accomplish the tasks appointed fall below our expectations. That being stated, please do not apply for any future positions listed, as we feel that is a waste of both of our time.

Or even:

Dick,

You're joking, right? There is no conceivable way that we would hire you. Good luck in trying to find a position that you just applied for; I feel that your accomplishments would be better served flipping burgers for McDonalds. Actually, no; a trained chimp could do that. Go back to college.

Instead, I get this (paraphrased to maintain anonymity, but overall message [or lack of] remains the same):

Thank you for submitting your application; however, this position has been filled with another candidate. Although this position is no longer available, please remember that we will consider you for other jobs that match your expertise.

This is pretty much verbatim every message I get from any sort of recruiting company I apply to; no explanation, no comparison to see why I was not accepted, but candidate X was; nothing. Any followup is responded to by nothing or hostility.

This is one thing that pisses me off about the whole recruiting agency/HR debacle. These individuals earn around $50,000 a year (average for semi-experienced recruiters according to payscale.com); you would think they would be a little more vested in their chief asset, no matter how over-saturated it is due to our current economic problems. This is like saying to a customer "Hey there! I appreciate all the support over the years from you buying my shit, but I no longer need you. At least, not at present; I'll call you when business drops off."

Indeed, if the principles of Human Resources operated on the same level of expectations as retail sales, HR wouldn't exist--they'd all be canned the moment they got comfortable. Personally, I do not feel as though this scenario is all that bad, as HR is not doing their job to the best of their skills, especially when their ability to do research on a potential candidate is the easiest it has ever been with the introduction of the internet.

Would it be that big of an inconvenience to send off a quick 10-second e-mail jot to your future commission?

Quite frankly, the level of professionalism that all the HR departments and agencies I have been seeing is appalling. One recruiting agency in particular that I've had dealings with is a prime example: I had an account with them over a year, and recently had accidentally renewed my status (even though actual status never changed), that led someone from their office via e-mail to thank me for my recent application and interest. I e-mailed the contact afterwards, met the contact the next day by happenstance, introduced myself, and said that I would, as also mentioned by e-mail, clarified that I had been on their website for over a year, but had only been actively looking over the last few months, and would be calling Monday afternoon to discuss how I might better improve my career search with them. After discussing things over the phone and through e-mail, the contact finally broke down and told me (loosely paraphrasing) to go f*** myself.

While I cannot say this is the same sentimentality, in regards to all the numerous accounts I have filled out over the months for online recruitment agencies, I am starting to feel that the level of approach is just as effective in the sense that I have yet been contacted for an actual acceptance, let along an interview.

While I am not completely hosed in terms of jobs (I can go back to my non-career choice that I have worked for a number of years now that my severance package has lapsed), I am slightly embittered about starting a job at minimum wage, when I was at the top of my game prior to the RIF, and should be earning around $55,000 per year pre-benefits, given my level of expertise.

Ironically, I wouldn't even consider that much as a starting wage (though I wouldn't mind if that were the case); I would be quite happy at around the $30,000-40,000 range (which ironically, was how much I was earning either flipping burgers or bagging groceries due to promotions), possibly even less, if it were in my field. I'd even stoop so low as to work minimum wage in my field, so long as I felt that there was room for promotion and the job actually entailed that I worked, as stated, in my field.

In short, this was not far from the truth, though I was more frazzled.

And before you pass judgement saying that I am another one of those spoiled hipsters, perhaps I am, but I have worked in the service sector for over ten years, received my degree, paid my way through college, dealt with all the common problems associated with college (finances, false accusations of plagiarism, sexist and bigoted professors, the social stigma, slacking, and bullying of my peers; etc.,), worked 80+ weeks with two full-time jobs and worked three volunteer jobs on the side (not all three at one time, mind you) for a year straight, was starting to get press-ganged indirectly into potentially joining the local Big Brothers Big Sisters as a mentor by other people that never even met me in person, as well as Boy Scouts, and Boys and Girls Club of America, as well as a few other nonprofits starting to express interest; moved halfway across the nation, and left my old life behind me (and subsequently my friends and family), I suppose any entitlement, however vain it may sound, is merited. However, it appears that up here I can't even find non-paid volunteer work without getting the third degree or a dead-end response.

Another thing to keep in mind: the maximum pay of a lot of the jobs I worked at in Wyoming, was only slightly more than what the current minimum wage is in Washington. Most of them started slightly above the current minimum wage (when I started working, minimum wage in Wyoming was $5.15 per hour-- now inaccurately cost-of-living adjusted to $7.25 per hour). Most of the volunteer jobs were unpaid or to occupy my time. To go from that, to applying to no-lead jobs for months on-end, twiddling my thumbs and looking forward to the next day for potential job offers that never seem to reach my inbox, is quite aggravating, and as such, is starting to become reflected in my overall mood.

Side note: that being said, my apologies go out to everyone on my social media outlets that I may have snapped at.

So yes, I might be slightly entitled, but never compare me to those hipsters that you usually lump into the same group: those that still live with their parents, hang out with their friends and get drunk every night, show up to work the next morning hung-over, have no sense of work ethic, and have no plans for their future, yet whine about how tough their life is; I have those things they do not, but I am being waylaid by these punks that were lucky enough to land a job, because the HR rep glazed over the listing and chose them due to it being Miller time.

Another thing: Classism and Ageism are starting to come in the same package: The young professional that is trying to find work today is not held to the same expectations of you older readers when you first applied for a job; there are jobs that didn't exist decades ago. Hell, there are jobs that didn't even exist years ago. And here's the kicker, some require a degree and 5-10 years of experience. Do the math: you need over a decade of experience for something that didn't even exist that didn't exist a decade ago, such as these jobs (and before you dispute this, I have actually seen these listings and their asinine expectations, to which I usually send these employers an anonymous e-mail displaying my mockery and pointing out the obvious, and, if I feel ever so inclined, leave a note saying to contact me when they have a legitimate position they are trying to fill, which *gasp* is never followed upon).

This is also assuming that you tailored your training to this position down to the smallest detail for this job; what are the chances that someone, no matter how experienced or driven to succeed, will be able to even be able to work this job when the employer lists the basic requirements, in an economy where jobs are being cut left and right, and job requirements are being piled on other employed workers whose plates are already full?

Additionally, you also have the double-edged sword with the belief that a degree can qualify for more jobs, when in actuality is an excuse to deny someone a position. While this belief is not held of all employers, I feel the adage of my relatives whom have served in the armed services wanting potential recruits to be "young, dumb, and full of cum," is now a common practice in our corporate society. There are so many detractors in level of experience and excuses than there are qualifications as to why someone should be hired that go into the hiring process, that, in short, is still discrimination at its finest:

• She's got kids, she'll be taking care of them when they're sick and blow off work.
• She doesn't have enough "experience" to qualify for the amount of pay she's asking for.
• He's got a degree, which means we'll have to pay him more.
• He lives over twenty minutes away; we'll have to pay for his mileage.

 ... and so on. Some of these excuses are legitimate, while some of them are just facades to mask non-legitimate reasons. While the traditional discriminatory acts have been buried, or at least, obfuscated (race, religion, sex, sexuality, et cetera), there is now the rise of the common discrimination of the almighty dollar.

In short, economic discrimination is nothing new, existing for almost 170 years; however, the excuse of an economic recession has masked this recognition, with multi-million/billion dollar companies cutting their workforce and not hiring replacements or not re-hiring those let go, even though their have the financial clout to keep their recent layoffs without significantly hurting their bottom line.

And why should they? Why hire back the person that had worked for their company for years, when they can hire someone with a little less experience, for a lot less money?

Ironically, this situation is one I am facing with my former employer: as I opted for the severance package under the youthful optimism that I would be back in my job of choice, if I choose to return, I will most likely start out at bottom-rung. Worse still, my former position was non-union, and while I do have a healthy respect for unions (especially the protests in Wisconsin due to the union-busting organized by Scott Walker and associates), that only applies to those whom actually work for their union dues.

Though, I should not be so hasty to judge, as I am sure that unions for a national chain operate differently in other states, and while I feel that union representation for my chain was piss-poor across state lines (as I worked in a right-to-work state), I still feel it unjustified to pay dues for a service I most likely will not wind up using, especially assuming that I still have a snowball's chance in hell I can get back into my career field.

This is, additionally, all assuming I am rehired in the first place. While my former manager said that he would be willing to do so, that also means a forty minute drive to and from my previous place of employment for minimum wage. I might be able to work for another store, but that is assuming they have an opening, and is also pertinent on the possibility of me being involved in a mugging or shooting, as some of these neighborhoods up here are sketchy, even during the day.

Quite frankly, I am a very detail-orientated person, and all these unknowns not only frighten and irritate me, but also make it difficult for me to plan the next few years in advance, reverting back to the whole point I have covered earlier in regards to my relocation. Right now, I'm hoping this hiccup in my five-year plan won't seriously screw up my ten-, twenty-, and forty-year plan, which, while they may not have been as grandiose when I first applied them ten years earlier (after all, things change after you try to find yourself spiritually, as I believe I mentioned in my previous post).

For those wondering what my future aspirations are, in a condensed view, I'm hoping that by year...

• 5: I am placed in a successful firm, building up my experience and doing the thing I love the most, and found the love (loves?) of my life.
• 10: am somewhere in what could be defined as middle-management, a place that I bought (no mortgage; flat-out bought) that is enough for me and any future family, and maybe an attached small plot of land to foster a garden.
• 20: doing what I love is no longer necessity, but has reverted back to passing hobby; enough money to send me and future progeny to college or to help them carve their mark into the world. I additionally hope I have done something to help those in need, whether it is one or one thousand, so long as it makes the world a better place.
• 40: my passing hobby is what idles the time when I am not supervising and working in a late-night coffee shop I own for the world-weary people that have been in my shoes-- those working swing-shifts, those studying up for their future mid-term in college, optimistic hopefuls that lust for life and have not yet experienced the bitter rejection that is associated with it, or those in the rather hopeless predicament of job-loss and just need a break from the grind of rejection letters, and an alternative to so much booze that is drunk before the bar-scene gets old.

I don't feel as though I'm being too optimistic in these goals, am I?

For all my cynicism and pessimistic views, I would like to hope that this comes to pass. I feel that if I could accomplish this, I'd be happy with my life, long after it has lost all meaning to those whom knew it.

Until then, I shall strive to work to accomplish these goals, and who knows? I might tell this story to you over a cup of coffee in the future. Either way, even though I may have to compromise on my dreams like I've done before, I hope it comes that you never have to.