All In A Day's Work

Every now and then, I find a blog, essay or written piece in my internet travels that speaks to me. It could have to do with phrasing or a concept. In other instances, I could relate so well to what the person is saying that I just want to leap out of my chair and scream "Yes! This person gets it!" The piece that I am about to run is one such article. 

As some of you might know, I lost my main source of income a couple of months back. My circumstances have changed for the better, thankfully. Along with my being out of work the past few months, a good handful of friends also were. This day in age, the chances of you knowing more than one friend who is also unemployed is more of the rule as opposed to the exception. In as much as ten years ago, this was unheard of. 

The article I am about to run is by a good friend of mine, who I have known almost twenty years. We met at a company I had worked for many years ago. Yesterday, she put this piece together and ran it on her Facebook page. I loved it so much that my first thought was that this article needs to run over here and be seen by a lot of others who might not have the chance to see it otherwise. When I spoke to my friend yesterday, we discussed a few things regarding her thoughts about the process of looking for work and applying for jobs.

 One thing that she wishes to emphasize is that you must keep an open mind when searching for a job. There is hope, there are jobs out there and with a little patience it can happen! So having put forth her words, with pleasure, here is the article written by my good friend Lupe Schillari. 

ALL IN A DAY’S WORK

A non-fiction story by Lupe Schillari

lupe_schillari@yahoo.com

As I sit here, contemplating whether to write about my younger self: A single mom of two boys juggling two jobs, one of which was a hectic career, struggling to make ends meet, it dawned on me that there are probably tens of thousands of women experiencing the same thing I have gone through and that there are dozens of stories written about it as well. Granted, this is quite the tribulation, but at the time I was going through this, I was a naive whippersnapper with high hopes and nothing was going to stand in my way. It was something I did lovingly for my family with no second thoughts.

Fast forward to present day: A gray-haired, middle-aged, former graphic designer who knows nothing about the current digital world or web designing, desperately looking for an identity and . . .  a job.

It has occurred to me that job hunting is a career in itself! You wake up early, just as you would if you had a job to go to, make a pot of coffee, shower and ready yourself for the long day ahead of you. Next, you turn on the computer which by now, you have become so friendly with, you swear it is taking over your best friend’s spot. You proceed to read your emails, the current events of the day, enter a few sweepstakes in hopes you win a trip to some exotic island so you can say you took a vacation this year, all while sipping on your favorite blend of coffee, and then, the grind begins.

If you are like me, you have the job sites come to you. You can have them email you as opposed to you remembering which ones to go to and logging on to them every day. You can set them up to search for the type of job or career you would like and the area you are interested in. Once this is all done, the rest is easy, or so they claim.

You spend hours upon hours searching through pages upon pages, sites upon sites, jobs upon jobs, well, I’m sure you get the picture, whether you presently go through this or have experienced it in the past. You stumble across a position that sounds like something you would be interested in or you know how to do. You fill out what seems to be the mandatory subscription for the actual site this job is on with a user name and a password. It then takes you to the page with the job description, the job requirements, the job responsibilities, the required job skills, the desired job skills, (yes, there is a difference) the benefits included with the job and the possible company info. Whew! This alone is enough to give anyone a headache!

Once you read through all of this, if you are brave enough, you click on the link provided which takes you to a page where you can download a copy of your resume and cover letter, along with an application to fill out. Simple enough you say, not realizing that beyond that application requesting your name, address, and phone number, are questions and an assessment that will take hours to complete. Oh yes, you thought that your test-taking days were over when you graduated college or high school? NOT! Also, don’t be fooled by their insistence that it will only take you 10 minutes to complete. Ha! I have yet to experience that!

By the time you finish applying for job #1, it is lunch time. You stretch your legs, get yourself something to eat just as you would if you were at the office, relax for a bit and before you know it, you grudgingly find yourself staring at the computer screen again, wondering if there are any other jobs available.

I will spare you the heartache of reliving the steps we took earlier, but I will tell you this, it’s another several hours of hard work. Alright, not hard as in physical labor, but hard as in emotionally draining, eyesight depleting, bank account emptying and time exhausting work. The type of employment I wouldn’t wish on anyone, not even my worst enemy! Yet, there are thousands of us

with these career trials, day after day, month after month, year after year, that most people never see, nor understand.

Yes, work is tough, no matter what that job may be, but it is all in a day’s work.

** Happily, Lupe has since found a great job in a new field.**