By Jeff Orvis
As I continue in this seemingly
endless search for a job, there have been some highs and lows. It's
been a real learning experience, although I feel like I've more than
paid my tuition and am anxious to begin reaping some rewards.
Every morning, I wake up to a local
talk radio station. It's a Fox News affiliate, which might surprise a
lot of you who know my leftist leanings. But I figure if I awake to a
nice oldies music station, I might just forget to get up until late
morning. This way, I gain a little information, then when I get sick
of listening to the right-wing half-truths, I turn it off and climb
out of bed.
It seems that several times a week,
I'm greeted with news of the federal government's latest unemployment
numbers. A few short years ago, I never thought I would be a
statistic, but at least if you subscribe to the saying that misery
loves company, I guess there's some comfort in the fact that I'm not
alone.
As I surf the internet for job
prospects, I'm learning there are quite a few jobs out there I never
thought of before. Many companies now have made it more convenient
for prospective employees to apply by putting the application process
on the web. This way, you don't necessarily need to spend a lot of
shoe leather or auto gas, nor do you need to bother prospective
employers unless they decide they want to see you.
I recently spent the better part of an
afternoon navigating through the application process for a job at the
country's major discount retailer. As I am a regular customer at this
business, I've had the chance to encounter many of the folks who work
there. I figured that with that many employees, there's sure to be
some turnover. I also figured there had to be something there I could
do.
This application process has been
something new for me. This is where you figure you're never too old
to learn. I don't think I've ever filled out an application for a job
that I eventually won that was more than two pages. My first
full-time newspaper job resulted from a promotion that began when I
was a correspondent for the local paper while still in high school. I
continued to work summers there while in college and when it became
apparent that my college career was at an end, the editor said he
figured if he didn't hire me full-time, he would lose me part-time.
My next stop, this one out of the
Quad-Cities area, started with a phone call, as I answered an ad in
the daily paper. The publisher invited me to visit for an interview
and my parents and I made the 125 mile trip. That began an 18-year
career over a 20-year stretch.
When that job was eventually
eliminated by a new owner of the paper, a phone call from a local
businessman convinced me to try my hand at being a publisher. That
lasted a year before the economy swallowed us. But a publisher from a
paper in a neighboring county, who had visited our office in his
capacity with the Iowa Newspaper Association, remembered me and
invited me to meet with him and his partners for a job as an editor
at one of their papers.
That job lasted another 11 years
before the new owners cut staff and I was one of the cuts. Once
again, I was out of work for about four months before beginning a new
venture as an on line local news editor. When the non-profit group
that owned the web site was unable to sustain a full-time editor, I
was once again looking for work a year later.
So I've been out of practice in the
formal application process for many years. When I went to the web
site of the aforementioned retailer, I was amazed at the volume of
information I was asked to supply. They wanted to know what hours I
would be available, what jobs I was interested in, what salary I
expected, whether I was looking for full or part-time work and on and
on.
The final kicker in this process was a
65-question test, where I was given one-sentence scenarios and asked
to rate whether I strongly agreed, agreed, had no opinion, disagreed
or strongly disagreed. I'll have to say that after encountering some
of the folks that work at this store, I was amazed that they had the
patience or ability to fill out the same application I did.
You had to be careful as you answered
each of these questions, In one scenario, they asked if you agreed or
disagreed that it was okay to take money from your place of work.
The human resources department at this
company must be something special. They must employ psychologists to
write these applications. Then they must have another department of
people who pour over each application to try to find the right person
for the right spot.
I just hope that all of this is worth
it and that as I fill out other similar forms, I will give all the
right answers and begin collecting a paycheck again. It's easy to get
frustrated and wonder if it's worth all the hassle. But despite
passing the big 6-0 milestone, I realize that it's a few years until
retirement.
Good thoughts and prayers from my
friends remain my greatest asset. Time to get back on the hunt.
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