Canalblog
Suivre ce blog Administration + Créer mon blog

darvike

12 octobre 2009

Hard Work, Pay

ON Friday we learned that the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent last month and that the economy lost 263,000 jobs.

I have been unemployed since February. I have also been incredibly busy.

My last job lasted one afternoon. I showed up at a large parking lot in a semi-remote area with a group of other job seekers. In a large area cordoned off with orange traffic cones, we walked around wearing fake suicide bombs and emitting low-level radiation. Our job was to test bomb-detection equipment. I earned $44.

After that, even temporary work petered out. I am not unemployable. I have a master’s of fine arts and spent two years in the Peace Corps. All that looks fine on my résumé. But there are also gaps in my work history: long empty months punctuated with only temporary periods of employment. I have had lots of opportunities to practice glossing that over for potential employers.

The truth is, I don’t have a lot of real-world career experience. I worked my way through college as a baby sitter, sandwich-maker, camp craft director and nursing-home aide. After graduation, I held to my chest a spotty collection of skills sprinkled liberally with artistic theory and personal vision.

In my master’s program, we talked a lot about theory and personal vision. We could experiment with whatever we wanted and it was wonderful. We tried not to dwell on earthy, unpleasant topics like money, or how to make it.

In the Peace Corps, I taught art as a vocational skill. Artists, the headmistress at my school in Ghana told me in words that were less than prophetic, “can always make a living.”

安全工程师考试 安全工程师考试试题 安全工程师考试报名 安全工程师考试时间 安全工程师考试内容 安全工程师考试试题 安全工程师考试成绩查询
法律知识: 法律知识热点 安全工程师法律知识热点 法律知识热点辅导 法律知识热点问题法律知识试题 安全工程师法律知识试题 法律知识试题及答案 法律知识试题下载 历年安全工程师法律知识试题 法律知识模拟试题 法律知识模拟试卷 管理知识: 管理知识测试安全工程师管理知识 安全工程师管理知识试题安全工程师试题 安全工程师题及答案 安全工程师试题下载安全工程师模拟题 安全工程师模拟试卷 生产技术: 安全工程师生产技术指导 安全工程师生产技术技巧生产技术试题 安全工程师生产技术试题 安全工程师生产技术真题及答案生产技术模拟试题 安全工程师生产技术模拟题 案例: 安全工程师案例 案例成绩查询案例试题 安全工程师案例试题 安全工程师案例试题及答案 安全工程师案例经验技巧安全工程师案例模拟试题

If I were to make an artwork expressing this period of unemployment, I would make stacks and stacks of little box-shaped rooms wallpapered with résumés. Each room would have one little person inside and one window. That is what I felt like. Boundless possibilities, buthemmed in by the walls of an apartment where I spent every day looking for a way to afford all the things I wanted to do.

The worst thing was the feeling of uselessness — the fear that I was simply unskilled and unable to compete. Where had I miscalculated when I was planning out my life?

An unlikely solution finally pulled me out of my metaphorical shoebox wallpapered with résumés.

“I’d love to work for a literary agent, reading the slush pile,” a friend told me one day. She was unhappy in her job and had been considering a career change. “I’m just going to call around,” she continued. “And see if I can.”

“It’s not as easy as that,” I said. (I had just been turned down for a part-time job supervising naptime at a day-care center. Apparently other applicants were more qualified.) But my friend found a local literary agent. She e-mailed him, called him and pursued him until he agreed to let her work for him free. Now she reads, edits, writes — and avoids the dreaded résumé gap.

This was a revelation for me. People will hire you to work for free. Whether you are overqualified or underqualified matters a lot less if you aren’t being paid.

Inspired, I set out to find my own free job. I got in touch with a nonprofit arts program. Someone contacted me about creating a logo for the program. Then an illustration project came up. Suddenly, I was really busy.

建筑工程行业考试有一级建造师二级建造师造价工程师造价师)、监理工程师结构工程师房地产估价师土地登记代理人岩土师/质量工程师城市规划师安全工程师房产经纪人投资项目管理室内设计师环境影响评价师建筑师/咨询工程师公路监理师设备监理师安全评价师物业管理师土地估价师。医学类的考试 护士 护士考试 执业护士考试 医师 医师考试 执业医师考试 临床医师 临床执业医师 临床助理医师 中医医师 中医执业医师 中医助理医师 口腔医师 口腔执业医师 口腔助理医师 公卫医师 公卫助理医师 药师 药师考试 执业药师考试 执业中药师 执业西药师会计考试比较有分量有会计从业资格证(会计从业/会计证)、会计职称考试初级会计职称 中级会计职称 高级会计职称)、注册会计师精算师资产评估师考试注册税务师ACCA/CAT考试经济师国际内审师银行从业资格(银行从业)、审计师统计师英语考试包括公共英语 职称英语 商务英语 金融英语 托福 雅思 英语三级 英语四级 英语六级 专业英语四级 专业英语八级外贸考试包括报关员(报关员考试)、报检员外销员国际商务师物流师国际商务单证员(单证员)、国际货运代。学历类考试有中考 成考 高考 自考 考研 同等学历 法律硕士 MBA MPA EMBA 工程硕士 在职研究生 会计硕士 教育硕士。职业类的考试公务员考试 国家公务员考试 公共基础知识 公务员申论 申论范文 行政能力测试 行政能力测试题及答案 公务员面试 公务员面试试题 公务员笔试 公务员笔试试题证券从业资格(证券从业) 导游 导游考试 保险从业 人力资源考试 司法考试 教师资格 项目管理师 秘书资格考试 电子商务师 企业法律顾问 计算机等级考试 软件水平考试 计算机二级考试 计算机三级考试 二级C语言考试 计算机二级C语言 计算机二级考试答案 三级网络技术 计算机三级网络技术

I had never created a logo before. But I downloaded a free, open-source graphics program, went through a couple of tutorials and then got to work. Now I have another skill to add to my résumé.

In my free time, between applying for jobs and working for free, I work on my portfolio. I join art societies, clubs and organizations, and follow other artists, writers and agents through online forums and Twitter. This takes up a lot of time. I’m beginning to understand that this is the period in my life when I have to teach myself.

I registered at the unemployment office and began searching its online database. The woman who interviewed me asked, “Are you willing to work anywhere, like in a warehouse?” I nodded, but not without hesitation. In high school, I worked in a clothing factory folding and bagging long underwear, using a tagging gun to shoot the plastic connectors through the tags (the things that are so annoying to tear off later). My hands were covered in scars from the long needle on the tagging gun. The insides of my nostrils were coated with blue lint from the fabric. I used to think about how much I wanted to go to college, so I would never have to work at a place like that again.

key local king knowledge information ikn life better best kong kitchen data music more health hook land more music Kootenay

Kurt dog doctor donkey dozen lesson Boston book business Hannah henna Linda babe board Kootenay kentucky loop list length 

lens anyone veer et kernel kooky km million may kid Keith

It is true that I don’t face some of the challenges confronting many of the newly unemployed — I’m healthy, for instance, and I don’t have a family to support. But it’s also true that I need a job, any job.

That said, in the last few months I’ve learned something new, something that might even be useful to others: my time is valuable, really valuable, even if it’s not measured in paychecks.

 

Publicité
Publicité
Publicité