Just over a month ago I lost my part time job. It was a good job and I enjoyed working there. My hours were good (at least to begin with) and I felt like I'd finally found somewhere that I belonged. Then I was given some sad news. My position was becoming redundant and that was that. One of the pitfalls of working for a mostly government funded not-for-profit is that funding is fickle and so is work. The state and federal government had cut funding significantly for my employer but they were to continue providing the same service with a smaller bucket of cash. When the bucket gets smaller, the non essential items get tossed out into the wild to fend for themselves. So, now I'm fending.
Even though I'm out of a job I have enough cash coming in through other avenues (part pension and government support as I'm a single parent) to be able to afford to put a roof over my head, food in the fridge and the bills paid (I'm a pretty frugal person truth be told). Though life is much more comfortable when you have a steady income (that pays a hell of a lot better than pensions et al). So, in order to get at least some disposable income I have to look for a new job. I'm currently studying part time (externally) so ideally a casual or part-time job would be best though a full time job would be good too (I honestly wouldn't say no). So, I tend to my resume to make sure it's current and start applying to anything that I could even possibly remotely be qualified enough to do.
Lately my average is about 10 - 15 job applications a week. Sure, it might not seem like much but where I live the market is small and the applicants are many so to be able to apply for that many per week is somewhat amazing in itself (I'm in a small town of around 200K people so of course it's going to be a lot smaller than say a town of about 500K+ people). I'm getting interviews for about 20% of the applications I put out though I'm getting feedback from plenty that they've just got too many applications to go through (at least 200 for one position at times) and I just don't make the cut. Age probably has a lot to do with it - I'm a thirtysomething semi skilled worker so cost a lot more to hire than say a twentysomething. Sure I'm in Australia where discrimination based on age or gender for the most part is frowned upon but it still happens. It's part of life.
Then there's the low end retail jobs like working for the local supermarket chains. They keep advertising jobs and I keep getting rejected. I have a running joke that one of the major supermarkets in this town are trying to break their own record with emailing me rejection letters. The fastest so far is about a 36 hour turnaround. I mention this to friends and I keep getting told that it's probably because I'm overqualified for them. Just because I'm overqualified for something doesn't mean I'm not going to give the job my best effort. It's a mindset that I'm still unable to wrap my own head around. I probably never will.
About a week ago I get contacted by my previous employer. The asked me if I was interested in a few week's work while they move offices. I figure why the hell not. Something is better than nothing right? So I'm now temporarily employed until the bucket of cash runs dry again.
I guess I still find it bizarre. Before my marriage blew up like the fat guy on Monty Python's Meaning of Life and I had to relocate back to my hometown I had no trouble finding jobs. Granted it was an employee's market. I think the longest I was out of work was a week and a half whereas now I've been applying steadily for over 2 months (I started looking before my position officially ended) and it's proving difficult. I've heard through the grapevine that some people are jobseeking for over 12 months and still have nothing.
Case in point where I was casually chatting to one of the other mothers at the pool where my daughter does weekly swimming lessons. A friend of hers has been deemed 'unemployable' by the unemployment office because she's been looking for almost 2 years and still has nothing (even with furthering her education). I'm not going to let this get to me though. It's still only early days yet and I'm sure there'll be more jobs in the future. I've considered going back to my employer before my last and doing some volunteer time again, just to keep me in the work loop (so to speak).
I guess I should quit bitching here and go look for work. I haven't checked the websites for a good 24 hours now so there's bound to be something new that I can throw my resume at.
No comments:
Post a Comment