Michael's Texas Embrace

Long time sice a post. Oh, oh, I am shamed.

Boy, whoever said the economy was picking up and that new jobs were being created sure hasn't been trying to get a job (President Bush, I'm looking at you). I've been looking for a job for about a month and a half, and it has been hard.

I don't know what kind of jobs have been created lately, but they sure aren't jobs with benefits that pay well and let me use my college degree. I've noticed that when they say "9,000 new jobs were created last month," they don't say what kind of jobs have been created. I guess, "9,000 temporary part-time positions at McDonald's were created last month" doesn't sound so hot.

What kind of jobs are available to me, the newly minted (okay, fairly newly minted) college grad?

Well, I started out, I thought reasonably enough, looking for jobs at libraries or in the publishing industry, or at newspapers, or even corporations looking for editors and proof readers (I have an english degree, not the most useful, granted). Those didn't pan out. There's not a lot of work in those fields right now, and any opening are fiercely contested.

So then, I lowered my expectations. And then lowered them again. Now I'm applying to any business I see that has a "now hiring" sign, and most of them are part time and seasonal. Not exactly a booming job market. I've seen very few places hiring for full time, and all the jobs I'm talking about are retail/customer service-type positions. You know, stores.

Next time they say the job market is improving, remember, the jobs that are improving are mostly crappy. Hoo-ray for our president.