I have been struggling for over two years to find a job.  I have a Master’s degree and  a Ph.D. which make me strangely “unhireable”.  I have applied for college teaching jobs because I have nine years of experience teaching undergraduates.  I’ve also applied for administrative assistant positions to no avail.  I’ve applied to be a bank teller, a tutor, an academic advisor, a copywriter/copyeditor, proofreader, etc.  Hundreds of rejections have been sent to my email address.  It is all very discouraging and depressing.

While I was thinking about all of this over the past weekend, I remembered what the job market was like when I graduated from undergrad in 1994.  Within two months of graduating, I had two jobs:  full-time employment at the Walker Art Center as the Assistant to the Curators and part-time work as a hostess at the Dakota Bar and Grill.  HOW I got my job at the Walker could not happen in today’s market.  I was signed up with a temp agency and because I have very fast typing skills, I was sent to transcribe artist interviews at the Walker.  I transcribed for a couple of weeks and was then offered the position of Assistant to the Curators.  I don’t even think HOW I got my job at the Dakota could happen today.  I saw an ad in the newspaper and just showed up at the restaurant with my resume in hand, disregarding that I had minimal experience as a restaurant hostess (I hosted at Benjamin’s during undergrad for a couple of months).  I got the job on the spot.  And how I got my next job at a production company… well, I’ll write more about it later, lest I depress any of my dear readers.