leaky vessels
by rantywoman
I knew the economy was truly terrible for a good five years, but I thought perhaps it had gotten better.
Well the joke’s on me. The only two offers I’ve had so far, both from an employment agency, have been bottom-level, go-nowhere positions. Keep in mind, I have an undergraduate degree from a good school and a master’s degree. I’ve never been fired. Never been arrested. No piercings, no tattoos. Never had a drug and alcohol problem, never so much have taken an antidepressant. There’s nothing in my background that would “flag” me, other than the fact that I read anti-corporate literature and thus may be on some kind-of list (I’m joking. Kinda).
I desperately needed to de-plug for a spell, and it was nice to believe in dreams for, what, a good six months? But I’ve now woken up to the smoldering ruins. I’m to the point that I would happily take a job in some boring, sleepy little burg that was inhospitable to singles. It might be preferable to dealing with the urban problems I predict are only going to worsen if things don’t turn around.
I had a plumber in today and he was telling me how there’s a worldwide shortage of plumbers. Hiring bonuses are repeatedly floated in front of their faces to try to lure them to other companies.
So my advice to the young ‘uns is, unless you are seriously academically inclined, forget the B.A. Get yourself skilled in AC repair or plumbing.
Those are the skills that are needed on this sinking ship.
thebitterbabe 
Oy. I wish I knew what field you’re in so I could offer some constructive encouragement. Your postings over the past few days have reminded me how annoyed I always get at articles about “midlife reinvention.” One is initially quite impressed by how Susan X, age 45, managed to turn a passion for knitting into a successful company wholesaling naturally-dyed wool to local needlework shops, until you read further and discover that she’s married to a managing director at Goldman Sachs. (Quite the risk-taker, there, Susan!) Or one is filled with admiration as to how Mary S., 42, parlayed her great-grandmother’s candy recipe into a profitable artisanal chocolate company providing dessert truffles to NYC’s finest restaurants, and then one reads that she is “the daughter of the late Ambassador Y and Mrs. Y, bestselling author.” LOL! You get the drift — if you are blessed with financial capital, social status, and loads of free time, and not burdened with the grinding anxiety of having to make money to pay the rent, make the car payment, sock money away for one’s (solitary) retirement, etc., why YES, I imagine creativity just flows!
I think these magazine articles, aimed at profoundly unhappy/dissatisfied middle-aged women, are every bit as insidious as some of the disturbing messages teenage girls absorb from fashion mags. The bottom line is: No, there is no midlife reinvention unless you have lots of coin, and preferably loads of influential social connections as well.
As you can tell, you’ve caught me on a grim, grim day. Sorry, Ranty. But you’re not alone.
You caught me on a grim day, too. Very grim.
As always, when I left my last job, everyone said, “Someone like you will have no trouble getting snapped up!” I always take that with a grain of salt. It’s easy to say but ultimately meaningless.
At the same time, I took some of the internet job board complainers with a grain of salt as well. The ones who say it’s a buyer’s market, employers can make all sorts of demands, nobody ever gets back to you, you don’t hear back after interviews, employers will only look at people with the EXACT skills they want as opposed to their overall experience. But I didn’t take those complaints with as big a grain of salt, because I’ve been on the job market in the last decade and I know it sucks.
Well I’m here to say it is as bad as ever, and from my experience, those internet naysayers are truth-tellers!
I’m in a field that has become extremely tight for entry-level folks as it has been hit hard by the recession and the fact that baby boomers are not retiring. It is supposedly better for midlevel people like me. But if they don’t open those jobs to the outside, there is not much I can do.
And I know exactly the type of magazine articles you mean, and they always make me roll my eyes too.
Yet I went ahead and made a calculated risk (saved up a bunch of money, wasn’t planning to go into cupcakes or whatever) because it was SO time for me to move on. It was, in theory, all a very good plan. But best-laid plans and all that.
Also, if employers allowed for month-long sabbaticals every five years or so, a lot of this could have been prevented. I probably would have taken a sabbatical and stayed on.
I know!! If I could take a sabbatical of just a month or two — as opposed to a “vacation” in which I am tethered to my office 24/7 — it would go a long way towards restoring my mental health. However, my profession (law) is at a particularly cut-throat juncture right now, and even taking such a faux-cation is problematic.
I so totally agree about the sabbatical… I have a friend who was a longtime government employee. She deferred some of her salary on each paycheque & every few years, she got to take six months off. She tacked extra time on to her maternity leave for her first child; years later, when her daughters were teenagers, she bought a van & they spent the whole summer, driving together from coast to coast across Canada and back. I would LOVE to do something like that!!
That sounds delightful to me too!
So sorry you are going through this. It really is rough.
Thank you. I had been fairly good at keeping job anxiety at bay these last several months– I didn’t want to spoil my time off– but this last week it has taken me down.