Job Searches suck. . .

[silverstaff]

Okay, so I'm out of a job currently (which is a topic for another thread, in fact there's an ongoing one I'll update when there's something to update with).

This has lead me to enjoy the suckage of job hunting. Let me regale you with the suck.

Going to dozens of job interviews, thinking it's going well, then never getting the job.

Two weeks ago I was having a job interview go really, really well. Then at the end they go: "Wait, you're in the National Guard, this job requires some weekend work, won't that interfere?" My response "I have read all your agencies policies, you give military employees X days of military leave per year, which should be plenty, I won't ask for anything outside your existing policies." Their reply "That's all well and good, but we need people we can count on and this place has to be staffed at all times, even when you're at drill so we can't hire someone if they're in the. . .(long awkward pause as they realize what they are saying is probably highly illegal). . .we COMPLETELY support you being in the Guard and Thank You For Your Service (TM) and we'll be in touch with you!" as they immediately get up to walk me out, and I get a form e-mail rejection by the time I get home.

A job interview with the Postal Service last week went really, really well and at the end, she was explaining her agencies hiring policies. They have to interview at least 10 people for every opening, they have to give the job to one of the people with the 3 highest qualifying scores on an exam, and only if all 3 refuse the job can they give it to anybody else. The job interview is just there to weed out people, and no matter how well I interview I won't get the job unless I'm not one of those 3 with the highest test scores because one of the 3 always takes the job.

I actually had the Postal Service offer me a job. . .and I wasn't able to take it. I was applying for every postal job in commuting distance. When I got there, they told me that the job required me to use my own vehicle to deliver the mail on rural routes. The job required having a vehicle with bench seats so I could sit in the middle of the seat, drive with my left hand on the wheel and left foot on the pedals and put mail in the boxes with my right hand as I drive down rural roads. The problem is, my car has bucket seats with a large center console. There's no way I could drive like that. . .so I couldn't take the job because my car wasn't compatible with the job.

Back in April I had my two week Annual Training with the National Guard. I had two jobs that were willing to do a phone interview with me while I was gone, since I couldn't go to their office when they were doing interviews. I had one that seemed like it went really well, with the interviewers on the other end of the phone saying things like "good answer", "you said it." "right on" and such and seeming to agree with me and saying I was nailing the interview. Never even heard back from them with a rejection.

I had a friend on Facebook ask me "why not look for jobs in the private sector?" My response? Because there's no way to find jobs there, my previous attempts to find private-sector employment lead to many months of trawling Monster and Careerbuilder trying to get a job and finding nothing but scams and dead-ends, and right now I'm making as much money, or more, on unemployment as I'd make at a call center or retail so I've got no reason to apply there when it would be a net pay cut for me right now. I know that there is no real employment opportunity in the private sector beyond call centers, retail and fast food for people who don't have IT credentials or business degrees.

Because even though I have a clearance and experience that could get me an okay private sector job in DC, my wife makes 36k a year at a job she got with no degree and no experience and she got that by a favor from a friend so she couldn't get a job to replace it if we move so we'd be out her income (and with her health problems & allergies, many lines of work are closed to her). Also, she has joint custody of her child from her first marriage and is under a court order that she can't move out of state without a Judge's permission because of child custody/visitation rules. So it would have to be one heck of a job for me to be worth moving out-of-state.

If I was a single man, yeah, I could take that contractor job at Bolling AFB for $50k a year, but $50k isn't enough to raise a family on in DC. That kind of money would be party time and dancing around here, but not in DC.

[Shyla]

It sounds really hard. All you can do is keep trying.

Who has a car with a bench seat anymore? Anything less than about 15 yrs old won't have one.

[notalwaysright]

That sucks. Weird about the Postal Service one! I had no idea they make people use their own vehicles.

I'm friends with an ex-Marine and he has similar problems finding employment. People seem to think he has PTSD, which he doesn't. He can't prove it though, nothing has been said outright, but based on various interviews he's fairly sure that's what it is. And these are also companies which say "we hire veterans!"

[silverstaff]

That sucks. Weird about the Postal Service one! I had no idea they make people use their own vehicles.

For very rural deliveries they do. I saw it a lot growing up. They don't send those little postal trucks out on remote dirt roads and middle-of-nowhere farm routes.

I didn't know I was applying for a position that required it. The postal service acted like it was obvious, but the USPS makes their job descriptions and titles clear as mud, covered in a soup of acronyms that aren't easily explained (but are apparently clear to insiders).

So that alphabet soup of a job title, that all I could tell from the name was it was delivering letters out of a post office in the next county over, was for using my own car to deliver in the remote country backwoods.

[notalwaysright]

For very rural deliveries they do. I saw it a lot growing up. They don't send those little postal trucks out on remote dirt roads and middle-of-nowhere farm routes.

See, I grew up in the woods where everyone had many acres and there were lots of unpaved roads, hills, rocks, mud. Mailboxes weren't allowed to be on those roads. It had to be paved. Our mailbox was at the end of our dirt road, where the pavement began, that was as close as the PO allowed us. It was a regular mail truck which delivered.

[Shyla]

How do you prove you DON'T have PTSD? Sounds impossible. Unspoken assumptions are a bitch. (This is what we women deal with. Many assumptions that are negative.)

[raudf]

I'm almost painfully rural. I live on a dirt road, my mail box is at the end of my driveway, which I can't see from the house, because the driveway curves and we have trees. Our carriers use their own vehicles, I think. Maybe, because it seems like both drivers have the same uniformly brown/gold/silver Jeep Cherokee.. of course, for all I know, it could have once been a midnight blue but the dirt roads made it that odd brownish color.

Actually, I hope they aren't using their own vehicles, because our dirt roads are more pothole than road. And the paved roads make the dirt roads seem nice and smooth out here.

[wolfie]

When I got there, they told me that the job required me to use my own vehicle to deliver the mail on rural routes. The job required having a vehicle with bench seats so I could sit in the middle of the seat, drive with my left hand on the wheel and left foot on the pedals and put mail in the boxes with my right hand as I drive down rural roads.

Does the post office provide commercial insurance, or do you need to get it on your own? Commercial insurance is expensive, and if you use the vehicle on the job (instead of just for commuting) you have to have it. This (plus the added maintenance from the mileage you'd be putting on) makes a BIG difference in whether the net pay for the job is good or bad.

[silverstaff]

Does the post office provide commercial insurance, or do you need to get it on your own? Commercial insurance is expensive, and if you use the vehicle on the job (instead of just for commuting) you have to have it. This (plus the added maintenance from the mileage you'd be putting on) makes a BIG difference in whether the net pay for the job is good or bad.

I don't know, I honestly didn't ask because when it was clear my car wasn't suitable for the job, I stopped paying attention. It's why I was stunned that they actually called me back for the job, the ONE job I'd interviewed for out of the dozens that after the interview I knew I couldn't take.