The One Where Something Did Go Wrong...

So remember how everything was going swimmingly but I was waiting for something to go wrong? Well, it turns out my crazy paranoid mind was correct because I was told that my (admittedly rather loose) contract at work wouldn't be renewed after June.

Oh.

I can't say it was hugely unexpected. I'm currently working in retail and times are tough. Particularly when you're trying to sell things people don't need at a price they don't want to pay. I had been quietly looking for a new job anyway but to be suddenly thrust into NEEDING to find a new job is quite the thing.

Part of the problem is that everyone wants a new job and so recruiters have the luxury of picking and choosing on a whim and they also have the technology to do the sifting for them. Why go through hundreds of applications when you can get a piece of software to pick out the keywords for you? It doesn't matter if you overlook someone who could probably do the job better but doesn't have the exact word you're looking for on their CV because your software has found someone who does have the word.

That doesn't bother me. What does bother me is the silence. The huge gaping void into which you shout "HEY! I'M AWESOME! HIRE ME!" and get nothing back except the sound of your hopes being dashed. Would it be too much to expect even a small email saying "Thanks but no thanks"? Apparently so. So where recruiters have found software to do their job for them, they haven't figured out how to BCC a mass email to a list that can be compiled in minutes. This lack of simple, basic politeness is at once depressing and disrespectful. It says that their time is more important than yours; that because you don't quite meet their expectations, you are unworthy of their attention; that no response at all is far more demoralising than a flat rejection. We're grown ups - we can handle rejection but nobody likes to be ignored.

Having said that, I plough on. Onwards, upwards, heck, out to the sides if needs be. Because HEY! I AM AWESOME! HIRE ME!

Someone will hear eventually.