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Main StoragePatrick Wolf
July 2, 2002
The repercussions of being in what seems like an endless cycle of job hunting can literally bring someone to the brink of hopelessness, where the only option is to spread your wings and fly away. Just as you take that one last step to a freefall, you are pulled back to safety by a last minute job offer. But you hesitate to latch on to safety. Why? How many times has a dead-end job interview happened in the past? How many times has the trail gone cold? How much longer until the mortgage company comes and takes the house? How much longer until the utilities are severed? Worst of all, how much longer until I have no internet connection?! The latter was in jest of course, but the overall picture reminds me of the quote by Thomas Paine: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” If you give up so soon in the game, you will inevitably fail in the long run. Jobs are temporary, but your character is permanent.
After leaving a job of four years because I could no longer advance, I landed a twelve month contract at a local hospital in their Information Systems department. The amazing part about that was that I did not have the skills they were requiring, but they were willing to teach me. The project itself was to migrate from a mainframe computer system to a client-server system at another location. I started in December of 1998 and the project was essentially completed by summer of 1999. The following months dragged on so much because we literally had next to nothing to do, except surf the internet and get paid for it doing so. The client knew that’s what we were doing, and until they got word to let us go, they just told us to enjoy the easy paycheck. Surfing the internet is fun in small two hour sessions, but after five hours a day, watching a tree grow would have been more exciting. It got to the point that one of the other contractors who had already found another job a couple months prior, decided he would stick with his new job. The only problem that came about was who was going to work his weekends. In situations like this, there are three options. One, the supervisor of that department would have to come in. Two, hire another contractor. Three, I would work seven days a week. Believe it or not, I said I would work seven days a week for the remaining few months left in the year. That worked out swell because I got paid some serious overtime, and it scored brownie points with their supervisor, who was salaried and wouldn’t have gotten paid for it anyway. I would be sure to inform their supervisor on Thursdays, my normal last day of the work week, before the weekend came up whether or not I would be in. If I couldn’t come in or simply just didn’t feel like showing up, since I did this out of the goodness of my heart and wasn’t obligated, I’d tell them I won’t be in. Except for a couple occasions, they could count on me showing up.
Then came the Thursday prior to the big Y2K, and it all went downhill. I called up and informed their supervisor that I’d be in to work that weekend. He then questions why I’m coming in. “Isn’t Friday the last day for you contractors?” To the best of our knowledge, it was not, because I talked to a representative from my company about the situation just a few hours earlier and he made no indication of this new revelation. The supervisor placed some phone calls, as did I, and New Years Eve 1999 was indeed our last day. Needless to say, we were none too happy and failed to see the humor in this sudden ending of our contract. In the months leading up to the end of that year, us contractors were inquiring from our agency, as well as our client, as to when they will no longer need our services. By knowing a general date or month, we would have sufficient time to prepare our resumes, and start getting back in the game. We were consistently told it would still be a little while. Obviously “a little while” came sooner than any of us expected.
The next few weeks, I was hard at work in establishing my former contacts around town and getting my resume carpet-bombed around the internet. I would receive prospective calls only to have things not work out. I would have interviews set up, only to have them cancelled. I would have a good lead on a job paying over twice as what I was making at the time, only to have them say they only needed two positions filled and not three. If only I was a little quicker on the draw. Every week I was making the rounds and calling people. Resubmitting my resume, so mine could be the most recent on job hunting websites like Dice, Monster, or HeadHunter. I was a hungry fisherman, and not even getting a nibble on the line.
I did have enough money in the bank to cover a couple months worth of bills, but I eventually, and reluctantly, had to dig into my 401K in order to make ends meet. One more month and I would have literally been busted. No money for the mortgage, car payment, insurance, utilities, or the superfluous items like my cell phone, internet access, and cable television. I was down to eating Ramen Noodles, rice and bologna sandwiches. I couldn’t afford soft drinks, let alone my usual stock of Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Tap water was my friend.
Suddenly, and out of the blue, I receive a phone call from a company that I hadn’t talked to in a couple of months. I must have unwittingly overlooked them on my list of people to call. They had a client who needed someone with my skills immediately. Within just a few minutes, an interview was set up for the next day. I couldn’t help but get my hopes up, but given the past three month string of disappointments one right after the other, I knew I couldn’t get too jazzed about this. The next day’s interview with the client went as scheduled, and besides me being sick as a dog, it went great. I arrived back home and soon got the call I was waiting for. The company wanted me. I started just a few days later, and am still there today.
From that day forward, I have done everything in my power to ensure that this situation will never happen again. If it does, I now have enough money in the bank so that I can live a few months without the fear of going homeless, hungry, or internet-free. This also seems to have given me an edge. If my current company decides they want to start playing games, I now feel that I can print and submit my two week notice of resignation without having to worry about the various factors described herein. I don’t anticipate that happening, but if the occasion arises, I am now better prepared so that the circumstances will be mitigated.
Surrender could have been my battle cry. I could have leeched off of society and taken welfare. I could have tried to collect unemployment, but that’s just not my style. At one point, I even considered delivering pizzas again just to get by. Believe it or not, delivery drivers make pretty good money; as long as the customers tip. The wear and tear on the car isn’t a good tradeoff though. Hard work and rugged individualism is what made this country great. If it’s good enough for our forefathers, it is certainly good enough for me. I stuck to it and pressed on in looking for employment and employment finally found me. I only wish it would have had better directions.
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