Sunday, Sunday

When you are unemployed, Sunday’s become the busiest day of the week, it’s find a job day! Isn’t that great? The birds are chirping, the news paper is thick and heavy, and as you leaf through all the nonessential parts, which is most of it, you finally get to the best part, the jobs section.  But the warm ooey gooey center is not as I remember it once being at all…it’s actually pretty gloomy.

Back in the day when you needed a job there was no internet, I know hard to believe, but very true. When I applied for my first job, I literally wasn’t even 16, but told the manager my birthday was in a few weeks and I really wanted to work there. They actually waited for me to turn 16, to work in fast food. How insane is that? I had so much enthusiasm to work that they were willing to wait. Now if you walk in to get an application all the people that are working there already glare at you, like you might be there to take their job. You feel judged, and worse, you are right, you aren’t being paranoid they are judging you!

Even worse than being glared at, is this false sense of kindness. When the person who gives the application is really nice, talks you up, you feel you have a bond…you might possibly be soul mates. Then a few weeks later you call to find the position was filed. But how?! We both loved the same television shows and couldn’t wait for Lil’ Wayne to be released from jail to provide us with new songs to dance to! How could this have happened?!

I used to be so annoyed with celebrities when they wouldn’t stop to sign autographs, or ran over the foot of a paparazzi with their car, until I had to walk in and ask for an application. When you first walk in, no one notices you, you are another invisible customer (disclaimer not in all stores, in some it’s the other way around, they think you are going to spend money when they then realize you are not, then you are invisible). But, the moment you ask for an application everyone sees you. There is nothing you can do to be ignored, after all you are there for “their” job, or so they think, or maybe you are, who knows you didn’t put the “help wanted” sign up.

I won’t lie, in the past year there have been many times I have though, “this person has a job and I don’t?” They have no idea I’m thinking that, but I do. Now it’s the opposite. I ask for an application and they are thinking, “she thinks she can work here?” Sure I sound like I’m over reacting, but for those of you who work, how many times have you judged a person who asked for an application, looking at their physical appearance, the way they spoke, or worse are they a threat to you? That’s right, there is a hierarchy in the office world, but in retail, it’s brutal. If they have headsets and you decide to fill out the application there, you notice people coming from the far corners of the stock room to get a look at you. This isn’t a special animal from another zoo, you are just a person.

There is no right way to ask, there is no right way to fill out an application, and no matter if it was right at one store, it’s wrong at another. Do you dress in jeans because that is the dress code? Always dress nice, never wear jeans, let them tell you to when you get the job! Just don’t dress like a grandmother if you are applying at a trendy teen store, and just be yourself. Sure, I myself haven’t exactly landed me a job yet, but I rather they know now than later and fire me. I think I can’t handle unemployed better than “failed fry cook” for now.