The Origin of Job Interviews

~Apparently, some things were not so different back then:

"Tough Times: Thoughts on the Library Job Market from a Department Head Who Just Hired a Reference Librarian"

~From a recent blog posting on ricklibrarian. Here are some highlights (or perhaps I should say, lowlights):

• "...I was still surprised by the huge response to the posting of a full time reference librarian's position at my library. In the past, we had never gotten more than about forty applicants for a job that we posted...After I posted our position in April, I received seventy-eight applications."

• "From my reading of the letters and resumes, I sense that under-employed is the new norm for young librarians...New graduates from library school have these now experienced librarians competing for the same few jobs."

• "This is not the time to push prospective librarians to attend library school. Only those people who know the current conditions and who either have a job already lined up or are willing to risk spending a few years under-employed should start working for a degree."

Well...great. That's just great. It hardly qualifies as news, and didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but still...it really hit home. In six months of near-frantic searching for a library job, I've received exactly two interviews (one of which was over a phone). Perhaps it's time for me to move on, but to what? As time passes, I'm feeling increasingly disconnected, for lack of a better term. Since completing my undergraduate education, I've drifted from job to job, never staying very long in anything. I've never really had a "career". Now I find myself speaking less and less with my friends and relatives, because every conversation, every interaction, somehow wends its way back to employment, what one is "doing"...and that's where it gets awkward. Awkwardness is not conducive to further or future interaction.

I don't really understand how I've ended up here. I had/have all the benefits: great family, excellent education, car, no debt. Things that billions of people would be thrilled to attain, and indeed, I'm very grateful. But I can't shake the idea that I really should be doing better as a way of returning this cosmic favor. I ought to be a young professional, perhaps starting a family of my own. Or perhaps I should be an entrepreneur or self-employed, building a business and reputation. Instead, I feel as if I'm in stasis, not going anywhere, and not growing as a person. I'm confused as to whether I'm currently doing the right thing ("everyone's in the same situation, just hang in there!"...and hang...and hang...and hang...), or whether I simply lack the willpower to actually take a chance and try something else, as by doing so I would be wasting my increasingly-less-valuable investment.

So what are my options? I can continue to do what I'm doing, chasing down leads, filling out applications, sending out resumes...but perhaps, as the above posting and a disturbing wealth of related information indicates, perhaps that is not the best option for me right now. I've just gotten out of school again (or at least I did six months ago), and I'm not exactly keen to go back, but perhaps I should take a look at what work is actually available, instead of trying to chase down something well-suited for me that does not actually exist.

Sometimes I get the urge to just get in my car and drive off in a random direction (presumably not east, as my vehicle is not amphibious) until I find something worth doing, but I'm pretty sure such an urge comes from having read too many works of fiction. After all, unless you make one up, there is no actual plot-line to life. Besides, gas is expensive.

The David...He Returns!

~Sorry for the long absence, folks; I'm blaming it on computer problems. But now that I'm back online, by way of apology I offer this video performance of the Legend of Zelda theme song...played by Tesla Coils (no no, not those Telsa Coils):



I don't deal well with unemployment; but then, who does? In his book Man's Search for Meaning, philosopher (and concentration camp survivor) Viktor E. Frankl described the phenomenon of "unemployment anxiety", in which an out-of-work individual develops an increasing sense of detachment from their own life. This is because in our modern world, the ego (here used in the psychological sense of what makes you you) for most people is defined by one's occupation. What one does with their time is a critical factor in how we as humans evaluate each other, both consciously and unconsciously, and more importantly, how we self-evaluate. I venture that this is still more the case with men than with women, as men tend to define themselves (and other men) more by occupation than anything else.

This is especially acute in the United States, a nation built on individualism, entrepreneurship, and can-do attitudes, where long-term unemployment is often regarded as the result of laziness or some other character defect. Everyone sympathizes with the downsized worker, but if that same person is still out of work after a year or so, it's obviously because he's a lazy bum who's not working hard enough to find a new occupation, etc. While such an attitude may contain kernels of truth, such broad generalizations can be very destructive to both individuals and society during times of economic depression.

Hence, prolonged periods of unemployment can lead to increasing feelings of worthlessness. Even more ominously, recent studies indicate that the psychological scars resulting from long period of unemployment remain even if one is later employed in the long-term. Such formerly unemployed people have higher levels of overall anxiety and statistically earn significantly less than those who have never been unemployed for long periods of time.

I bring this topic up not so much to comment on my own situation (or lack of situation, in the Dickensian sense), but rather because it has interesting sociological ramifications. More and more jobs are being outsourced to other countries; it used to be the factory jobs, but now outsourcing is increasingly shifting to information technology jobs (remember the "information economy"?). Barring a massive societal shift, it's reasonable to predict that, regardless of the business cycle, our nation will see increasing numbers of well-educated but unemployed people.

Just this morning, I read an article about how ever-increasing numbers of new college graduates are finding themselves overqualified and under-experienced for most available positions. The total percentage of jobs requiring a college degree has not increased all that much in the past few decades, while the percentage of Americans holding college degrees continues to inch upwards (along with overall student debt). Businesses can (and do) respond/benefit from this by imposing increased educational requirements to positions that formerly did not require such credentials, but this can only go so far before it drifts into the realm of absurdity (e.g. requiring entry-level lab assistants to have Ph.D.s).

I have no solutions to the socioeconomic issues that this problem engenders, but Frankl does offer ways to counteract the malaise and depression caused by unemployment anxiety. He suggests filling in one's time with meaningful activities. What this means differs from person to person; an outgoing person may become involved in volunteering or politics, while others may immerse themselves in intellectual pursuits or personal projects.

So what am I doing with my time? Being an introverted soul, it would be far to easy to fall into the trap of distracting myself with the endless entertainments available to me; if I wanted to, I could simply ignore my problems by immersing myself in games, novels, movies, television, and so forth. I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. So, between scouring job boards and listservs and following up on leads, here are some things that I've been up to:

• Learning to play the electric guitar and keyboard
  
• Reading through a chemistry textbook and actually doing all the exercises
• Experimenting with digital photography and image editing
• Learning American Sign Language
• Expanding my culinary horizons by trying new foods and recipes
• Listening to different kinds of music and new artists than what I normally listen to
• Exploring new places near where I live by walking and driving (sadly, cycling near my apartment is tantamount to having a death wish)