Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Wasting Time

I think today I stumbled upon TRUE POINTLESSNESS

I mean, an event that was useless, had absolutely no reason to be, and was a complete waste of everyone’s time. It was a water-bucket made of a piece of tissue, it was an claustrophobic’s convention held in an elevator it was a germaphobe’s conference at the sewage works.

It was the Greenville Job Fair.

On paper, it’s great! Over 50 recruiting employers in one place. Take a walk round, distribute your resume…maybe even get an interview then and there.

On paper, it was great…in real life, there was absolutely no reason for it to be there.

First of all, just from a personal point of view, 90% of the jobs I was interested in, I’d already applied for. I told one employer this and she said “Oh, if we already have your application on file, you should be hearing from us soon, so there’s nothing else I can do for you.”

“What about telling me a little more about what the job involves?” I asked,

“Oh, you’ll hear about that at your interview if you get one.”

Well, thanks for nothing, bitch. I got the feeling it was a case of “I can’t be bothered. If you get an interview, you’ll hear what you need to know. If you don’t, there’s no point me telling you about it.”

Now, you may be thinking I’m selling this place short. Just because I had already applied at a lot of places, doesn’t mean it wasn’t helpful to anyone else.

Here’s the thing. The few places I did enquire at that I hadn’t applied at, all told me the same thing. Here’s our card, apply on the internet at…

What?

I mean, seriously, what?

What is the point of getting all these employers in one place, if all they’re going to do is direct you to a website? Couldn’t I just have stayed at home and looked at job listings?

I could understand a website that pointed to the job fair, or pointed to an office to go to for an interview or an application…but can someone please explain to me why I got up early this morning, got dressed up in a suit and tie, got Sunny out of bed (after only getting in from work a few hours ago) to drive me way across town…to be directed back to the computer on my desk at home.?

“Ah, but Paulius!” I hear you cry. “You wouldn’t have known those jobs where available if you hadn’t gone to the job fair!”

Well, yes I would. Because the Greenville News did a special supplement that listed every employer there…as well as their web address.

4 comments:

OzzyC said...

What else did you have going on at the time?

Paulius said...

Nothing, but that's my point.

I could have stayed at home, and in the three hours we wasted, I could have applied for 15 different jobs...instead of wasting my whole morning, not to mention the Gas money getting there.

Also, bear in mind I'm dependent on Sunny for transportation, so she got in at 9am this morning, and was driving me over there at 11:30

MC Etcher said...

It does seem almost pointless to leave the house when job-hunting these days.

I remember the good old days in the early 90s when I went up and down the street, applying at every single business until I got a job.

Wait, those weren't good old days.

PJ said...

Welcome to the south. Where those that can read (newspapers, books, etc.) don't and those that can't read are proud of it.