Unwelcome Dental Advice

I’ve been on the hunt for a job for a while now. As is the requirement when socializing, people always ask, “So, what do you do?” And as someone who hasn’t had a steady job for a couple years now (my last job was working 12 hour shifts for a company that manufactures ceramic components for other companies via CNC machining), I always reply with the same thing: “I’m an author/writer, which is just fancy speak for ‘I’m unemployed.’” Yeah, it’s good for a laugh, but make no mistake, it’s the most depressing part of every social interaction I’ve had in the last two years.

Don’t get me wrong, I still “make money.” I’m a disabled veteran with an 80% rating, which is good for over $2k monthly. I served proudly and this is the least the US government could do to compensate me for years of breaking my back and missing family events over the holidays. Part of that 80% (well, most of that) is due to mental stress from – you guessed it – incapability of finding solid employment because my experiences in the Armed Forces don’t really carry over to the civilian world in most cases (or, I should specify, according to a lot of employers).

But this inability to find a job isn’t for lack of trying. I’ve gone out of my way, since getting out, to better myself. I’ve gotten certified in some aspects of IT, and I even finished my bachelor’s degree in English. Most companies claim that their hiring process places you in a higher tier for having a degree. This has not been my experience at all. In the last year alone, I’ve probably applied for 100 or more jobs. Granted, a good 20+ of those were federal positions, of which I was indeed placed on referral (which is their word for “you’re in the running to get this job over hundreds of others”), but then the new administration came into office and put out a hiring freeze, effectively removing a quarter of the applied for jobs from my list in a single day.

So, what happened to the other 75%?

Nothing. I’ve applied for so many jobs where I simply hear nothing back. Nothing goes to my spam folders in my email, no one calls me to tell me I either don’t qualify, or they’ve gone with someone else in their search. A simple note saying, “Hey, we did, in fact, get your application, but we’re going another way,” from any one employer would be like a lightning bolt from the Heavens to me.

What does one do in these kinds of situations? Do I just settle on jobs that can’t possibly sustain me? Do I just resign myself to being a fucking gas station attendant while mooching off the government for as long as this administration allows it? Are all the jobs I’ve applied for that never send any kind of response back actually real job offers? Or are they just digital phishing scams meant to pilfer my information and sell it to the highest bidder?

I’ve even tried various other outlets, trying to get remote work. Many of these sites have a “free” version. Look at “UpWork” and “Fiverr.” I’ve listed my services on both sites without paying the “premium” fees, and never once heard from a single employer or potential side job. And the few sites I’ve actually put money into have been complete wastes of time. I’ve paid for the use of both “FlexJobs” and “Intch.” FlexJobs is a website that touts remote work for hundreds of different fields, so I naturally gravitated toward that when I first heard of it.

Yet, like all the other phantom job opportunities out there, I’ve never once heard back from an employer about listings I’ve applied for. Intch is something new I’m trying, and like FlexJobs, claims to have opportunities for full-time work or “side gigs.” Yet it only shows you 10 listings at a time in a social media style serving. Despite having added my personal preference for job types, it keeps providing me listings for people looking for investors to help their careers. I’m not looking to spend money, I’m looking to make it.

On top of that, it shows me a lot of things outside of my professional capabilities, and it shows me recycled opportunities, not fresh ones. This tells me that the site either doesn’t register my preferences, or there simply aren’t enough opportunities available on the site (i.e. No one actually uses it) and I’ve been swindled out of $50 to use a dead end job site for a whole year.

So, that said: I dare you. No, I defy you to hire me. Look at my website, ask me for a resume, and find out that I’m not as lazy as my lack of work in the last two years might seemingly indicate. Hire me so I don’t have to support my family with the pay of a fucking 7-11 clerk and disability money that is likely to be taken away from me by a government administration that doesn’t care about the people that protect it.