Spam Comeback

I just saw on the NBC Nightly News that Hormel Spam is making a comeback. A few seconds later, I discovered online that Spam was introduced during the Great Depression. With another half a million jobs last in the past four weeks, it's no wonder people are buying Spam again.

A recession is one thing, but now we're hearing talk of a "mini-depression." No doubt, conversations about a "depression" will be right around the corner. Pretty scary stuff.

One of the other things revealed in tonight's news cast is that the two primary sectors that are still hiring are government and health care. These two industries are your best shot at finding a job. It's interesting. If that's truly the case, I should be employed by now. I live in the Metropolitan D.C. area - a hotbed of government agencies. There are probably more government jobs available here than anywhere else in the country. I know because I apply for several every day on the USAJobs.gov web. I literally couldn't have a better chance at getting a job in this sad economy than I do here.

I have a great resume that includes 18 years of IT and technical publications experience. And, I have a degree now. How ironic: this is the first time I've conducted a job hunt having that piece of paper in hand, and yet it's useless (for the purposes of being increasing marketability, that is). Right now it's harder than ever to get a response to a job inquiry.

Let's see . . . looking at my spreadsheet, I see that I've made 188 attempts to get a job interview since September 20th. (That means 188 resumes sent, applications submitted, or contacts made.) Nearly 150 of those submisions are for jobs in the D.C. area. And the responses to those are few and far between. At this point, I'm getting a response for about one in 30 inquiries. And a response can be so much as "do you have a clearance?" "No, I don't." End of thread. They don't even reply to you when you answer their questions. Doesn't matter how many times you beg.

It doesn't get much worse than this. In all my years as a professional, I've never had this much trouble finding a job. I can continue to survive this way for a while yet. That's the good news. It just means I'll be eating up all the money set aside for grad school. I don't mind that. It's if I have to wipe out every penny I've ever saved that will bother me. But I have a long way to go before that happens. That makes me one of the lucky people.

I have it good compared to a lot of people. But, if it's this hard for me to find a job in the one place in the country where there are jobs, what about the rest of the unemployed? What about people who have nothing in savings? People with families and no income? People with massive medical bills? People who lost their homes? These are the folks who need our prayers.

Tough times indeed.