Interesting Work, Looking for Work—Still

The search continues

Photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash

Starting a few months ago, I began applying for work. I submitted applications for a variety of jobs—cashier, donut server, assistant librarian, technical writer, copy editor, tutor, inventory auditor, counter helper, admissions clerk, special events crew member, among other positions. I wrote about my experience in here, if you would like more context on this endeavor.

Today I thought I would bring you up to speed on where things are with my applications as well as some other opportunities I have pursued to enhance my cash flow. It won’t take long.

About three weeks ago, some responses to my applications started rolling in. First came an email regarding the library assistant position. After careful consideration, the email read, we have decided not to move forward with your application.

Losing out here didn’t disappoint me much. I love reading and I love books, and I am sure I would have loved driving the Bookmobile, but I think story time with toddlers would have shredded me. It was hard enough from a parent’s perspective when I used to take my twins to the library for toddler story time. It’s just as well my application is not moving forward.

A few days later I heard about the grocery cashier position. After thanking me for applying, the recruitment team’s email let me know that

Unfortunately, we have decided to proceed with another applicant who more closely fits the needs of this role.

Being passed over for this position also didn’t disappoint me. But it sure did leave me wondering just what skills or aptitude the selected applicant had that fit the needs of the role.

I have retailing and customer service experience. I can stand on my feet for long periods of time. I reviewed the job’s requirements before I applied. I felt as if I had a shot. But it’s been a while since I’ve been in that setting. Maybe that was the reason—the recruitment team thought I might be rusty. Fair.

Next came an email concerning the donut server job. It notified me that my application had been updated. When I accessed the update, I saw Position Closed. I thought this statement was a little vague—was the position filled? No longer being offered?—but far as I could tell this job had closed without me in it, like the other two.

Most recently I heard about the copy editor position. I had to do a test assignment to continue with my application. If you have checked out my earlier essay, you know that I don’t do well on tests. Nothing has changed. I still don’t.

This test assignment involved using AI to write something called a “listicle.” A listicle is where you take an article and format it in whole or in part as a numbered or bulleted list. For example, 10 Things You Wish You Knew About Listicles or 10 Easy Ways to Make a Listicle Using AI.

I had to look up “listicle” because the term was not familiar to me. But learning this did not get me any further. In addition to barely understanding the assignment, I could not even access it.

I withdrew my application. I don’t know anything about using AI, I don’t want to learn, and I can’t stand the word “listicle,” so it’s safe to say that I would not have been a good fit for this job either.

The other day I learned about an opportunity as a writer for a prepper survival newsletter. Wow, I thought, how interesting, and went to check out the required skills and qualifications. The description began,

Break down complex survival techniques in easy-to-understand steps for beginners and preppers alike.

I stopped right there, recognizing immediately that I am not qualified. I thought about applying anyway, as a joke, but I reconsidered, figuring these folks do not seem like the joking type, and I do not want to be tracked down as prey for a sense of humor gone astray.

So this is where I am with job applications right now, over the last three to four months. I am resigned to being in this for the long haul, as I am determined to make it through the Cloudflare CAPTCHA shown below that I encounter multiple times when I try to access just a single a job posting on Indeed.

Some days it feels like such a taunt, and my attempts to verify my humanity can go on for so long, that I even begin to wonder, Am I human? Is that the problem here?

Anyway, I have a few other irons in the fire, so to speak, more in line with my trying to make a go of things wordsmithing for a living. A couple of weeks ago I joined a platform called Buy Me a Coffee where readers can compensate me if they enjoy my writing, like tipping me for a good read. There’s nothing in my cup yet but I think it’s a very congenial notion.

I have also joined a social media platform called Bluesky where I post random thoughts as well as my writing, in the hope of attracting followers like chum attracts sharks. To date I have two followers but one of them is Bluesky itself. I don’t think that counts. So, one follower. Would that it were a great white.

On a platform called ServiceScape, where I go by the username of CheetahMom—not a joke, but a long story—I have received some freelance work as an editor. And just the other day I got an email telling me that payment for my first project was sent to my account.

The problem now is that I can’t remember which account I specified for receiving payment. Bank, Venmo, or PayPal? I guess I will just wait a week and check each one to see where the payment may have landed.

I have also started to query agents and editors for a book collecting my writing about time I spent with my mother toward the end of her life. The terse response to my first query—Sorry not for me—came back so fast that I almost fell off my chair laughing. And I had to fight the urge to reply with a response correcting the agent’s grammar.

But this is an existential enterprise, both discouraging and disheartening. Who might be interested? Is anyone interested? Well, I am going to try to find out. That’s all I can do, in this and everything else—try.

You may also support my work at Buy Me a Coffee.