Elaine Unemployed - Day 6 of 24

No vid today! It's Saturday, after all.

I applied for three jobs today. One of which I found by perusing the Fortune "They're Hiring" site. Each and every company I applied to had their own application system where you have to create a user name, profile, resume and cover letter. The worst ever award goes to Hilton. I'll be amazed if they get more than my job application. It's just ridiculous how many things you have to click on to create an emailable application. Many of the items are hard to see or find, need specific coding which requires using a search function that doesn't always work or with unclear instructions, or are difficult to edit. I'm going to be generous and assume that this is all in the name of cutting down applications from thousands to hundreds. Oh, and then there's my favorite: system requirements. One of application systems had the attitude that if you must be on a Mac we will support you only if you use Firefox. When I see this it tells that they want to know more about me than I'm willing to share. In other words, they are using invasive programming in their application which, among other things, will get my cookies – a function Safari doesn't allow.

But, whatever. If the current climate demands everyone bend over and wait for it to apply for a job then I guess that's what I'll have to do.

Yesterday was quite depressing when I heard the news on NPR about how lousy the job market is right now. The announcer said that in a regular economy this would be bad news but in this economy it's good. And then they went on to describe yet more layoff statistics in yet more industries. That was a real pick-me-up. ha ha

Basically, as a country, we're f--ked. I derive absolutely no consolation from knowing that as the US goes, the world goes. How can this be good for anyone anywhere?

I wish I had sold my house after my first lay off in 2007 and used the money from that and the severance package to take an around-the-world trip. Yeah, I'd be flat broke right now but at least I would have something to show for it.