A little back story- last year I worked in a special education classroom with a wonderfully awesome team of ladies who decided that they liked me and were sympathetic to my college-graduate-family-two-kids-grossly-underemployed status. So they've been trying to help me find gainful employment, scouring the classifieds and want ads on my behalf. I'm beyond grateful to these women.
Last week, one of them sends me some information about a job posting she saw. It was an agency I was familiar with advertising a mental health position for a Bachelors of Social Work person. Well hey here, future job! I mean, come on now- I have, like, 4+ years of direct care mental health experience, some contacts inside the agency, and...hello? What is this? BACHELORS OF SOCIAL WORK???? You mean that the college degree I got a couple of years ago can actually be used to get me a decent job?
In full disclosure, decent job isn't quite accurate. It was an obscene job. Obscene as in (I haven't really told anyone this number because of trying to keep my expectations tempered, but I'm going to throw it out there now because I hope someone from that agency stumbles upon this blog, realizes that their seemingly deceitful practices really hurt good people that would like to partner with them in the pursuit of human empowerment, and feels bad for it) $40 per hour. Yes, folks, you read that right. 40. Dollars. An hour. For a bachelors-level position in a field I have worked in with people that I know in charge. I tried to not get my hopes up, especially since I wasn't sure if it was a full-time job or not (but honestly, I could have worked 10 hours a week at that rate and made the same amount of money I am making now wiping butts and noses full-time)...but when you're firmly thrust in the throes of poverty and trying to pull yourself up by the bootstraps that they tell you are standard-issue if you're an American, you get sort of intoxicated by such big numbers. You start to dream about all of the debt you could shed quickly, like Loki getting the cosmic-cube and basically just doing whatever the hell he wants because he can. You start to believe that you might soon find peace and stability.
And then you call to follow up on your resume' submission because they told you they are going to be conducting interviews in a week and you still haven't heard, and you really don't understand because (and I can't stress this enough) you have RELEVANT EXPERIENCE (in spades, I might add), INSIDE CONTACTS (not quite nepotistic in nature, but still...non-strangers), and THE DEGREE QUALIFICATION THAT THEY SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR IN THEIR AD. And you talk to the lady on the phone (who is in charge of going through the resumes and is also a person you went to dinner with at a tasty Mexican restaurant while downstate at a conference for this agency) and she tells you..."Well, you have a Bachelors, and we're really looking for a Masters, because that's our agency standard, but hey, would you be willing to let us keep your application on file for this other position that we have a hard time getting applicants for".
Obviously I said 'yes'. Not because I want to work for this agency so badly, but because I'm so effing poor that I have to consider working for people that would dangle a carrot in front of your nose and then switch it out at the last minute for a candy bar as long as they're offering a couple more dollars an hour. Not a perfect analogy, I know...but you see what I'm saying, right?
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| My career- not going anywhere for awhile. |
I really hope that this was a typo on their part, the clerical mistake of someone who is still probably making more money than I am. But the whole thing really reeks of 'bait and switch' (hence the title). Goodbye cosmic cube of dollars. Goodbye financial independence. Hello creditors.
I plowed through the denial/isolation phase of grieving with a simple "I quit" status on Facebook. I've been simmering on anger since then. I'll probably move quickly through bargaining, hang out for a little bit at depression, and...should I get to a stage where I accept this? I don't know. I am tired of accepting that I am getting passed over for positions that I could do, probably better than the people that they are actually hiring. A little cocky, sure- but I know who I am and what I can do given the chance. I've succeeded everywhere I've gone- but I'm not going anywhere as long as I don't have...what? WHAT??? Can someone please tell me what I'm lacking (other than a Masters degree)?
Someone once said "The only thing stronger than fear is hope". I'm not sure who actually said it- it was probably Johnny Depp or some other famous actor who gets an anonymous famous quote attributed to them complete with a sexy picture, but I know now that it's true. It's true because the most painful thing a person can experience is to allow themselves to hope only to find that their hopes have been dashed against the rocks of reality.
PIC- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/88/Snickers_wrapped.jpg
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