Harted of the summer job search
By gaminemadcap
@gaminemadcap (160)
United States
May 28, 2007 9:57pm CST
How is it that finding a summer job is so hard? I've been working since I was fifteen, and have built up a reasonable resume in five years. Yet it is impossible to find a decent summer job! I've been sending out resumes like crazy, and even had a couple of interviews, yet I can't get a bite. Despite good interview skills (something I've been complemented on by several people) no one has made me an offer. Either they've already hired too many people, or they want to go ahead and hire a full-time permanent person.
The thing that gets me is that companies don't bother to make their ads specific. They don't say that they only want full-time permanent people, or even bother to let you know what company they're with. It's just a vague description of the job and a fax number. How hard is it to let a person know exactly what it is that they're applying for? I can't even properly fill out a cover letter or a fax cover sheet because I don't know who I'm sending my resume to.
Faxes are another thing. I spent nearly twently dollars sending my resume to six people. What's wrong with email? One would think that faxes would by obsolete by now. It would be more cost efficient for the employer to spend a few pennies printing out a resume that they like (and deleting the ones that they don't) as opposed to someone spending several dollars for a fax. And I don't understand why companies like Kinko's have to charge so much for faxes anyway, when they aren't using up any materials--everything is just getting sent over a modem. So why charge between a dollar and two dollars a page?
Another problem I've run into is experience. I have the skills needed for clerical work, but I have no documented experience in that field. And everyone wants you to have at least one year of experience. How am I supposed to get experience if no one will hire me? Apparently it's not enough that I've been typing with an average speed of 60 WPM since I was fourteen, or that I have experience with Microsoft Office. Oh no, I have to have specific office experience.
I understood having a hard time finding a summer job when I was in high school. I can even partially understand it now not having a specialty. But I'm twenty years old, with two years of college under my belt. Shouldn't this whole job search thing by getting easier? At least librarians are always in demand--I know that once I finish my master's I should be okay.
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