Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Every day, I check craigslist and the local paper; sometimes I branch out to monster.com and the unemployment agency. I have one private tutoring client, I have an interview tomorrow at a tutoring agency, I attended a training last week for substitute teachers, and Friday I'll attend an orientation for an EMS program. I've applied for a few jobs at local hospitals, one of which allows me to log in and check the status of my application any time I want--I'm trying to cut back from my current 4-5 times a day.

All of this allows me to feel as if I am Doing Something. I can't be accused of allowing opportunities to pass me by, right? I am out there, I am racking up points, I am following every lead, examining every option.

Of course, thousands of other people are doing this, too. The unemployment rate in the city of Detroit is currently 29%. Yes, twenty-nine, as in one percentage point less than 30%. As in, almost one out of every three people is without a job. Nationally, the media informs me, there are 6 unemployed people for every job opening. That doesn't mean there are 6 applicants for every job opening, no no no. That means there are 6 times more unemployed people than there are jobs for them.

And people are downloading their resumes and hitting send to almost any opening, paying little attention to requirements or instructions. People are applying for jobs for which they are underqualified, overqualified, or simply not qualified at all. And why not? It doesn't cost anything. And you never know--maybe you'll slip past, get an interview, and wow them to the point where they overlook that you have neither the experience nor the education they're looking for.

I'm guilty of it, too. I've applied for many more jobs than I would have if I'd had to print out a resume and a cover letter and put them in an envelope and mail it. Social work jobs I'm applying for want applicants who are licensed, which I am not; I don't even know if I could get licensed because I haven't been an actual social worker in many years. Meanwhile, I have been a teacher for a long time, but don't apply for those jobs because I am not certified, and getting certified would take two years and thousands of dollars. Gotta love those hoops created by No Child Left Behind.

Meanwhile, I'm reading Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life? and Flow, wondering if I'm somehow spending too much time doing and not enough time being. Am I avoiding something? What would happen if I simply cooked, cleaned, folded laundry, organized for a while, and didn't even look for a job? Is a person's worth really what he or she does for a living, or is it more than that? And if it is more than that, as I suspect it is, what is it and what does it look like and how do we express it or describe it? And do we need to? I've heard that the question one gets asked when meeting someone new, "What do you do?", is purely American, that in other countries and other cultures, no one thinks to ask that question, let alone have it be an ice breaker.

I don't know what this all means. Someone I trust completely told me she thinks I will get a job when my house is in order. (No, this trusted person is not my mother.) So why am I not spending every waking moment doing just that? Ah, that's the real question, I guess.