20150610.0657

I am a bit miffed that more freelance work is not yet forthcoming. It has not been often since, oh, April 2014 that I have gone so long without a new order coming in from a particular client. Since said client pays quite well for me to do work that I usually enjoy and at which I excel, I am somewhat concerned. The income stream represented has been a useful addition to my finances, after all. Such gaps in the work available, though, remind me why I have not thrown off "regular" employment entirely; there is much to be said in favor of stability when others are dependent on a particular person's income, even if it is less than could be desired. Hence my continued search for long-term regular work.

And that search certainly continues. I have sent out hundreds of job applications since the beginning of this year. Literally hundreds. I have gotten maybe a dozen or a score of phone or video interviews for that effort, which have resulted in two on-campus interviews so far. (I say "so far" because there are still a number of applications outstanding. Many of them will never offer a reply. Some, however, still might, and they might end up leading to on-campus events.) Neither resulted in my being made an offer. When I have followed up, a couple dozen times at this point, I either heard nothing back or was told "There wasn't anything wrong with your application. We just had a large number of highly-qualified applicants." (There was one exception, but not this year.)

The experience is sadly typical, from what I have been told by those who actually sit on hiring committees and by others on the job market over drinks and with increasing bitterness. HR departments forbid sending notices of being turned down. Actual hiring criteria are ill-defined. Student ratings, understood to be substantially flawed even when administered with some semblance of control (let alone free online ones), factor heavily into hiring decisions. And, of course, there is no help available, or if there is, there is such animus against asking for help that it might as well not be in place. (The academic life is one of knowledge work. Admitting a lack of knowledge is perilous, at best.) But to point such things out is to make excuses and to suggest that quitting is an option--despite hundreds of applications sent out in half a year after several years of doing the same thing and twelve years earning degrees. Because, of course, none of that even breathes of a work ethic and stick-to-it attitude. And, of course, being angry at trying and trying and trying and trying hundreds and hundreds of times and getting nowhere is a "bad attitude" that gets in the way, as though a smile will make everything better. "Oh, well, another job application that never received a response, another few dollars and hours spent that will never come back and have resulted in no benefit, tra la la la la, how fun! Thank you, committees, may I have another?" But there's a plan; everything will work out as it should, right? Of course, the thought never occurs that a world that creates such things as the platypus and allows such things as Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot has a morbid, sadistic sense of humor. Oh, no, of course not.

I assure you that I am smiling now, my mouth stretching so far wide to show my teeth that my lips are splitting. Am I getting a job yet?