On The Hunt

Why do people make it so difficult for us unemployed folk to get a job?  I've been looking for a job for the last three months.  That's three months of no income, living in New York and paying off my student loans, rent, car insurance, and putting gas in the car.  Oh.  I can't forget groceries so I can live.  Minor details.  But seriously, companies post these job ads that specify that the applicant had to have gone to a 4-year college, graduated with a certain GPA (usually 3.0 or better), 2+ years of experience, etc etc.

I don't really understand what they want.  Do they expect the best of the best to be unemployed and currently looking for jobs?  I really hope they don't expect to get what they're looking for.  The people they're looking for are already secured with jobs from before the recession.  They've all gone and looked through the job boards online before, picked out where they want to work, and are now happily (or upset, but stay because of the money) working for whatever company they are with.  What's left are the rest of us.  The kids who grew up in middle class homes whose parents couldn't afford to put them through a 4-year college, so we had to put ourselves through community college.

Now don't get my wrong, I'm extremely happy I went to community college.  Originally, I didn't want to get a college education.  I thought it was a waste of time and money.  I went to college and dropped out after a semester.  After working for a year and a half in a hotel, I decided I was going to get an associates degree in Hotel Management from my local community college.  I took out the necessary loans because I didn't have that kind of money, registered for classes, and worked my ass off to get through.  I was a C student in high school, but that was my parents money that I was wasting.  This was totally different.  I was doing this for myself, and I wanted to get the most out of it.  After 2 grueling years, I graduated with a solid 3.15 GPA (stupid Banquet Management class!!) and felt proud of myself for going through it.  I thought I could take on the field and was ready to do so, until I realized I graduated at the worst possible time in recent history.

Now back to the topic at hand.  What the hell am I supposed to do when even the lowest jobs on the totem pole 'require' 4-year degrees?  I'm looking on CareerBuilder.com and I barely qualify for what they're looking for in a Greyhound bus driver!  All because I have a silly 2-year degree.  I guess I'll just have to keep doing what I've been doing for 3 months.  Apply to all the jobs I both qualify for and don't qualify for, and wait for someone to call back for an interview.  What a waste of time and money after all.

AWESOME!

As I mentioned in the Introduction, I have been following a bunch of blogs for a while now.  One of the blogs I have followed consistently is 1000 Awesome Things.  It's an amazing site that brings a smile to your face pretty much every time you visit.  Neil Pasricha, the author of the site, has done an incredible job with it, and recently came out with a book titled "The Book of Awesome".

I just bought the book yesterday and I keep picking it up and opening to a random page and loving what I see.  To sum it up without giving too much away, it's a 400 page book of things that just about everyone loves.  Unless you're not human.  But even then you should love them.  The examples that Pasricha put on the book jacket are "Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant things."  And that's exactly what it is.  Other simple, brilliant things.

I showed it to a few of my friends last night and they all loved it.  As someone said so brilliantly, "it's the perfect coffee table book for the new table we just got in our apartment!"

Now, I didn't want this to sound like a book review, or me telling you to go buy it (although I am saying that.  It's awesome!), but I just wanted to give a shout out to Pasricha because his site and book had a lot to do with me starting this blog.  So thank you Neil.  Thank you for your entertainment, reminders of the good times that passed by and were forgotten, and for the inspiration.

Introduction

Hello all!  Please feel free to welcome me to the wonderful world of blogging.  For years now, I have been reading stories, jokes, news, and anything my friends decide to write about.  I felt a bit left out.  Why shouldn't I voice my thoughts and fun stories, I thought.  So here it goes.  Prepare yourself for a bumpy road that is the life of a 24 year old male living in New York.

You'll find that I like to make fun of people's mistakes, talk about hostile neighbors, post funny conversations with my roommates and friends, and just rant about anything I enjoy.  So please enjoy, comment, critique, and just feel free to offer your input on any subject.  Maybe I'll answer you in private, or maybe I'll make a post about it.  I might just ignore you completely because the idea is so ridiculously pointless.  So let's get this madness started and see where life takes us.

And away we go!

Don't forget to feed the fish!