A day in the life of a MBA grad trying to get a job.

Working at Domino’s in Scotland while working on my worthless MLitt degree. (Halloween night – I missed out, but these nuns improved my night)

Well this morning was different. My sister brought me to a meeting with a Canadian Iranian guy interested in dividing his property lots and maybe he would be interested in letting me start a micro-farm on one. I found out he loved to talk, philosophy wise, and it wasn’t anything I haven’t heard before. Nice guy, but I’ve met guys like him before and although he doesn’t consider himself a dreamer or unhappy with what he has he totally seems to want to be American (nothing wrong with that). The whole content speech didn’t make me a believer.

Usually my day consists of filling out resumes, submitting to career websites, and sometimes even getting an automated response back that scanned my resume with a “Dear John” email. It seems the only ones that look for me our insurance recruiters or sales company that mislead their applicants with false write ups of job descriptions and salaries.

So, today, I took my job search a step further. I went in for a Domino’s Pizza interview. I found myself sitting in the small waiting lobby with other white male’s in full business attire. I could never imagine in my life that I would be going in for a pizza delivery position again after all that I have accomplished.

What made it so much more depressing was that I was greeted by young enthusiastic HR managers right out of college likely only obtaining their bachelor’s that had never worked a day of fast food in their lives. I tried to act friendly as they fired ridiculous “what if” questions towards me. I’m thinking to myself, “here I have two master degrees and I’m a military veteran and I feel like I am on trial to get a minimum wage job”.

This leads me to believe that security is getting tighter in America and the job market is definitely becoming more like the UK (meeting tons of people with degrees in minimum wage positions and normal adults is the norm there). I went to every pizza joint and restaurant. I waited in one local restaurant I eat at that’s always late on the food and it even took them 30 minutes to just hand me an application. I was physically chuckling to myself thinking, “getting a job here or attempting is just as bad as the service!”. They probably won’t even call me back after I read on the top of the packet that you must write neatly. I’ll admit I have horrible handwriting. It has plagued me since elementary school, however I’m an extremely fast keyboardist!

The other horrible thing about getting a minimum wage job in the information enlightenment area is that everything must be submitted online. There is no real face to face hiring anymore unless it’s a real “mom and pap” place. I did go to one and actually spoke to the owner. It was comforting to say the least even though I’ll still probably go with a bigger chain for better tips. I despise online job submissions. And the “fast” and “efficient” online process only makes it slower and slower and slower to get hired. There must be research data on this somewhere.  I’m sure their lunches are longer now that everything is online so I’d doubt things will go back to “human” relations.

Oh and one other thing is the hiring process in general. Now a simple hiring turns into this elaborate waiting and processing of background investigations, DMV records, drug testing, ex,ex,ex. What happened to hiring a clean, well dressed, and ready applicant on the spot? “Start this weekend”. Good luck! From my experience CEO’s smoke pot and I know them, but I doubt they got a drug test even with a million dollar salary. These poor workers need to do drugs just to stay motivated and survive their shift which won’t even pay for their rent! Seriously! I know too many. Without some type of pill or drug or alcohol working in a high stress low pay environment where you come home to a mailbox of problems is just intolerable!!! 😉

Lastly for you stock traders, I see all these internet tech stocks in the hundreds and now thousand dollar range. In-the-Money options must be rather high. I wouldn’t say a small traders game anymore, on the flip side the market looks like it’s going to go much higher from historical charts just taking a glance on Alex’s Wealth Management Blog. It reminded me of the countless years I pounded out charts and practice plays trying to get a solid read on the markets. I really miss it and waiting to trade again even if only $1000 bucks. For now I am so broke. I’m glad my sister lets me use her wi-fi for free.

Signing out,

Paul

P.S.  Just clicked on a “random post” in my dashboard. This popped up. Almost 1 year ago. Trading account = $0. My luck in the market sure is crazy. This really changed the direction of my life for the worst in 2013. I definitely couldn’t predict this wild event. Thanks news release services!!!