Where I write

Where I write

January 21, 2013

If getting old ain't for sissies, either is job hunting

The older I become, the harder it seems to get to hear the above words spoken to me. Those of you older folks safe and secure in comfy, well-paying, intellectually-rewarding jobs (who are you??) may not understand the concept of job hunting at middle age. You may not even want to consider pounding the pavement looking for work for fear it may happen to you. You might already be having shivers down your spine at the thought of dusting off your resume and putting on a suit and competing with the younger generation. Don't be scared. Be grateful you have that job, any job for that matter, at this stage of the game.

Those of you who are already comfortably retired, or don't need to work, I hate you. Just kidding. I'm jealous.

To be honest, I already have one job, but I am  looking for a second job for extra money because at the rate I'm going retirement seems as distant to me as Phoenix is from Singapore. Exactly where is Singapore, anyway?

The hospitality industry can be particularly brutal, focusing more on youth and agility, than experience and wisdom. I had my chance. I was once one of those young things myself, slipping on a tight shirt, pair of jeans, glossing my lips with pink stuff and sauntering in night clubs for work. After two knee surgeries, I don't saunter anymore.

The other day I was interviewed for a job (banquet server as the ship has long sailed for me applying as a sexy cocktail server) at a ritzy Scottsdale golf club. The eighth grader who interviewed me was named Thor.
Well he looked like an eighth grader to me. And who names their child Thor? Seems to me like a lot of pressure on the kid to be a hero. Anyway, the Thor who interviewed me (not that gorgeous hunk of man pictured above unfortunately) was very polite for a child. He sat in his little blue suit across a big shiny table from me and asked me what I liked about being a server. Oh how hard it was not to burst into laughter! I wanted to say at my age I just like having a job. But he was so young and so earnest and not even alive when I was in high school. It occurred to me to him I must have looked to him as old as his grandmother.

In this aged photo, my grandma is in the middle. She is still not even married to my grandpa yet. This was taken in a park in Chicago. That's how women used to dress to go to a picnic apparently.  Anyway, I am now older than my grandma was in that photo. I didn't tell Thor this. When the brief interviewed ended, he said he'd call. I'm still waiting. Thor is not my hero.

I'm thinking this might be the only job opportunity available to me. I guess I could stop dying my hair (of course I dye my hair) and throw on the little vest and walk around with a smiley face on my back. Now I understand why my journalism professor said all those years ago why writing was better than acting. When we got old and decrepit (my words not his) our appearance wouldn't matter to our readers. When my professor said this I was young and thought, "I'll never get old."  I can hear you laughing.

As a writer, we can  have wrinkles and sags and fat tummies, but all that really matters are our words on the page, not if we are still young and beautiful. I better get to writing.  I'm not ready for standing by a row of shopping cars and saying "Welcome to Walmart" just yet.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I might have to die rather than be a WalMart slave...then again once Obamacare kicks in and they have to give me health insurance Wal mart might be fine with me...

Signed, The Tracy

C.B. Wentworth said...

It's tough out there. I have students trying to find work both current and former without any luck. Just recently I thought about what it would be like to be on the job market and it made me cringe. I haven't written a resume in 10 years and honestly I wouldn't even know where to start any more.

Good luck on your search. I think trying to find a part time position will benefit you in the end. It seems most places are looking for that instead of full time.

p.s. Singapore is in Malaysia :-) Sorry, geography geek at work. Lol!

Timothy N. Garrison said...

One of my friends was in McDonald. He enjoyed there. McDonald ensures waitresses safety, payments & other services. What are the rights of a wartier click here to know.

SunsetCindi said...

Focus that energy on your writing career cause you beat those young whippersnappers any day with your talent. But I know that unfortunately writing doesn't pay for us average Janes, we need to be an average J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer or that Shades of grey lady. Keep writing and submitting, there's got to be a willing paying audience somewhere for us!