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| One of my favorite mugs. It is a copy of a social security card with: Social Insecurity on it. The bottom says "Unemployed but not unloved!" Its my life. I found my life for $1 at a PDX Goodwill. |
Welcome to the paradoxical world of my unemployment complete with privilege,
frustration, ostensible optimism and lurking pessimism!
Some
of you have been saying “Write More!”
This initial post is me writing, in a lovely PG rated way, about how *you* can successfully manage my unemployment.
For the most part, my family, friends and
contacts are beyond awesome.
People send me job listings, set me up with their friends, inquire about
openings on my behalf, etc. It is
truly humbling.
However, every now and then someone will
try to indicate that I, and people of my ilk, are not doing every. little.
thing. to find a job. Trust, most
of us are doing as much as we can.
Here are a few things you can generally
avoid saying to your under and unemployed loved ones when they break down and
want to wallow for a bit:
1. At least you’re not (older, taking care
of three children, a young girl in a warzone…).
I have many faults and flaws. The inability to keep things in
perspective is not one of them. I
know that my situation is much better than many people who are unemployed and
underemployed. I’m relatively young, well educated and able bodied. I have the
right tools: a laptop, professional contacts, appropriate clothing and work
experience. I manage to network frequently and pick up occasional pro bono
work. While I don’t collect unemployment,
I saved up enough to forgo assistance for at least the next few months.
However, if I require assistance, I have
exceptionally supportive family and friends who possess both financial and
cultural capital. I can name a dozen cities around the world where people would
allow me to stay with them, either free of cost or simply covering utilities,
until I found a job.
It is highly unlikely that I will ever have to apply for
SNAP (food stamps), stay in a shelter, panhandle or enter the sex trade.
I am very lucky indeed. I remind myself of
my fortunate circumstances in order to stay relatively optimistic as I seek
employment. In fact, when speaking about my unemployment, I often
mention how lucky I am and how much worse it could be.
Nonetheless, depression, frustration and
anger creep in at times. Dark thoughts are unavoidable. When they descend, the fact that my
situation is favorable in comparison to most is not a comfort. I have three degrees from top ranked
schools. I speak another language. I’m published. I’ve been:
- An
attorney (immigration)
- A
CEO minion (marketing, writing, editing, cultural competence, research,
organization)
- A
substitute teacher (K-12, Spanish, English, History, Special Ed)
- A
research assistant to an internationally recognized/world renowned refugee law
expert (pulling and analyzing legislation from Australia to Zimbabwe. Word.)
- An
organizer for an international conference (you need to order dozens of kanelbullar, arrange travel from Galway, IR to Lund, SE
and draft a letter to the Cameroon consulate formally inviting attendees? I am
your woman)
- A
legal intern (immigration, family law, criminal law)
- A barista
(admittedly my latte art is less than spectacular)
- A
server (My waitressing experiences have gifted me with an
affected British accent that would put Madonna to shame; the same goes for
Southern accents and James Van Der Beek)
- A
sales associate (at GAP and Sally Beauty Supply... they were the WORST jobs 5:30 AM openings and overdosing underaged boyfriends... have to remember to write a future blog post on those...)
- An
administrative assistant (I can organize office supplies like no one’s business
while simultaneously quashing the desire to STEAL EVERYTHING from gel pens to brightly colored paper clips to tiny post it notes…)
- A
volunteer tutor for immigrants (citizenship test), high school students (SATs,
English) and children (homework) for approximately a dozen years (beginning
when I was 15 and continuing until I was 28 when I picked up pro bono legal
work, I still edit the odd college student's paper every now and then).
And I have yet to find full time
employment in my field of preference.
That probably sounds specific but my “field of preference” is public
interest work. Legal work.
Advocacy work. Research. Writing.
I entered both college and law school determined to embark on a career
whose purpose was to improve conditions for vulnerable, marginalized and
disenfranchised people. Quite simply, all I have ever wanted to do is to make a
living wage by helping some else’s life become more bearable, if not
better. The fact I am unable to do
so is frustrating at times.
When I express this (and such outbursts
are rare), then is not the time to remind me I am not in Syria, have not been
shot in the head by the Taliban, do not have children, am not 65, etc. I
already know that. And that
knowledge does not provide any sort of relief to my acute frustration and/or
depression.
2 Have you tried (networking, temp
agencies, law firms, McDonalds…)
The answer is yes unless it appears
futile. I have sent out more than
200 cover letters in the past three years (two of which I spent with sporadic
employment). I have tried temp
agencies, legal staffing agencies and employment agencies. I have been a barista with a juris doctor and an LLM and I was happy
doing it. In fact, I’d feel
downright lucky now to work a service job and do pro bono on the side.
Regardless of what various Gawker commenters seem to think, however, most places are not going to hire someone they think will leave
when the first opportunity arises. Many service jobs are not an option for me
and not because I wouldn’t work at Target, Macy’s, Chipotle, Starbucks etc. I don’t have that particular brand of
pride. My gram always said “all
work is honorable” and I genuinely believe that. None of the work I mentioned is “beneath me.” However, where
many in the service/temp industry are concerned, my education and experiences
make me “over qualified.”
Why don't you just sell out?
Ok, people don’t say that but knowing me its what they mean.
Look, if I thought I was an actual viable candidate for private law, I’d apply
to firms more often. I have
applied to a few small shops over the years and received nary a nibble. I simply cannot imagine being
attractive to Big Law. Ninety
percent of my legal work has been working with low income undocumented migrants
and victims of violence. I have
never drafted a contract, written a will, helped someone declare bankruptcy or
litigated anything. If you ask me a question about tax law, I will burst into
tears and then into flames. I am
so out of touch with the private law sphere that I am currently in the process
of re-learning to walk in heels (snazzy ballet flats, riding boots and cowboy
boots alllll the way in Portland).
I have worked in the private sector for
an insurance company and it was actually enjoyable. Being a contract employee was great because I wasn’t worried
about job security. I said what I
meant and meant what I said. I
didn’t sugar coat or soft pedal. I could push my own agenda.
It was liberating. If the
opportunity arose, I would certainly do something like that again. Nonetheless, opportunities to work in
the private sector have been slim at best.
Bottom Line: in order to successfully sell out, someone has to want to buy your goods. I am not Ciara to Big Law's Petey Pablo. Big Law does not want my goodies.
You should be willing to do anything/anywhere
I think a recession sometimes drains
people of empathy. Americans
operate under this “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” myth. Of course, that doesn’t work when
economy has removed your boots and is beating you over the head with them. It also doesn’t apply if you were never in possession of a pair of boots.
So, let’s combat a few nasty, troll
like thoughts:
- Americans
are generally not poor because they want to be.
- The
overwhelming majority of people do not sign up for SNAP (food stamps) and other benefits to abuse
the system.
- Someone
who does not want to take crazy drastic measures for the mere possibility of a
job is not failing themselves and/or their families.
- Very
few people “deserve” to be unemployed.
Most of us are doing pretty much whatever
we can to find tolerable work as opposed to interesting work, fulfilling work
or even profitable work. That
doesn’t mean we have to employ the shotgun method of applying for jobs.
The two most annoying things that have
been said to me include:
“You
should move to X, take the bar there and looks for jobs."
In my under and unemployment I have
applied to jobs in the following states/countries:
- Arizona
-
California
-
Connecticut
-
Florida
-
Georgia
-
Illinois
-
Louisiana
-
Maryland
-
Massachusetts
-
Michigan
-
Minnesota
-
Nevada
-
New
Jersey
-
New
York
-
Oregon
-
Pennsylvania
-
Texas
-
Washington
-
Washington
DC
-
Ireland
- Afghanistan (I admit to turning this down only after being warned off by some special ops guys referred to me by T whose connections are b-a-n-a-n-a-s. For the record, the hotel I would have stayed in was bombed)
- The
United Kingdom
- Spain
-
The
Netherlands
-
Hong
Kong
Its not like I've been narrowing the field to an unreasonable degree. Mostly I've avoided those square states in the middle (sorry!), places where I know nary a soul and places where I could do everything right and still wind up in pieces by the side of the road.
As a fairly young, unencumbered (read:
perpetually single) person, I had the benefit of being able to choose where I
would be unemployed. Most of my friends and family are on the East Coast and I
see myself in this part of the world for the long haul. This is especially true since I never
meant to stay in Portland for longer than a summer (ha!).
I left the relative comfort of Portland
for DC because I felt lazy and un-ambitious in Portland. It also seemed to be the “right time.”
One of my part time positions ended. The other was definitely not enough to
live on though it may have become a possibility for a full time position. The prospect of full time employment
was a little dicey since I developed a few moral and ethical concerns regarding
the organization but that is neither here nor there because... I desperately
wanted to be back on the East Coast.
I thought about it and even though I am
admitted in NY, I decided on DC. I think of all of the cities in the United
States, DC provides me with the best possibility of enjoying a long, dynamic
legal career. Everything is here:
domestic and international NGOs, secular and religious non profits, the federal
government, think tanks, lobbying firms…you name it. I’ve also had the benefit of living here before, during a 3L
law school clinic so I knew I liked the city. DC also has three very important things that NYC is missing,
namely:
- Lots
of huge grocery stores in the actual city
- Eastern
Market
- NANDOS
Of course, I am prepared to leave DC for
the right opportunity. New York, for example, has Maoz. However, I don’t think I need to move to North Dakota – a
place I have never even visited and that has neither a Nandos nor a Maoz - and take their bar because unemployment is
lower there.
“You
should be willing and ready to apply for whatever legal employment table scraps
are available.”
Look, there is really only one thing I
can definitively say I do not want to do in the public interest sphere:
Criminal Law. I was an intern for
legal clinics that partially focused on criminal law for two consecutive summers. It was emotionally draining, frustrating and not especially interesting. Criminal law is the legal
equivalent of a microwaved soy nugget for me: deeply unsatisfying albeit
potentially nourishing. Unless the
position is related to immigration, I’m not keen to apply for criminal law
jobs.
If my fortunate circumstances are such
that I can currently afford to skip over those types of job listings, I am
perfectly okay with that. I may
come back to them. I may not. The fact I am not applying for these
jobs does not mean I need a lecture on how to be an independent adult.
***
Now my this harangue doesn’t
mean I think people should NEVER ask me about the job hunt or unemployment
etc. I hit my friends and family
up for networking contacts, cover letter reviews and resume edits on the
regular (thanks!) so it would be odd to then say, “Meh, I don’t want to talk
about this.” I certainly don’t mind helpful suggestions of job sites, resume
formats, organizations where I can volunteer etc. We can talk about those
things, just spare me the condescension accompanied by implications of
inflexibility and/or laziness. I prefer helpful suggestions, encouragement and financed
pity brunches/dinners/happy hours.
