Hi! I’m Desiree.
I was an Office Manager and Executive Assistant for about ten years while I finished college in night school. I was totally insulated from the 2008 crash and the ensuing massive unemployment numbers, until I stupidly decided that I needed more of a challenge and applied for a position in sales (operations, not selling per se, but still…)
A year and a month later, after many, many 12-hour days and the devastation of not being really good at something (I’m a perfectionist), I was told that my boss was going to lay me off to replace me with someone who had ten years of experience, now that he finally had the budget for it.
Cue the five stages of being downsized: Indignation, Smugness, Relief, Indolence, Panic.
(Hilariously enough, they’ve now split the job into two, as though perhaps IT WAS TOO MUCH WORK FOR ONE PERSON, ALWAYS!)
i was not entirely displeased to collect for the summer (my first unemployment claim ever!) and to start volunteering and working out more and enjoying the sun. I smugly thought it would be no problem at all to find another job.
Little did I know… I was headed for long-term unemployment.
So here is a little record of some of my more amusing (and horrifying) moments over the course of this job search. Just a little something to help keep me sane as I grow ever more desperate. As of October, 2014, I am at about a year and a half of searching.
Thanks for coming by! Please leave some feedback or share your own stories in the comments!
The Desperation Papers 