(Note on last night’s comment. Yes, asking on how many sentences are in the last chapter of Ulysses is trivial. Hence it being used in a trivia contest. But the last chapter is, in my mind, the most important chapter in all of English literature and in my copy is 45 pages long. If you read a 45 page chapter that only had 8 sentences you would remember it.)
I received possibly the strangest job search related email ever this morning. Due to my healthcare background I was offered a position as an Associate Dentist. Let’s go through this one in detail, shall we? First off, outside of being well acquainted with emergency rooms due to my surprising skill at injuring myself in new and imaginative ways I have no healthcare background. I have one degree in electrical engineering and another in finance. I’ve never worked for a company that has had anything to do with healthcare. Unless nuclear power is somehow now good for your health but I somehow doubt that.
Now even if you were confused by my background wouldn’t you think that to be offered a job as a dentist you would have had to do something, well, dental related at some point in your life. Seriously, let’s say you were a nurse you couldn’t immediately switch to being a dentist. I assume you’d have to take a class or something. If bartenders need to have a license I assume dentists would have to, I don’t know, show an aptitude at enjoying other people’s pain. I just don’t see random emails as the best way to recruit dentists.
Oh, and what was the salary offer? Up to $250K. I kid you not. I apparently really chose the wrong profession. I should apply just to see what happens. I would just look at everyone’s mouth, say “Oh yeah, everything is fine” and then collect the checks until someone figured out what was going on.
It’s strange spending time on job boards and just blindly sending resumes out into the ether. I know it isn’t the proper way to do it but for the moment it is how I want to get started. Find some postings, drop off my info, and see if I get any bites. It’s a bit nerve wracking and humbling because let’s be honest, it’s not as if I’m not qualified to work for a living. I’ve collected a number of pieces of paper that state very plainly that I am intelligent. But that doesn’t mean I get an interview, or a look, or that my resume doesn’t just disappear into some HR wasteland.
Yes, I am networking and I need to do more of it. I do have a few irons in the fire, which is nice. It’s just that I’m still trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do next. And the thing is, what I do for a living isn’t really the most important thing to me anymore. Yes, I want a nice job where I make good money and, in a perfect world, provides me with a cube with a window. But more than anything I just want to be happy. It’s been one hell of a struggle to actually be that and now that I am I really don’t want to give it up. Somehow on all of the postings no one has ever written “This job will bring you fulfillment.” It would be really nice if they did.
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