making a living
It's been difficult to put onto paper what's happened to me since I moved to New York four months ago. Most of my New York experiences are unexciting observations - without a steady income its real tough to live the lavish and wild lifestyle you see in TV shows and movies about the Big Apple. No stories about club hopping or fancy restaurants. Not even a romantic encounter with women in art galleries or a late night mugging. I guess I could have roamed the streets, picking up juicy stories a la Jack Kerouac or Jim Carroll. But, its hard to live the life of a vagabond when all you're thinking about is why you left a good job, a great apartment and a stress-free life in California to go to the worst place you could be in during the recession.
Without a job, I've watched the pile of money I'd saved up earlier quickly dwindle down. When a turkey sandwich and a coke can set you back $7.50, nostalgic visions of Kwik Way's $1.50 double cheeseburgers dance in your head. I constantly thought about money -- spending it, saving it, fearing someone was going to mug me and take it. As I watched the TV news or read the paper, I realized it wasn't only me, but the entire collapse of the 80's economy was weighing heavily on everyone's mind. In New York, the daily headlines are filled with stories about Donald Trump's troubles, jailed Wall Street investment bankers and my favorite story about a developer who only a year ago had a net salary with as many digits as his social security number. Now his net worth is his social security number. Closer to home, almost all the New York architectural firms had laid off 40-60% of their staffs because of the overbuilt real estate market. It seemed highly unlikely I'd be able to find a job here quickly or easily.
After my cushy internship after graduation, I soon discovered how much looking for a job was a full time job in itself. Everyday I tried to make 5-10 cold calls, write 3-4 contact letters, read want ad sections and beg, er, follow up on interview letters I had sent earlier. I even read job search manuals for tips. I spent a lot of time doing this at the Mid-Manhattan Library, just across the street from the Central Reference Library. As the lending branch of the library system in Midtown, the place was usually packed with executives, students, and a lot of people looking for jobs just like me. It was kind of comforting. Every morning, I'd join this ragtag group of unemployed, but hopeful, job seekers on the sidewalk before the doors opened, huddled together to fend off the wintry wind. At 10:10 or so, the library guard would unlock the door, and we'd all file in, get on the escalator and take our places around the five to six tables that made up the job search area.
The worn, dog-eared resume and interview guides laid out on the tables were all disgustingly upbeat. According to the experts, it just took patience and hard work. Keep plugging away and you'll get it. It seemed so simple. Just follow their 10 easy steps and tomorrow I'd be happy and content contributing to the tax rolls. But, when you actually read what they wanted you to do, depression sunk in. First, you need to compile a long list of contact people in order to get a single job offer from someone you'd want to work for. The logic goes something like this: for every job offer you get, you go on 5 intervieww. For each interview, you write 15 letters. For each letter, you need 4 names of people to contact
Total number of names for one job offer =
300 SEPARATE PEOPLE!
When you do land that rare interview, you have to hone down your lifestory into a two-minute patter -- a few pithy phrases that hopefully impresses the person across the desk with evidence of sterling work habits, punctuality, and general overall interesting-ness. It was hard work. The worst of it, however, is the amount of time you spend evaluating your own strengths and weaknesses, something I don't think too many people enjoy doing on a daily basis. Relentless self-examination, I believe, deflates any big ego. And doubt is not something you want to reveal while showing your portfolio during an interview. So, to keep my sense of self-value up, I stopped doing job search stuff by 2:00 pm each day, and did other things to make me feel worthwhile -- see a movie, buy new clothes, get a haircut -- in other words, spend more money.
back to fountain send a comment december 1999
