Experience necessary

[transmothra]

It's the oldest catch-22 in history: Experience necessary. How do people with experience obtain that experience? Presumably, every human starts life as infants, with little or no experience within the field in which they will eventually earn their keep. So why is it that every interview always ends with a polite summation of my lack of experience?

It's hard for me to articulate the fact that I can do absolutely anything thrown at me, other than by awkwardly blurting out "I can do absolutely anything thrown at me!" while a horrified interviewer looks on, aghast. But my lack of experience equates roughly to lack of proof.

Joseph Heller explained the Catch-22:
If you're insane, then you can't request to be reassigned from flight combat, because it would prove that you're sane. If you request to be reassigned from flight combat, then you're not insane, because only a sane, rational person would make such a request. Therefore, you can never leave.

Ergo, if you do not have experience, then you cannot gain experience. If you have experience, then you must have started with experience.

The thing is, I am experienced. But, because on previous projects I was the designer, the information architect, the developer, and the entire MIS department, all by myself, I therefore cannot prove that I can work as a specialist in one area, working from specs from another specialist in one of those other areas.

What I cannot deal with is the fact that I am stuck forever as a lackey at low-rent jobs that I hate with all of my passion because I am a lackey at low-rent jobs, even though I am 1000% smarter than 90% of the other people around me and am capable of doing so much more - but am relegated to mopping up other people's messes for the rest of my fucking life.

When I pulled into the apartment parking lot after my miserable interview, Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" came on.

You're going to reap just what you sow.

I am overqualified, but underexperienced. I am, therefore, a failure.

Comments

[seanp.livejournal.com]

There is going to be a song on my next album called "The Overeducated Underclass." Its first two lines are:

"How do I get a job without experience?
How do I get experience without a job?"

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

That's perfect; what a great title! Can't wait to hear it in all its 24-track glory!

[seanp.livejournal.com]

Once I finish reading the 24-track's instruction manual and purchase this (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/CAD-PRO7-7Piece-Drum-Microphone-Pack?sku=270749), I can start getting to work!

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

Never tried CAD, but i bet your drum sound is gonna be wicked awesome. What mic do you use on vocals? I use a little MXL 990 condensor - it's been my best pal since i first plugged it in. No frills, but DIRT cheap and great bang for the buck. Not bad on acoustic, either.

[mjb.livejournal.com]

You're not a failure.

I do suggest that next time an interview goes miserably, just end it early. You'll feel much better about it. You're interviewing them; never forget that.

There are places where interviewers are able to spot the talented 1-in-100 (1000?) in your situation and hire them for what they're capable of, not what they've done before. After a couple years of severe underemployment I'm working for one of those places right now, and I've had the fortune of being one of those interviewers a number of years ago. The problem is, you have to weed through just as many unqualified employers as they have to weed through unqualified candidates before you find one that's offering a position that's right for you and that's got people good enough to recognize you're someone they need working for them in general. Unfortunately, these places are hard to come by.

A few months ago I suffered through the worst interview ever and I ended it when they gave me a written skills test. I started to take it but then was just like "you know what, this is bullshit." I actually just told them my gut feeling was that it wasn't the place for me. It really wasn't. They had also misrepresented the job when recruiting me, apparently figuring my desperation would make me not care. The environment made me uncomfortable too. Some kid right out of college would cream himself to work there because it had the air of a 'real company' with a lot of venture capital (desks lined with aquariums instead of dividers?!) but I've seen it all before and am not impressed. Put me in a room with people who know what they're doing and who can tell that I know my shit.

Well, although I could find work like that at Sun a few years ago, they haven't had anything for me for over a year, and I've maxed out my credit card just paying my taxes on what little I made elsewhere. So I had to take an offer to work in New York when it came along...sucks to not find anything at home, and NYC ain't the place for me, but even with the travel and lodging expense, it's worth it. I'm so glad I didn't try to kiss ass to get that other POS job where I'm sure I would've been miserable and underappreciated, and probably fighting battles all the time to do smart things.

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

It all boils down to perseverance, which i'm just getting a little tired of.

And i have this gnawing, aching feeling that the world in general is getting tired of my perseverance as well.

[seanp.livejournal.com]

They had also misrepresented the job when recruiting me, apparently figuring my desperation would make me not care.

A lot of employers in Beaumont do that, right down to not even *mentioning* how much you'll get paid until they decide to hire you.

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

i hate that! I've never run into an employer who didn't do that, though. You ask and they give you the runaround until you're just about to commit.

[mistressxenobia.livejournal.com]

That made no sense.
I mean, WHY would they assume you couldn't do something that you had already done?

People are stupid.

Oh yeah - since you're never here anymore - add my feed to whererever you read. xenobiadotnet
Do you have a feed for your real blog yet?

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but i kind of understand in that i haven't worked with other people's timetables and inside of various interdepartmental corporate boundaries.

& Yay feeds!

Wordpress is great, just dig this: any URL you can find on my site - ANY (that's on my domain) - can be suffixed with "/feed/" and you'll get a feed of that. It's fucked up. There are even hidden things like /comments/feed/ in there and shit that i don't even know about. I want to stick my thing in Wordpress's hole and move back and forth ∞d20 times.*

If you prefer a certain flavor of data, you can even type that in somehow, too. I haven't explored it too much, though, as just the default feed works well for me.




*That's not even the weird part. The weird part is that i want to do that while listening to Hindu Love God's cover of "Raspberry Beret" on 11.

[diziara.livejournal.com]

Go check this out. I'm playing with it, or at least will continue to try playing with it tomorrow, but you're more likely to figure it out than I.

http://www.proveyourworth.net/

Have fun, and let me know if you get it.

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

Yeesh. I gave that thing several of my best guesses. Has anyone figured it out yet?

[diziara.livejournal.com]

I don't know. /. linked to it, and that's about all I know. I figure, they'll probably wait for a few people to figure it out, then take it down when they've got the position filled.

You're going to keep trying, right? I mean, that is the best way to get out of your "must have experience to get a job, you can only get a job to get experience" bullshit loop.

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i'll keep trying. It's just getting old. So am i.

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

i know what you mean about the catch 22 shit. same way in the acting world.

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

i'm sure it's even worse.

[seanp.livejournal.com]

I used four Radio Shack microphones to record everything on my CD. The co-op in Austin that I'm moving into next month has a bunch of Shure SM57s and SM58s @ their disposal, so I'll probably end up using those for vocals.