Unemployment Blues

I've been unproductive for the past week. That's what I get for trusting an EC. It's either they're really taking their sweet time making a decision, or I've mis-assessed how evil they actually are and that they have already decided to not call us back but didn't even bother the normal courtesy to inform us. Either way, I still can't believe that considering what we've done for them this past 2 months,and the "professional" relationships we have established, they'd leave us hanging like this. That's why deep down I'm actually keeping some hope that they'd still contact us soon. But I can't hope and wait forever, so I'd give them a day or two before I put my head back in the job hunting game. Also that actually; I'm still hoping that I'd get spared the tremendous hassle of another job hunt.

Surprisingly, I was somewhat looking forward to taking this job, even though research and marketing (worse, the two together, research marketing) is a field I didn't really want to get into. My primary reason for wanting to stay, aside from the shallow yet practical reason of finally having an adequately paying job over the medium-term, was the training. Yes, the workplace is stressful, but this has challenged me to become a better worker, learning habits that weren't properly inculcated into me during high school or college. I was looking forward to being forced to up my game, to level up during the short time I was planning to stay with that company.

Also, I was looking forward to learning something about marketing. Even though in principle I still don't like the idea of it, I can't deny that it has some utility. And utility to me, though I wouldn't want to stick to that field in the future, I would appreciate gaining some potentially useful knowledge and skills from the stuff I was gonna do.

Now my mom tells me to give them until Wednesday before I formally job hunt once more. The idea of it still sucks but what can I do. This is what happens when you place your hope and trust in an EC.

College do-over

I remember this one time, at campus, I was frantically trying to figure out how to arrange my electives to get my European studies minor in a year. The minor allowed Histo 18, European history to be taken as an elective which would have meant that I could have conveniently fulfilled a requirement for the minor without trying and taking up another elective slot since it was a core subject. That is, if I haven't taken Histo 16, Asian History, already instead.


Which made me say with conviction, "The next time I go through college I'm taking Histo 18 for sure!"


Then a few seconds later, "Oh yeah..." Face palm.


It might have been the effect of playing too much video games that made me unconsciously think that I have the power to repeat college as easy as playing through a game one more time out of boredom. That, or everyone has that wish where we could relive a part of our lives, this time correcting for the mistakes I have learned along the way. For me, I think it was the former.


Well I'm just thinking of my simple college do-overs. One would be that, taking Histo 18 instead of 16. Another would be taking German or Italian instead of French. I used to be so obsessed with trying to learn French, and now I don't remember why. Ondoy washed away all my French readings, and along with it almost everything I learned in class. Words, pronunciation, conjugation, all gone. Now, with my interest in World War II and immersing myself in many a movie that has German in it, and, having recently watched When in Rome I'm wishing I took German or Italian instead. I think pronouncing either would have been easier.


Another would be a trick I learned in my last sem. I saw some of my classmates using a notebook made by binding their old readings together so that the clean white backs become the writing pads. That was simply genius. I can't believe I never thought of that, a mind-bogglingly simple way of recycling old readings and getting a free notebook at the same time. I wish I encountered it sooner so I would have done it, though it's not like I take a lot of notes, but still. Well, I'll be teaching that trick to my kids one day.


How about you? I bet you have a simple college do over moment too.



Oh college, how I miss it. I wish I could go to school again. You know what, I think I shall do that. But not Ateneo, I go there often enough. I think I'll go to some other college and see what life is like there.

Cruel Joke

The first time I said it, I might have been exagerrating. This time though I believe it's warranted already. Granted it's probably not intentional, but they should have seen what they were doing. We were (verging on) desperate for a job, and here is one we would really love, promising all the aspects we wanted; decent pay and a chance to work for others while getting to travel. A lot.

And then we were told we had a good chance so we should apply. I did, and the reply the first time was "thanks, we'll call you next year when we're hiring". Wait what? you told us we could apply but apparently not hiring yet. A bit bitter I thought that that was the cruel joke. We were told the chances were high, they were looking for guys, the interview will be easy etc., and then bam, see you next year. I shrugged the thought of, just thought that because since it's November and hirings are difficult during the Christmas season. So I waited patiently.

3 months later and it was on again. My friend delayed his application till the New Year to skip the holiday hiring funk, and so we hoped this would trigger the interview calls. Add again with assurances of 'the company is expanding, looking for guys like you, etc' and we thought this thing was practically in the bag after the interview until the message. Sorry guys, apparently we're not hiring after all. What.

See that's the cruel joke right there. Oh you guys want to join our company, sure just send your applications. We're looking for people like you. Got your resume, just wait for our call next year. Oh I thought your friend is applying? I 'm waiting for his application. Oh here it is, sorry though we're not hiring anytime soon. Wow, thanks for getting our hopes up and stringing us along for months.

Ok, I'm done ranting now. It's time to move on and resume looking for a job. It just sucks to be led on like that.