I'm bitter damnit...

I haven't posted in a LONG time.

and I know the reason why. I'm bitter/pissed off right now and have been for a few months. I've always wanted to keep this blog positive. I try not to be a negative person. But it's been hard to be positive recently.

I graduated from library school in August of 2008 and I've been looking for a full time job since then. I'm lucky that I have a part time job at least but it's been hard to get by, I have no benefits as a part timer, and I'd like to start my career that I went to school for.

The student loan payments started up about six months ago. I haven't done the math but I'm guessing that given what I'm payed as a part timer and what I'm paying each month in student loans means I'm working for something like 25 cents an hour.

I had a job interview in August. After sending out something like 50 resumes over the past year it's one of only 4 interviews I've gotten. I thought the interview went fantastic. All the stars seemed to have finally aligned. They were looking for someone with a lot of IT and AV experience. The person who was interviewing me was married to a fellow who went to college with me and had only good things to say. It seemed like I was finally going to get the job I had worked so hard for.

but NO. I was told I was #2. The person doing the hiring had to go for the person who had more real library experience than me. Someone who already had a full time job, had gotten some good experience under his belt, and was ready to move onto a better full time position.

The more I think about it the more pissed off I get. The person doing the hiring had the opportunity to allow a recent graduate their entry into the field. Instead she chose someone who already had a full time job.

I ended up calling the person doing the hiring and talking to her after I hadn't heard after a few weeks. We ended up talking for about a half an hour about the decision she made. She told me that my resume couldn't have been better. My interview was fantastic. I sent a great follow up letter. I couldn't have done anything better. I made no mistakes. But she had to go with the person with more experience. She got dozens of resumes from qualified people many of whom had more experience than me. She told me flat out that she thought it was going to be VERY hard for someone like me, fresh out of school, to get a job given the current economy.

WTF?!

and Mr. Daley's hiring freeze in the Chicago Public Libraries is on it's second year.

so I wanted this blog to be positive. I wanted to write book reviews, music reviews, talk about technology in library issues. but I'm more in the mood to vent these days.

Since the interview I've sent out about 10 more resumes. All for jobs that I'm completely qualified for. Not a single interview. Rejections from all of them. One of my coworkers also thinks there's an institutional age bias in many libraries. That's a topic for another posting...