In Search of the Wild Job

[There's an entry that mysteriously appeared from last week today. The vagaries of the intertubes are just confounding. Anyway, enjoy.]


I need some help. The job hunt is a major downer, and I'm starting to feel 100% unemployable. (Note to potential employers: I rate somewhere in the 90% employable range, which is totally decent and takes into account my propensity towards crankiness in the pre-10 a.m. hours.) Job hunting in the big city is hard, yo! Plus, I'm trying to shift away from jobs that involve getting pad thai sauce on my shoes, and focus more on jobs that require creativity, passion and maybe have something to do with my interests. Not that I don't like pad thai.


So what do I do? I was talking to my friend Jess last night about the miserable cycle that is job hunting: first we apply, then we hear nothing, then we apply again, then we still hear nothing, then we start eating bon-bons during the day, then we apply, then we hear nothing, then we start believing that we're never going to get a job, then we think about applying, then we wake up sweaty in the middle of the night, then we remember all the places we applied and sigh, then we come to believe that the problem is us. We are somehow flawed. Perhaps I've accidentally constructed my resume to give the impression of vast oceans of stupidity. I should check that.


Part of the problem is finding my passion. I like doing a lot of different things, and it's difficult to find gainful employment that remarks on all of them at the same time. I like working with my hands - what up, power tools? - but I also like to read and write. I dig working independently, but I really enjoy sitting in a room with a bunch of other people, storming the brains and whatnot. I love learning, but I'm not completely sure that life-long student status is for me (for one thing, the debt would be crippling.) I tend to chafe under authority, but I also need a clear corporate hierarchy. See? What is this mythical place?


There's a short list of people whose jobs I covet. For example, Matthew Blackett over at Spacing seems to have a job I could get behind. He gets to run a magazine that's all about urban living and space. Not one of those home-porn rags, since Spacing is about the city rather than the houses. His team writes about things like the TTC and pedestrian activism, the magazine and website are prettily designed, and the merch is awfully cool. Or what about Tammy Thorne, who runs Dandyhorse? I mean, I like bikes, and I like Toronto, and I like to write....colour me jealous.

It's not just people who run magazines, either - Jamie Kennedy (the chef, not the buffoon) seems to have a pretty sweet day job. Adam Giambrone - city councillor, TTC commish, probable 14-year-old - has a cushy gig. Rick Mercer has a good job. I would love to sit these people down and quiz them: how did they get there? What would they change? Are they hiring? Seriously, does my resume make me look like a racist?

I'll get there (someday...probably...oh, god, hopefully), and it won't be sitting behind the desk at the Rick Mercer Report or working the kitchen at JKROM - it'll be doing something totally different, rocking out with the Kaitlyn Kochany Awesome Express.