Applying for a Job

I know that this will date me, but one of the things I don't like about modern life is the "new" way to seek and apply for a job. Throwing my resume into the ether of the internet is not in my opinion an especially personable way to look for a job. All the old advice about glad-handing people and getting the name of the person to whom you are addressing your resumé is completely outdated these days unless you are fortunate enough to have a contact. You can call them and ask for a name but 9 times out of 10 they won't give it to you. How can you write an effective cover letter if you don't know who to address it to? "Dear Staffing Specialist"? "Dear HR Director"? I've been told by HR people that today it's perfectly acceptable to use generic titles since they don't like giving out personal information about their staff to applicants. These days finding a job is like answering a personal ad on a dating site: Impersonal at best and not very satisfying.

Mind you, the last time I got a job was in 2001. I signed up with a temporary agency, which placed me in a position in less than 2 weeks. I ended up getting the job as a permanent employee. So I've never had to use the internet to find a job until now. I'm not one of those dinosaurs who finds it hard to adjust to the new world of the internet, though. In fact, I have wholeheartedly embraced it since practically day one. I just have some issues with it based on my likely exaggerated (and to some people outdated) sense of morality.

I just feel that there's something surreptitious and underhanded about some aspects of the internet. Let's face it; the internet puts us in social situations that were unheard of until barely 15 years ago. We have not even seen the full extent of this yet. As new social networking sites develop, we find ourselves unwittingly cast into more socially sensitive situations than ever before. As an example, just think about the many faux pas committed by well meaning friends and relatives who post your private business on your Facebook wall. As time goes on we may learn better how to deal with these sorts of situations, but the point is that they are different and potentially more damaging than what we were used to before this type of site existed.

I have also read many articles which claim that the anonymity of the internet can encourage misrepresentation and treating people like objects. I have been on the receiving end of that behavior more than I'd like to remember, and in fact I think it's on the increase. The more we use the internet for what used to be done in more personal ways, the more we risk de-personifying people (OK I know I made up a word there). The thing is, the more we depersonalize our interactions, the more we encourage treating other people with a lack of respect that we once at least felt obligated to emulate if not feel in our hearts. And the more people whose moral character is of questionable nature can use the internet to misrepresent themselves to other people, the more we all will be on the receiving end of such behavior. Being aware of this is no real help, though. It just creates more of an atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust. We wonder what the next joker is hiding or lying about to us, and how impersonally and disrespectfully they will treat us. It doesn't do much for one's faith in human nature.

Then again, what I am blaming the internet for might actually be in part a function of being able to see what people are like in a way that was not as easy before it existed. Now it is just too easy to hide behind a cloak of anonymity whilst spouting off insults and other disrespectful comments. I have shared pearls of wisdom on some chat boards only to be immediately cut down by the resident morons. I admit that I'm a sensitive soul and find this kind of thing very demoralizing. But even if one has a thicker skin, since when in the name of "free speech" did we decide it was OK to do away with a sense of polite decorum? And what a coward's game it is. You see the most insecure and immature know-it-alls all over the internet making the most incredibly selfish and small minded comments.

It's not just a difference of opinion, either. Take for example the guy that claimed that the shark handler at Sea World deserved to die because of her own stupidity. It's that kind of incredible comment I'm talking about. Is this the kind of stuff people think when they don't have to be personally accountable for their opinions?

I remember back when I was doing the dating sites I contacted a man who at first seemed like a good prospect. He owed me no reply but couldn't seem to contain himself from writing back just to let me know that I was not "young" enough for him (he was in his early 50s while I was in my mid 40s at the time!) because he was looking to have children. OK, fair enough, he wants kids and even back then I was getting a little past my time for that, but the point is why tell me that? Did he have to rub it in? It felt to me like he had done it spitefully, as if to say, "You have some nerve writing to me". Either that or he was really that clueless and didn't realize how a woman might take such a comment. I was hurt, understandably. Perhaps I never knew what jerks some people could be until I opened myself up to them on the internet. After all, before the internet it was not as easy to connect with so many jerks. Perhaps some of my disgust comes from now knowing just how crappy people can be when it is easy for them to be that way.

I shudder at the thought that young people might actually accept this kind of "say whatever you think" behavior as "normal", having grown up witnessing many interactions that do not adhere to the pre-internet sense of propriety. Already, people nearing 50 and over are lamenting that many younger people are not learning the social skills that we used to be forced to learn in the "real world". A sense of propriety about what to do and say to other people is something I would think is hard to learn on the internet alone. One needs face-to-face interaction to learn many of the social skills we need to treat people fairly and with respect. I do think that kids today learn those skills if they are fortunate enough to be raised in an environment that encourages face-to-face interaction, but if not, they can turn out deficient in them. It's not a terminal disease, but it can take years to overcome.

As I throw my resumé into the abyss yet another time I wonder whether anyone is going to read it let alone consider me for the job. If I could go there in person and shake hands with the director, perhaps I would feel like I had a chance instead of like just one of possibly many hundreds who have anonymously (and a little surreptitiously perhaps) cast their offerings. Oh, but I forgot, HR directors don't have time for that kind of personal interaction anymore. So I guess I must accept my de-personification and sit at my computer over-worrying about hook lines and paragraph structure instead. OK, I might have to accept it, but I don't have to like it!

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Look for more strange musings later.....