The irony of our job market

Job search is a process of testing your patience, filled with indignities, rudeness and frustration. I am kind of sickened with cheap agency jobs advertised all over. I am sickened by how everything is a number game and companies are hiring for unpaid interns to file documents from 5 years ago or to sit in a corner and do some shredding. Are fresh graduates only here to do the "bitch-work?"

First, I used to think that "bitch-work" is just a stage for you to prove yourself to the organization, so that they could offer you something meaningful. But now I think, I was wrong. Dignity is as important to a fresh grad as it is to a CEO of a company.

I am not even sure how to put my frustration into words. But I am pretty sure that some of you might have felt the same way in your job hunting phase. I am sure it didn't happen overnight. My life has revolved more around education and less around acquiring new skills. I can recognize that as my downfall. Unfortunately, making a career switch was also not easy. We are in a highly competitive job market where unpaid internships on Indeed have 400 applicants for one position. That is INSANE.

Seeking an entry level job and finding that you need to have 2-3 years of experience as a prerequisite is probably the most ironic thing. We live in a world of contradictions. How on earth am I supposed to be qualified for an entry level job?

The fact that our resumes get screened out with applicant tracking systems just adds to the problem - we don't even make it to the candidate pool if we don't meet specific requirements. You speak to recruiters and they never call you again. I usually like to do a follow-up but the amount of times I have NEVER received a response drives me crazy. If I was a recruiter, I would definitely let the candidate know that they didn't make it. I would, perhaps, identify something the candidate could work on for the next time as well and provide them feedback. Phone interviews are so monotonous and typical. Yet, I sit in front of this screen and dedicate so much time to just get rejected. People just need cheap labour and students are a great option for that, next to new immigrants (not ALL, I am not generalizing).

I really need to work on keeping my calm through this process because I keep losing it everyday. I am dedicated to networking and job searching everyday. Finding a full time job is a full time job. Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that the entire job hunting process is designed to make you feel worthless (precisely, how I feel at the moment), to feel like just a number among millions. I think I need to step back and take a breather and learn how to cope with all this frustration.