Tone it down a little and act dumb. You'll be hired in a skinny minute.
Monday comes around, and our hero reports to the boss's office at 9:00 AM.
The boss looks up from his work to ask what the young fellow wants.
The young fellow says, "Sir, don't you remember me? You hired me last week."
The boss replies, "Oh yeah. Here, take this broom and start sweeping the floor."
The young fellow responds, "But sir, I'm a Harvard Graduate."
The boss answers, "Oh alright--I'll show you how."
I could start all over tomorrow mowing lawns, cleaning pools or something, and make enough money to get by until I ran across an opportunity to do something that I liked that would utilize that education. Then I would soar like an eagle, never looking back and would someday bore the hell out of my grandkids with tales of hardship.
Same here. I graduated college in a recession and spent months looking for work. Ended up taking a part-time tech writing/office assistant/guy friday job that was "beneath me". But I didn't go whining about it, and guess what, I parlayed the experience on that job to a full time position with the same firm, then took that to a Fortune 500 software company that paid for night school. I took that and parlayed it into a good programming career.
My point? The lady should stop whining, start small, and work up. That's the way it happens in real life.
I graduated from Yale in 1964. I also majored in English, plus a separate complete major in Political Science. I also worked my butt off.
There was not an economic downturn going on when I entred the job market. But I chose to move to San Francisco, where jobs do not grow on trees. So, what was my first job as a Yale graduate?
I sold Fuller Brush products door-to=door. That's right, lady, a sample case of brushes, well-shined shoes, trudging up to the doors of house after house. It sure as heck wasn't what I expected when I got my sheepskin in New Haven. But I had a wife to support and a child on the way.
I did not have time to whine about people not bowing down and offering me money when I waved my degree. I needed honorable income. I needed it now. And whining about anything would have done me and my family no good.
Since then I've done many things that I thought better justified the excellent education I got at Yale. But I will never forget the experience of my first job as a graduate.
I have zero sympathy for you, lady. You have a rotten attitude to go with your degree. Maybe if you sold some brushes door to door for a few months you would wake up and smell the coffee. In the meantime, take your whining elsewhere. This homey don't buy it.
Congressman Billybob
New column: "The Truman Factor."
Post Script to my friends on FreeRepublic: I am bone wery of trying to communicate with or through the Atlanta Constitution. But if anyone wants to send them by response to this article, feel free. If they had the guts to print it, I would cheerfully give them my name, address, phone number, social security number, identifying moles, and a description of my supervisor at Fuller Brush in the fall of 1964, who was a fine boss, by the way.
Let's see - leftist, elitist wench "deserves" high-paying job despite lack of demonstrated business achievement. Cry me a river.
Boortz was talking about this the other day. He's ALL OVER this gal, has invited her to call in. Like that will happen! HA!
Here's Boortz's commentary on this from today's Nealz Nuze:
ATLANTA’S “WAILING YALIE”
We first started talking about this a week ago. Her name is Shawna Gale, and she is a Yale graduate. (I’ll pause here to let you get over your sense of amazement.) Shawna wrote a column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution a week ago bemoaning her difficulties in finding a job. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, you know, because, after all, she graduated from YALE! With an English degree no less!!!!
If you haven’t yet read Shawna’s column .. here’s your link. http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/tuesday/opinion_c3692eaa024a915a00f5.html
Now … please note the last line of Shawna’s complaint. “Will someone please tell me where I went wrong?”
I bring this up again today because Shawna has become somewhat of an Internet hot-topic! One particular website has names here the “Wailin’ Yalie.” Readers of this website have been taking her to task since her column appeared. No, you don’t have to go search for that site. Here’s your link. http://www.obscurestore.com/letters.html
OK … let’s read her column and take a stab at this “where I went wrong” bit.
It’s not your Yale degree that’s holding you back, Shawna. It’s your leftist, anti-achievement, holier-than-thou, snotty, arrogant elitist attitude. You somehow have developed an idea that you’re really some kind of hot stuff – with your Yale degree and all – and that people should be dragging their butts through ten miles of hot coals just to pick up a copy of your resume!
Just look at these excerpts from your AJC column:
“I have many valuable skills honed during my days with Dickens, my nights with Nabokov, those wee hours with Woolf.”
Well, isn’t that special. Dickens, Nabokov and Woolf. Those people who could offer you the jobs you want probably don’t know Nabokov and Wolf from their neighbor’s gardener, and your elitist name-dropping fails to impress them. Tell them you’ve read The Wall Street Journal and that you’re a fan of Thomas Sowell.
“I can read long, wordy, small printed works with relative speed and what's more, I can remember what I have read and write long, wordy, papers about it …”
It’s not the reading, it’s the understanding. And businessmen don’t like long, wordy papers. Tell them you can read something obscure and complicated and translated it into language that someone with a sixth-grade education can understand. So, you can write on a Yale level. Can you write on an Atlanta government schools level?
“If I leave the degree behind, I am hired on the spot to wait tables for $10 to $20 an hour depending on tips (and since I have well-developed public relations skills from that internship with the Commission on Human Rights, I will get closer to $20 an hour).”
Take a hint. First of all – there’s nothing demeaning about making $20 an hour waiting tables. You’ll learn a lot more about people in this job than you did in your years at Yale. Secondly, forget that internship with the Commission on Human Rights. Telling people about this experience is like tattooing “I’m a brain-dead liberal with no rational thinking skills” on your forehead. If I was looking at your resume I would guess that you think the U.S. is a major worldwide violator of human rights. I would then toss your resume in the circular file.
“Erase Yale from my past and with little trouble I land a retail position helping rich ladies whose most prized degree is their "Mrs." find handbags to match the only type of investment they know how to make: shoes.”
Oh, I see. You went to Yale. You can read wordy, small printed works. You have an English degree. You’re hot stuff and much too good to spend time with those evil “rich ladies” who have done nothing in life but get married and buy shoes. I can’t think of any employer, save a college or university, who would want an elitist snot like you on their payroll. You want to work for a publishing company? Fine --- what if those “rich ladies” want to buy something you’ve worked on? Would that offend your Ivy League sensibilities?
Look, Shawna. Cut to the chase. You’re a leftist. Private businesses don’t like to hire leftists. Get a teaching job at a college or university where you belong. Go look for a permanent paid job on that Commission on Human Rights. Send a resume to the Democratic Party or the U.N. There just has to be a place for you somewhere.
Oh, poor baby. Too hard.
My advice: go out and apprentice yourself to a plumber.
==================
My sister started out teaching school. Burned out after 6 years. Took a non-paying job at an advertising agency for one year. Hired by Disney; soon rose to director of a division called "Disney School House", which sold educational aids for teachers based on Disney characters. Got pregnant with twins. Began working from home as a childrens' book writer. Developed contacts in Hollywood and eventually became a successful screen-writer for childrens' TV, working with Shelly Duval and Jean Stapleton.
Interesting career, eh? Notice she did not feel sorry for herself, explored her potential, and worked hard--ending up doing very well.
--Boris
Add to that a pompous sense of entitlement. Then add in the resentment others are sure to feel when they see you sneering at making only $20 an hour, whatever the job is, and brushing it off because it's not in your field.
And to top it all off, I'd say writing this article was a really huge mistake. One can have that kind of egotistic attitude and still manage to be employable as long as you can feign humbleness. However, what company is going to want to hire someone who will certainly, thanks to the internet, now have a well-publicized and notorious reputation?
I'd gladly be an NFL quarterback, a Travel Channel correspondent, or a culinary writer for $0 an hour.
I have no sympathy for this whiner. When I think about cops and teachers in my area making $25K a year and doing it gratefully, I wish her a long and miserable career in food services. Maybe in 5 or 10 years she can move up to assistant manager.
First, that's an excellent start.
But that's not so. I have many valuable skills honed during my days with Dickens, my nights with Nabokov, those wee hours with Woolf.
...and there you go. I'm sending a personality issue.