Recently I've been jobsearching for "regular" jobs again and I've been getting frustrated. Then I remembered a HORRIBLE job app experience that I had a few years ago when I was (reluctantly, unfortunately) in the same damn boat jobwise as I am now. I just had to share this as a way to vent and receive feedback.

It was three years ago(early summer 2003) and I'd just completed my junior year of college. I had some extra time on my hands, so I decided to do as I always did with spare time, and go apply for a job that was above the level of a high-schoolish, min-wage McJob like virtually all the jobs I'd held so far. I walked around a strip mall and was checking out different insurance firms. I went into an Allstate firm and when the only guy there asked me if he could help me with anything, I told him that I was looking for an administrative job and if there were any available or if there would be any perhaps opening soon. He was your average middle-aged guy and I'm guessing the manager and one of the few reps there during the early afternoon. He said in the same cheerful coochy-coo voice that adults use when talking to small children, "No I don't, but I appreciate a little girl like yourself looking for a job!" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was insulted! So I responded, somewhat hautily, with "Actually, I'm not a little girl. I have just completed my junior year of college as a double-major in Mathematics and Biology. I actually have an internship lined up ahead of time with Rohm-and-Haas pharmaceuticals for this fall but was seeking a position that could utilize just some of my skills in the mean time." The Rohm-and-Haas line was a bunch of bullshit, but I wanted to look prestigious and sophisticated, goddamit! Cause if I admitted him that I was currently working at Donatos Pizza and had recent experience working as as clothes-folding mutt at Kids-R-Us and an ice cream scooper at Friendly's Ice Cream, I woulda looked even more childish! We talked for a little longer, such as about my skills & education, and the guy hesitated for a moment and said "So I see, you're looking for some line of office work..." --and I thought that he was finally beginning to see me for what I was, and view me as more than some 14-yr-old child, until he finished his sentence in his initial jovial voice with, "...You might want to try the place next door. They give their employees *FREE ICE CREAM*!!" And on the last part, his eyes lit up in the same way as when adults tell their children that the circus clown is giving away free balloons. I was a bit confused, thinking "what, does the office next door have an ice cream lunch, similar to how offices provide their employees with coffee and complimentary sandwiches on Fridays?"...until I walked next door, and realized that the place next door was a fucking Fried Chicken 'n Ice Cream shack!!!!!

WTF was that guy's problem? Sure, I looked young for my age(I had blonde hair then, and was flat as a board...this was before my implants), but anyone could tell you that I looked older than 14, especially with the big vocabulary that I used and the way that I discussed my college credentials. And he didn't really seem like the asshole type who was trying to mock me either, I honestly think that he honestly just viewed me as a kid! This made me feel very hurt and insulted for the rest of the day. Why oh WHY can't people see me for the college graduate that I am, with my B.A. in Mathematics, my 140 I.Q., my 1410 SAT score and all! And now 3 yrs later, I'm stuck in the same damn boat as when I was 20 and that guy insulted me...even the average 14-yr-old woulda gotten a better job by age 17, than I have in 3 yrs!