Looking

The advantage of blogging is that you can use your blog for a variety of purposes. I will be chronicling my job search efforts on Mr. Dilettante, as a way to keep my faithful readership (perhaps up to double digits by now) apprised of my efforts and also to help me stay on track. Unemployment is a dreadful thing – you feel like a hobo in a rail yard as you watch the trains go by, trying to hop a train that keeps moving.

It’s now two days of gainful unemployment. I am working at the Minnesota Workforce Center in lovely Blaine, Minnesota. The State of Minnesota provides a variety of resources to those seeking employment, but at the same time it’s somewhat dehumanizing. In order to take advantage of what is available at the MWC, you need to sign in and essentially make yourself available to the whims of the bureaucracy. Everyone wants to be helpful, of course, but there’s a whiff of the warden in this facility, especially given the number of counselors who patrol the cubes, watching you to ensure you are not doing something bad. I have sent about seven more resumes out to various prospective employers today, the most promising of which is the Memorial Blood Centers of Minneapolis. MBC has had some tough times lately; while they run a tight ship and have always been a praiseworthy organization, it is has been difficult to get people to donate blood in recent years. It’s difficult to understand why – with the ongoing threat of terrorism and the continuing war in Iraq, you would think that people would be willing to roll up their sleeves and offer a pint here and there, but it has not been happening enough. Perhaps I’ll have a chance to do something about that….