faulker009

It’s been roughly 25 days, four hours, 17 minutes and 33 seconds since my appearance on CNN’s 30-Second Pitch. And still no job. But who’s counting. To be perfectly honest, I thought I would get a response from a lot of people, but I didn’t expect to get a job out of it. The good news is I have in fact heard from A LOT of people. The bad news, I suppose, is that I am still unemployed. I did connect with many different people from around this great country, most showing support for my situation. There was a wonderful lady who said I was the most inspiring person she had ever seen on that segment.    She then offered me a job way outside of my field and WAAAAAAAAAAY outside of my comfort level. But to have a “stranger” extend that offer, when many of my “friends” can’t even return an email, for that I will be forever grateful. There have been several people who have expressed an interest in my writing.   (I wonder if they have actually read this blog.) But to this point, th...

Hi and Thanks. Those three words were on the subject line of a recent email I received from a loyal reader. On the surface, it looked a whole lot like so many of the other incredible emails of support I have received since I started writing this blog nearly four months ago. But there was something inside that was not so ordinary. The note, from a wonderful 26-year old with her entire life in front of her, spoke about how she recently moved back in with mom and dad because her paid internship had ended and she couldn’t get a full-time job. She was working two jobs and was still not able to pay the rent to live on her own.   She said that many of her friends are going through similar troubles and that it's hard not to get bogged down in the negative. I hear you sister. She said that my blog inspired her to restart her own blog in “an attempt to express some of my feelings about this new world I’m entering.” That’s where many notes I have received just like it, ended. But not hers. Sh...

With those two little words -- “Checking In” -- on the subject line of an email that arrived at 7:18am, the tone for day was set. When I was working, there would be days where it felt like I couldn’t go a minute without getting a new work email. Now, I go full days without getting anything. I’m even off the list of people to get their package enlarged -- if you know what I mean. I used to look forward to seeing my voice mail light unlit, now I can’t wait for the phone to ring, even if it’s a telemarketer. It’s hard to believe that people were only talking to me because of where I was and not who I was, but with each passing day, it’s becoming more clear. Perhaps the most disappointing and discouraging part of this unemployment process is the lack of response from people I considered friends. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting and am not expecting ANY kind of free meal and I certainly never expected somebody to hand me a job “just because we were friends”, but I didn’t expe...