Job Hunting in Today's Age

I fear that it is getting harder and harder to find a job or an employer willing to even glance at your résumé. During my senior year of college, I applied to more than twenty jobs and only heard back from one company, so I jumped at the opportunity. Now, one year later, I regret jumping at the only offer I received.

To tread water with the cost of living in Minnesota, you need to make roughly $22.00 an hour. Mind you, that is simply enough to live paycheck to paycheck. I do not even make $20.00 an hour. No one in my position makes more than that, and we receive only a three-cent raise each year. At that rate, we would need to work at this company for roughly sixty-seven years just to keep up with today's cost of living.

I am grateful that my husband makes enough to support both of us because I truly do not know what I would do without him. However, I have always been someone who wants to contribute. I want my own spending money, and I want to be able to treat the people around me without worrying about whether I can afford it. Beyond that, when my husband and I are blessed with children one day, I do not know how we will manage all of the expenses that come with raising a family.

Because of all of this, I have been trying to find another job, and I mean trying. I have applied to well over 200 positions and have heard almost nothing back. At least four HR professionals have reviewed my résumé and assured me that there is nothing wrong with it. They have all graciously offered advice on how to improve it, and I have accepted every suggestion with open arms. Yet here I am, still working at the same company, making less than $20.00 an hour.

Lately, I have found myself wondering whether I should quit, go to esthetician school, start doing facials, and throw my four-year Communication degree out the window. But I cannot bring myself to do that. My education cost more than $80,000, and I am not ready to walk away from it just yet.

I have also considered opening my own business and doing marketing for companies in my area. Some days, I even think about quitting my job and becoming a server because I would likely make more money in tips than I currently bring home. Heck I have applied for the same position four different times because my résumé keeps getting filtered out by the AI systems companies use to sort applications.

For now, though, I keep applying. I keep tweaking my résumé. I keep wondering whether the next application will finally be the one that leads somewhere. But I don't get too excited because I know how it feels to think you will hear back but you get rejected.