Rant #2,060: You Can Make It If You Try

Yesterday, I thought I would try another tactic to land a job, one that could actually backfire on me big time ...

But with the way things are going, I truly feel I have nothing to lose.

I received one of those "Dear John" letters yesterday, basically a firm telling me via an email that they would not pursue me as a viable candidate for a particular job.

Here is the letter I received back in my email. It is a form letter, and I have edited it so as to not reveal what company sent it to me.

"Dear Lawrence, 

Thanks so much for your application for the copywriter position at xxxxxx. We received a large number of applications and we wanted to let you know that we have gone in a different direction and have hired another candidate. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to apply for a position with our company.  Best of luck in your future endeavors. 

Best,

xxx"

I have received numerous letters just like this, and I file them away in a folder in my email and I move on from there.

But this time, I thought I would send a reply back to this company, basically asking them, in a very congenial way, why I was not thought to be a viable candidate.

I know that the rejection letter that I received was most probably "signed" by someone who doesn't exist at the company. These names are used for tracking, as well as protection, purposes.

But if they used that name, I would reply back to the name. If it is good enough for them, it is good enough for me.

Here is the letter I wrote back to them. I figured I had absolutely nothing to lose, as they didn't even say they would keep my resume on file, they pretty much dumped me in the vertical file with their return email.

"Dear xxx:

Thanks for sending me this letter.

I have not ever done what I am doing now, and that is, asking you what I lacked in order to be considered a viable candidate for this position.

I have been looking for a new job for the past 14 months, and I have probably applied for about 250 jobs. 

I have had a few phone interviews and one face-to-face interview. 

That is it.

It is frustrating, to say the least.

Is it my age, is it my background, what is it that made your company not want to pursue this with me?

I would like you to be honest. What knowledge I gain can be used to further my pursuit of a new position.

Please, let me know what made you set aside my resume from other viable candidates.

I mean no malice, but I just want to know. After 14 months of looking, I am at my wit's end trying to figure out the job marketplace.

Thanks."

Let me tell you, it is something I have wanted to do for a while. 

No, I don't expect any reply, but I just wanted to see if there was even the slightest chance I would get one.

I guess it was a form of a "vent," but to me, it was a good vent.

I probably won't ever do this again, but I figured that I had nothing to lose. 

If the company was offended by this, then so be it. They weren't going to hire me anyway.

I figure that I have to try some new things, new ways of doing things, thinking outside of the box, in order to get a job in this market.

This might be the lesser of all the different things I do to find a job, but at least I did it. 

Once only.

You cannot understand what I am going through unless you have been through this yourself. I just read an article asserting that 56 percent of those polled feel the time is right at the current moment to look for a new job. I am sure that most of the respondents have not been looking recently, because based on my experiences, this is the worst time in the past 30 or so years to look for a new job.

You can read the article here if you like: http://news.gallup.com/poll/225071/americans-optimism-job-market-hit-record-high-2017.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

Again, I am basing this pessimism on what I have gone through. Maybe if I was in a different situation, things would not be so bad, but no, I don't have the least bit of optimism about the job market in 2018, which I hope somehow, someway, is better than the job market in 2017 was.

At least I still have my job while I am looking ... I keep telling myself this, but it doesn't soothe me as much as you might think.

I know that one day, sometime soon, I am going to come to work, only to find out that there is no more work.

There are so many question marks hanging over my head, including the fact that I cannot plan for anything in the near future, because I don't know what is happening a day, a week, a month from now.

And that pretty much sums up the reasons why I did what I did today, and I have to say it made me feel good ... at least I was being proactive in my approach ...

Maybe a little stupid, too, but maybe that is the way to go about this.

I am in a box already, so maybe thinking outside of the box a little bit will get my juices flowing again.

Who knows?