Tall Drink of Nerd – Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places Sep08

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Tall Drink of Nerd – Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places

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a blogumn by Amy Robinson

After 5.5 months of job-searching and unemployment, I found it ironic to start my 12 week temp job on the Friday before Labor Day. All Hail the Three Day Weekend!images

During recent walks and talks with my husband, I’ve come to realize that my search for the perfect job is very similar to the modern day search for true love. I sign up with agencies to find the right place for me, I scour the internet for keywords that fit my ideal work vocabulary and then I arrange short meetings to see if their employment ring fits on my unemployed finger. Because I honestly and truly want to find a work home, somewhere to stay for the rest of my work-life.

After a recent failed job interview, garnered from CareerBuilder.com, I thought “I can’t believe I shaved my legs for that interview.” This job seemed perfect, like a commercial for eHarmony. Their job post matched my 26 points of compatibility. The pre-interview, phone call was wonderful. Then, while meeting face-to-face, the job was entirely different than what I had expected. It was as if the job had posted a picture of itself from 15 years ago, but had since lost all it’s hair, gained 155 lbs and had moved back in with it’s Mom.

Most often, I’ve taken jobs that seemed fun and challenging because they’ve been readily there for me. The company offers a job and work home and I would be so ready for the opportunity that I say ‘Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!” And I mean it, I look forward to getting to know them, learning their quirks, showing them mine, but then the honeymoon period wears off. My perfect job shows it’s true colors and becomes overbearing, unreasonably demanding and in one instance, actually abusive.

So I go back to the drawing board, heart a little heavier that the connection hasn’t worked out. Someday my dream job will come, and like all successful relationships, it won’t just ride in on a handsome steed, gather me up in an ergonomic chair and ride me off into the sunset. It will come from dedication, understanding and hard-work. And we’ll live happily ever after.