Job Hunt Blues

[saavedra77]

Alright, then: I've now been offered another political job that won't support my extravagant Capitol Hill lifestyle:

This most recent offer was presented in such a way as to suggest that I'd at least be making more than I was on unemployment. The fine print didn't become clear until after I completed a second interview that took the form of an unpaid "observation night"--doing door-to-door fundraising for them.

The cause was, of course, just: The group is lobbying to create an affordable nonprofit alternative to private health insurance--not a single-payer, mandated system, but a lower-cost option than the for-profit insurers.

So, after four hours of doing the hardsell in a fabulously expensive Shoreline neighborhood, last night, my "observer"--a twenty-year veteran of the business--made me an offer. Much like the last political job I applied for, the starting figure they offered me wouldn't have so much as covered rent and utilities.

I had half a mind to ask the veteran organizers how the hell they supported themselves; given the pay scale they described, they're definitely not living on Cap Hill.

Incidentally, turns out that I kick ass at door-to-door fundraising, despite the fact that I find the process kind of humiliating--which is some small consolation for the giant waste of time this turned out to be, from the standpoint of supporting myself.

Still no word on that IRB job I applied for, time back; but, as a sort of consolation prize, I did receive a call back from a clinical research company that I applied to, last week. I interview with them on Monday morning.

Comments

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I always feel bad for the fundraisers in my area. They go to the poor part of the city and try to solicit funds. It's like, "Yes I agree with what you're saying," and "No I don't have any money right now." And I just know they think I'm lying.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Canvassing the poor part of town just seems counterintuitive--although, if you're sufficiently desperate for funds, I guess that you go everywhere, on the theory that every penny counts. I'm glad that I've never been in that situation, though: one of the ways that I kept guilt at bay was by noting the magnitude of these people's houses, the number of (new-looking) cars in the driveways, the enviable (and inevitably expensive) views. If I were talking to lower-income folks like me, I'd have felt more like a shakedown artist.

Still, I can see canvassers like the ones I was working with rationalizing that everyone who tells them they don't have the money is lying. I think it's part of the way that they psych themselves up for the job.

I did notice that my "observer" (the twenty-year veteran canvasser) tended to get quietly pissy about people who said no or who didn't answer the door. Someone would be audibly watching TV and making no move for the door, and he'd be like: "I guess they just don't care!" I couldn't help but think: well, hell, they don't even know what you're out here asking for, guy. And for all we know, this one's deaf. So "they just don't care" is sort of a stretch. And, God knows, there have been times when I've lacked the energy to deal with strangers at the door--particularly those asking for something.

Personally, my attitude was "just move on," but unlike him I wasn't trying to beat a nightly quota in order to exceed base pay. And given how pathetically low-paid these guys are, and how often they get told "no," I can understand how they might get cynical and angry at people.

Yeah, I'm not particularly well-cut-out for this kind of thing--even if I did have a successful first night in an affluent neighborhood, I'd be too conflicted to do this, every day.

[schmallturm.livejournal.com]

I'd worry about the sanity of someone who has been raising money door to door for twenty years...