Will work for extra rice!

January 4, 2008, 11:47 a.m.

Sender: Geist

“Anu oras daw interview at ilan kailangan, pagtinanong kunin m numbr nla kasi nawal phone ko d b, yun nakalagay s resume k o or bgay m new number ko, parang gus2 ko dun, maraming extra rice hehe”

So after my emo episode, I needed to distract myself and finally shift my job-hunting mode into overdrive. I revised my resume to make it “look” more impressive and I began the exciting and tiring ordeal of a walk-in applicant. During that time, JobsDB, Jobstreet and Trabaho.com were my favorite websites and I carefully planed my route to maximize the drop-off of resumes to each office of each building in Makati and Ortigas. I remembered walking-in in all of the buildings on one side of Ayala Avenue one day and walking the other side the next. My most hated line was “We will call you back as soon as the position opens” since 90% of the time they will not call.

I must have printed close to a hundred copies of my resumes during that period and I was slowly growing more and more depressed at the time with every rejection and lack of response from employers. At first I did not want to try applying for a call center position because I had this false sense of pride since I am an LLB degree holder. I do not want to bad mouth the call center industry because I know they have provided employment to a lot of fresh graduates and those unemployed but I was so desperate that I even went to apply for a call center position but when they saw my credentials they told me I was overqualified for the position.

*Sigh.*

There was one highlight during my job hunting that stands out. Me, Geist and Beneboy were walking along Paseo de Roxas and we found ourselves in one of the insurance companies operating in Makati. When we entered the office there was a sudden change of priorities and an implied conspiracy was established.

The pigs that we are, we suddenly shifted from job hunting to girl hunting.

In my humble opinion that office had the most number of attractive office ladies and wearing the best-looking office uniforms in Makati. We were exchanging knowing glances as we were waiting to be interviewed as employees passed us by. When we got to the final interview we talked with the Head HR and informed us that they cannot hire us because we were overqualified for the position since what they were hiring at the time is for insurance agents. Oh well, I think that was the most “fun” I’ve ever had being rejected for a job application.

They must have a strong perv repellant radar installed somewhere in the office.

Anyway Geist landed a job in Makati for a large corporation later and I was not yet employed that time. But things would change soon, I hoped.