Hunting and Gathering

Here's the Status of my Status List, continually changing since June and perhaps it needs to be cleaned up, but I think it speaks to the trials and tribulations of finding a job. Names and addresses have been omitted.

(Company Name): (name) called me about the position September 11, I have an interview at 10AM Wednesday the 13th at their office (address). Print, fill out and bring the application from their website. Emailed thank-you for the interview Thursday, phoned and left two messages with (name) Friday the 15th, spoke to her on the phone Sept. 18 and she said she is still working on things and talking to (name), I should call back on wed the 20th to touch base and see again if we can set up an interview.
Contacted (firm name), sent letter Sept. 7 (nyc)- just for the heck of it.
Tell (name) I sent an application to (Firm Name).
(Firm Name)-left message around September 1 wit (name). Spoke to (name) on the 7th, Call back Monday the 11th to try to set up an interview for Wednesday (he had a deadline)- left a message 930 am Sept. 11 saying I was interested in setting up an interview, and will call back. He is out office most of the day the 12th (call back wed) INTERVIEW FRIDAY MORNING 900 September 15!!! Good interview but they are not hiring at this time.
(Firm Name): talked to (name) on September 1, he hasn't seen my resume yet because it was on (name)’s desk (he is looking for someone with 4 to 8 years for his own group but I don't fit in that category. I said I would call back next week (Sept. 5-8)- spoke to (name) again on the 7th of Sept., call back the 8th of Sept. If I haven't heard from them by then- they are still working on it when I called back on the 11th, call back wed. The 13th to check in again... found out they are only looking for someone with 5-8 years exp.
(Firm Name)- not hiring anytime soon.
(Firm Name)- spoke to (name) on the 8th, call back in two weeks (Aug. 22) if still interested... yet they probably don't have a good "working-learning" position
(Company Name)- on Aug. 7 check back in a week or two (Aug. 14-21), not really interested in this position.
(Firm Name)- left message on someone's (name?) answering machine 7th... re-sent resume they lost on the 8th left message with (name) on the 10th
(Firm Name)- did not stop in Fri. 11 Aug.- but sent resume email on the 7th or so. He is looking for someone on contract basis only, and has no need at this time.
(Firm Name)- brought resume in on the 7th left message with (name) who is in charge of hiring on the 8th and again on the 10th. (Name)? (Pdx Blog?)
(Firm Name)- spoke to principal (name), check back in three weeks (Aug. 29)
(Firm Name)- check back in about a month (Sept. 6-9), or make it three weeks (Aug. 30)- although (city website of major project competition) says late Sept.- called and left a message Mon. Sept. 18.
(Firm Name)- call on TUES (15th)- not really interested in this firm

(Company Name)- INTERVIEW AUG 29 130 PM
(Firm Name)- call back October
(Firm Name)- walk-in Aug. 21, spoke to (name) in the afternoon. Call back on the 22nd to see if we can set up an interview. 1st interview Tuesday AUG 29 930 AM- (name) is out the first week of September but the week after to set up a second interview (CALL FIRM THE 11TH OR 12TH TO SET THIS UP) called the 11th, need to call back the 13th(wed) to set up second interview!!! Called back the 13th, need to try back again later this week (he won't be looking at it until tomorrow the 14th)- called back the 15th and set 2nd interview for the 18th, went to interview on the 18th and didn't get an offer, but must call back between Friday the 23rd and Tuesday the 27th to set up a third…
(Firm Name)- walk-in Aug. 21, not interested in this firm
(Company Name)- (name and title), (position). Interview FRIDAY AUG 31 900 AM (address) (left off elevator)- not interested in this job.


To do:
Call back: (Firm Name), (Firm Name), (Firm Name), (Firm Name), (Firm Name), (Firm Name).
Stop in (Firm Name)
Stop in (Firm Name),
Email or stop in (Firm Name) (address) see archinect ad- (name) works at (Firm Name)
Call (Firm Name)

peer pressure

“You need to get out there.”

Fuck you.

I can’t believe how insensitive my peers can be when it comes to the fact that I am not working.

I just called a friend of mine who just got back from Copenhagen where he spent the summer studying to say hey and let him know I’m glad he’s back. He sounded appalled that I didn’t have a job yet after having graduated this spring. Since I hadn’t been working, he wanted to know what tangible thing I had done with my time instead.

I’ve encountered this line of questioning and heard the disgust in the tone of my peers time and time again. It seems that many (about half) of them think they have a right to judge my choices and actions on the fact that we went to school together, and are therefore similarly qualified for work.

I have come to believe that there are only two acceptable responses to interrogations from my peers regarding my work situation:

1. The “I’m working really hard at it” line:
I feel compelled to list all of the things I have done since graduation and why, to prove that I have worked hard. However, it is nearly impossible to do this in any reasonable amount of time in thorough detail, so inevitably it turns into a session of listening to patronizing, unsolicited advice (this is the hard of the issue, since clearly to all of these folks if I have really been trying I would be working, right? Obviously I’m some kind of idiot.) Unfortunately, the only thing that is polite in this situation is to smile, say thanks, and listen while trying not to seem as irritated as I feel.

2. The “I don’t give a fuck” line:
This one works a little better. I act like I have been just taking it easy and enjoying myself, decidedly becoming the waste-of-life that I am perceived to be. Life’s a beach, dude, and the surf’s up.

I have learned an enormous amount during the past two and a half months, and I have come back to a place of equilibrium after being wound up in a challenging thesis project for the past year. My confidence is constantly being tested, if not by the process of finding a job, by the people who doubt my judgment. However, I still believe in me… and for those who don’t… go fuck yourselves.

not the type

Genial manners are good, and power of accommodation to any circumstance, but the high prize of life, the crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness.
RW Emmerson

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
HD Thoreau

Wisdom is one of the few things that look bigger the further away it is.
Terry Pratchett

Wise words I typed today while testing my typing speed. Perhaps my wpm should go on my resume? It's rather fast.
Speaking of the resume, it is well refined otherwise; the font is nice, there's a little graphic in the corner, it details the accomplishements of my last ten years of life... I thought I would have a job by now but I don't.
It's not the resume's fault by any means, the poor thing has been overworked and should not also take the blame for my unemployment affliction. I have come down with a terrible case, the causes of which are intermitent pride and chronic comfort, and if it continues I will soon have to tie a tourniquet around the part of me that enjoys indoor living and eating.
Although me today may be partly to blame, the foolish me of my youth was the one who cashed the check of carfree living in favor of a graduate education in architecture. Since the first dollar of yet unearned money she spent, I have been supporting her upon my soon to be weary back, and carrying the guilt of future me's torture by CAD heavy in my heart.
So what is the intermediate me to do to lighten the burdens I now face in the very near future? One accidental strategy seems to be to sabotage any opportunity at employment in the profession. Another, perhaps more reasonable strategy is to follow the shit sandwhich approach and find a way to set a trajectory for earning some money in the forseable future (my father always said life is like a shit sandwhich, the more bread you have, the easier it is to take). Yet I still hear a nagging voice -perhaps the same little bitch who got me in trouble in the first place- that says "you would make a good architect, you will get there, and it is to be your life's work".
Well what the hell do you know, little bitch voice? Do you have something else to say to me, like how I am going to make that happen and still be able to live the rest of the life I want- maybe buying a house, maybe having kids, maybe having a social life or travelling or other things? There is no provision when you sign on to become an architect that says you will ever get there, and by there I mean to the place where architects think they will be someday, the place where society thinks all architects reside. That there is a place where your pencil drawings are behind glass- where people come to you for inspired creations- or maybe just where you don't have to work within shitty norms anymore because someone believes in your work. In fact, there is no provision that says you will ever get beyond the point of being someone else's draftsperson, or that if you do you will be able to establish yourself well enough to eat. If these things still hang in the balance after all of the rest of the things that make up the good life are, at least to some extent, forsaken, then how is it reasonable to listen to you, little voice, for one more minute?
Indeed I am ill, with the bias to some pursuit which may find me in employment but not likely happiness. Perhaps the concious endeavour that I must undertake is to pursue something else, or to find some puritanical way to believe that the yoke of this profession is not in fact burdensome, but elevating.

it's about time

here's the letter I just finished writing to british airways about my lost baggage claim from this summer. needless to say I was pissed enough to not be able to finish it until now.


01/16/2006


British Airways Customer Relations USA
75-20 Astoria Blvd.
Jackson Heights, NY 11370


To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing in regards to my lost baggage claim. This is a very upsetting matter for me and I have been unable to do anything about it for the past couple of months. Let me tell you the story.

I am a graduate student in architecture, and in the spring of 2005 I was a graduate student saving her money for a big trip to see the architectural wonders of Europe. I bought some nice new clothes and packed up all of my favorite things and headed off to Rome.

When I arrived in Rome I was told that my baggage had not arrived along with me, but it would be delivered to my hostel in a couple of days. I proceeded to the hostel with only the clothes on my back, having worn these for almost 48 hours, and with nothing to change into to sleep!
The next morning I woke up in the same filthy outfit and, instead of going to see the pantheon or the coliseum, I set off to find a place in town to buy some underwear, pajamas, socks, pants, a shirt, and a bra so that I could not only wash the outfit I was wearing, but perhaps feel a little more comfortable. Mind you, this is not an easy undertaking when you don’t speak the language, don’t know the city and its districts, don’t know the public transportation routes, and are by one self in traveling. This unexpected need for the essentials, and for daily clothes washing, was suddenly eating up all of my time in this city that I had come to explore.
When I figured out the phone system and called the number given to me by the BA representative at the airport, I was told that my bag had not been found yet. All I wanted, though, was to hear that it was on its way so I could wear my favorite sweater, wear the new clothes I had purchased for the trip, and finally feel like I had arrived. This wasn’t about to happen.
The third day I was in Rome the rain was coming down as hard as I had ever seen and I wished I had the raincoat I had packed in my bag. However, trying to buy one at that point would have eaten up more of my time, so I went around wet for the day.

The time came for me to leave Rome for a trip to hill towns in the Marche (east of Rome) to meet up with my architecture-traveling partner for the rest of the trip, and my bag had not yet arrived. The Hostel manager in Rome, a nice gentleman named Nevio, told me that he would be kind enough to accept the bag if it were to arrive within the next couple of days, so that I could make an detour and come back through Rome to retrieve it on my way to my next destination, Barcelona, Spain. I called the BA customer service number to make sure that you knew that I was continuing my trip to Barcelona, gave you the date of my arrival there, and was told that I would be telephoned when the bag arrived in London (so you could be certain that it was sent to the right place).

All the while I was constantly growing disgusted of the couple of garments that I had, trying to purchase things as I went without disrupting my itinerary too much. However, it remained a constant struggle to keep the few clothes that I had clean; I was wasting a lot of time and money on laundry, and a lot of energy finding the things I needed.

When it came time for me to leave Italy I contacted Nevio at the hostel in Rome again, had my bag arrived? Would I be going through Rome to pick it up before continuing on? It had not arrived he said, and so I could only hope that I would get the phone call that it had arrived in London soon, and it could be delivered to my hostel in Barcelona.

After my first night in Barcelona, my friend and I set out early to visit the monumental church of the holy family in the morning. While sketching some of the beautiful details of the building I received a phone call, not from British Airways in London but from my new friend Nevio, my bag had arrived! “When are you returning to Rome to pick it up?” he asked me. I had to tell him I am sorry, there had been a mistake, I would not be returning to Rome.

Later that day I had someone who spoke English and Spanish look up the customer service number for BA in the Barcelona phone book and phoned you to find out what had happened. I told the customer service representative that I was no longer in Rome and would not be returning, and asked that the bag be picked up and sent to my home address in
Eugene, OR so that there would be no further confusion as to my location, and so that I would be sure to get the bag that contained all of my new and my favorite things returned to me even if not while on the trip! They said that they would send a “telex” to the representatives at the Rome airport telling them that the bag had been wrongly delivered and that they needed to pick it up so it could be sent elsewhere.

I had resigned myself to the idea that I would not see my things during this trip, which was a reality I had gradually become accustomed to. When traveling, one has to roll with the punches, make the best of things, and enjoy things as they are. I was determined not to let this situation with my luggage ruin my trip, although at times this was a difficult determination to stick with.

When I returned home I called British Airways in the United States and asked about the location of my bag. They told me that no changes showed on my file, I was told that another “telex” would be sent to the British airways desk at the Rome Airport, and instructed by the customer service official to call in a few days to check on the status of my bag.
After a few days I called again. Another telex was sent, and I was instructed to call back in a few days.

I continued to call your customer service line every few days for about a month, increasing the frequency of my phone calls to every other day or so as I became increasingly frustrated with the situation. I could not understand why it was so difficult to get the bag returned to me, we knew exactly where it was! But I assure you, I heard the word telex more times than I would like to recall.

Eventually on one of these routine calls I became a bit worked up and told the woman I was speaking with that I was terribly frustrated. I recall asking her “Why can’t they get my bag back to me? I have the address for where it is, and you have it as well. I have the phone number for the hostel manager, and so do you. You have ‘telexed’ the Rome Airport two dozen times or so. Why is nothing happening?”

She was very kind (as were most of your representatives, but she was especially so. I believe her name was Rebecca?) She put me on hold and contacted her manager to see if it was possible to PHONE the BA airport officials in Rome (what a brilliant idea!) Eventually she agreed to call me back and let me know what was happening. I very much appreciated her willingness to stick with me to help me resolve this issue. When she called me back I was told that the problem had been that as soon as my bag had been delivered to the hostel in Rome, my case had been closed, and so no action had been taken about my bag.

Rebecca proceeded to issue me a new case number and effectively re-open the file, something that could have been done by any one of the many representatives I had talked to. Rebecca had even stuck with me beyond a singular phone call; she took my number and called me back as progress was being made on my case. With the re-opened file and the British Airways people in Rome contacted, I was soon given an itinerary for my bag’s return; it would be flying through Seattle and home to me!

I waited and waited and it did not arrive. I made a few more calls and was told it was scheduled to take certain flights to get back to Eugene, but no one seemed to know more than that (at this point anyone who I talked to about my case had to spend about six to eight minutes while on the line with me just reading my case file, and I was regularly told by your representative that it was the longest missing baggage case file they had ever seen!!)

By this time it was September and I was returning home to visit my family in Colorado, all of who were wondering if I had gotten my bag back yet. My older brother became infuriated with the story I told him of what had happened and asked for the number to call you.

I was shocked and surprised that when he used a harsh tone with the representative on the other end of the line, he was told things that I had never heard, including the phrase: “I can’t say for sure that it’s lost, but… it’s lost.”

So I gave up hope. It had seemed that, although at one time we knew exactly where the bag was, it had unbelievably been lost a second time (I thought perhaps the British Airways representatives in Rome were upset at having to go pick up the bag and must have “accidentally” dropped it into the river on the way back to the airport). Everyone kept telling me to write to you to ask for some kind of consolation, but I was so upset by the whole debacle, I could not bring myself to do it. How could things be botched this badly? How could so many customer service representatives have given me the run around? When you fly thousands of people and bags around the world every day, WHY, WHY, WHY was it so difficult to get this one bag back to me that means to much to me when we all knew exactly where it was?

More time went by and I had not contacted you regarding compensation for the lost bag and botched European vacation. It was still hard for me to think about the whole thing without getting upset; I buried my nose in the books for the fall term.

Then, in early December, I received another call from my friend Nevio, the hostel manager in Rome. “When are you coming back to Rome? “ He said. I answered as best I could at five in the morning (he didn’t understand the time difference) that I would not be returning to Rome, but it was kind of he to call. His response? “Well then, what do you want me to do with your bag?”

I was completely stunned and instantly enraged; I woke my roommate up with the yelling. I didn’t know what to say. I kept repeating over and over again, “you still have the bag?” and “they told me they had come to get it and then lost it!” He said no, it had been sitting in his tiny office for the last six months. He said to me: ” I told you, I would accept the bag for you, and keep it until you came back. Are you coming back? Do you still want the bag, or should I give it away?”

I thought about it as long as I could while keeping him on this expensive call. Every effort had been exhausted in dealing with your company as far as I could see, there was no one who cared enough to see to it that I got the bag back so far, and really no way to contact anyone who had the power to do anything significant to get the bag back. Although the customer service representatives I had talked to seemed helpful, absolutely NONE of them had ACTUALLY GOTTEN ANYTHING DONE. After all of my effort, stress, worry, and repeated contact with your company, the entire situation was the same as if I had done nothing at all.

In despair at the hopelessness of the situation, I told Nevio to go ahead and give the bag and its contents away. I am sure there will be others who pass through the hostel in need of a few necessities like I had been.

Beyond being angry, I think this entire situation should be embarrassing for your company. Is this any way to treat customers?

Regarding the bag and its contents and what I bought to replace them, I don’t have any more solid estimates other then that I spent about two to three thousand dollars replacing these things that I lost- that’s just the lost things, not including the time that I lost on the trip, and the time and energy it has taken to deal with your customer service department.

I have been on government student aid for three years now living off of loans; these unexpected expenses understandably have been an undue financial burden to me.

I would like to make it clear that I expect a response. I feel that an apology is appropriate.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mary Rasure
Graduate Student, University of Oregon school of Architecture