Job search.

The Past: My next two memories are kind of short so I'm putting them both into one entry.

It's around noon on a weekend and my dad, currently unemployed, is playing Dungeon Master on his Amiga. I'm sitting on his lap watching him play, my legs lifted up in such a way that my feet are in the unused drawer meant for a keyboard, comfy as heck. Unfortunately, at this time in my life, this was the only way I could get my dad to spend time with me.

Now it's around two in the morning. I'm asleep in bed when my dad gets home from his new job driving a taxi. My mom plucks me out of bed, wrapping me up in a blanket and we pile into my dad's cab, going out for sliders at white castle. I used to love it when we did this and the few times I can remember are among some of my happiest memories.

The Present: I've been job hunting online all night. I really need to stop doing this as every time I do, I just end up pissed off, tired and no closer to having a job.

The other day, I read an article about Americans moving to Japan for a year to teach English so I looked it up. Everything seemed great until I noticed one little deal breaker. To apply for the type of work visa you need to teach in Japan, they require that you have a bachelors degree. It doesn't matter what the degree is in, just so long as you have one... Damn it...
Realizing that I couldn't pursue that, I started looking at the job listings on Craig's List and only found two listings that looked remotely interesting. I checked into the first, a video game beta testing job, which turned out to be a scam. The second listing, well, it really wasn't much better than the first. Apparently they need some new State Troopers in Alaska. The job pays well and they'd pay to train me but, well, I just don't have any interest in becoming a police officer so I'm back to square one.

I tell you, the job I'd like to get right now is a simple clerk job at a video game store, like a GameStop. I get really angry about this for a few reasons and I'll explain why. Being a store clerk at a GameStop doesn't pay that well, doesn't have very good hours and is generally a dead end job. The reason I want it? Because video games are my hobby and I enjoy working with them. It's a job I wouldn't dread coming to every day. You'd think it'd be easy to get but no, it's virtually impossible. GameStop employees guard their jobs so well that there are almost never any openings.
About a year ago, I went all over the state applying at EB Games, GameStop and Software Etc. stores (they are all owned by the same parent company, I believe) and even though many of them had open positions, they never tried to fill them. I checked back on those jobs quite a few times over a few months and every time, they said that they hadn't gone through the applications yet. I don't think they ever did!

Last year, I tried applying around at different video game companies in California. I applied for beta testing (QA) positions as that's supposed to be the entry-level position for the industry. This introduced me to a catch 22 that I hate so much it makes me want to strangle someone. I got e-mails back and they all pretty much said the same thing. To be considered for those positions, you need to already have a couple years experience. Here's the catch 22: How the fuck are you supposed to get the experience when you can't get the job without it? Damn it.

Anyway, I'm going to sleep in tomorrow and see if Wal-Mart calls me. I don't really want to work there but damn it, I need the money bad.

My next entry should be much lighter fare, I just needed to rant this morning.