From Brad Green, Q.C.

October 31, 2005

Dear Ms. G----:

This is to acknowledge receipt of you letter outlining your efforts to obtain employment in New Brunswick.

Retaining persons such as yourself in New Brunswick is a priority for our government. Several initiatives have been undertaken during our mandate to accomplish this objective and we continue to work on this issue.

On and individual level, I would be pleased to receive your resume and to be part of your network in you job search efforts.

Yours sincerely,

Brad Green

Holy Fucking Jobness, Batman!

1. As I said in yesterday's post, I got a part time job at UNIC. I start tonight at 5:00.

2. As I also said yesterday, I had an interview at Chapters today. I think it went pretty well, mainly because I knew what I was in for (eg: group interview) and the other applicants clearly didn't. Poor fuckers.

3. My former boss from the university emailed me this morning saying that she got funding to hire a T.A., and would I like a job. It pays $8.25 an hour, and I can either get 10 hours a week for 4 weeks, or 5 hours a week for 8 weeks. I haven't decided what I want to do with that yet, but I'm definitely taking the job.

4. This morning while I was making lunch, somebody named Melissa called me from Bowden's Media Monitoring. I sent them a resume a while ago because they were looking for full-time data entry people to monitor television and radio broadcasts and record info about them. I don't know what that means exactly. Anyway, she wants to interview me on Saturday, but I have to call her back tomorrow after I get my schedule from UNIC so I know what I'm doing that day.

5. About 5 minutes after I got home from my Chapters interview, Wal-Mart called and asked if I could come in for an interview tomorrow. I said I didn't know what my schedule was yet, so they're going to call me back early next week.

Holy fack!

When it rains it fucking pours, part deux

1. I got hired on the spot at UNIC this morning. I was walking around the mall handing out resumes, and I noticed my former regional manager from Bentley helping set up this year's Xmas kiosk. Something posessed me to march up to her and announce that I needed a job, so she gave me one. About 30 hours a week, and I start tomorrow night.

2. I have a job interview at Chapters tomorrow at 2:00.

Fuck me.

No joy yet, Mate.

I have resumes and cover letters packaged and ready to go to the following businesses/agencies:

* Footech Inc.
* Devon Lumber Co. Ltd.
* Public Legal Education and Information Service

The first two want secretaries, the last one is looking for a "social science research assistant." They want someone who is bilingual and has a graduate degree. Yup.

I'm also applying for a job as a library assistant at the Harriet Irving Library. I'm a big dork and I can be pretty anal-retentive, so it'd probably be a pretty fun job for me. I will hand-deliver my application package to the HR department at UNB tomorrow.

I'm also doing a more thorough resume sweep of the mall, and will probably follow-up with HMV and the Body Shop at the same time.

Now I'm going down to Kelly's Fair Trade to purchase three stamps to mail those applications.

I wanna hump you, the best chick in the mall

Resume sweep of the mall went pretty well overall. Here is a brief summary:

* West 49: not hiring immediately, but they're taking resumes and will probably start making calls for interviews in a couple of weeks.

* CD Plus: they are still jerks from the jerk store. Evidently they're overstaffed already and the manager would not even take my resume.

* East Side Board Supply: dude was all out of it. Like, d00d! Wasn't sure if they were doing any hiring any time soon, but took my resume and promised to pass it along.

* Chapters: waited in cash line, gave my resume to some guy who was definitely not a manager while a manager rang in other customers. I remembered her from the hellish interview experience chronicled in detail here, see "Fuck Chapters in the ass". I said I'm available any time and would like full time but would take part time. Dude said they're hiring for Xmas. Well I knew that.

* Starbucks: one of the better responses. "Bobbie" took my resume and said the manager just hired a couple of new people and is looking for more. He said she'd be in later today, and that he'd give her my resume.

* The Body Shop: the woman who was there identified herself as Suzanne, "the franchisee." She was super nice, took my resume, and asked tons of questions about school and long-term goals and what not. I gave her my stock response about wanting to go to grad school eventually, but needing to pay off some loans first. They're hiring for Xmas, etc.

* HMV: by far the best response. The guy I talked to had a labret piercing, which is always good. It's still shocking to me how many places here will not hire people with visible piercings or tattoos. Anyhoo, he was also super nice and asked me lots of questions, like about my favourite music and movies. He wrote down my answers on a little slip of paper and stapled it to my resume. He said he'd give it to the manager, who'll probably call me by the end of the week.

I Want to Live At the Mall, part deux

Doing another walk of shame on Monday morning. I'm surprised I've held out as long as I have. Hitting these places:

* Chapters
* Starbucks
* HMV
* CD Plus
* East Side Board Supply
* West 49
* The Body Shop

I think that's it for the Regent Mall. My porn friend Melanie, who has been working at Chapters for about a year now, tells me that it is a regular occurrence for men to be found masturbating in the "Erotica" section. She says that most of them are reasonably discreet, but it's not unheard of for somebody to take it out, either.

I am probably more-or-less underqualified to work at either East Side or West 49 because I do not "have a passion for skateboarding or snowboarding," but I figure the little blonde I saw behind the counter of East Side last night rocking out to "Sk8er Boi" probably doesn't have a passion for those things either. Or I'm a fucking superficial elitist snob. Either way, really.

Open Letter to Hon. Andy Scott, MP, and Hon. Bradley Green, MLA

I am writing to you because I am a recent university graduate who is being forced to leave New Brunswick to look for work. I have lived in New Brunswick my entire life, and I do not wish to leave. However, the lack of employment opportunities for educated young people in this province, and in particular the Fredericton area, is leaving me with no alternative.

In addition to a Bachelor of Arts degree, I also have a diploma from a private vocational college. I have had to borrow every cent to pay for my education, which leaves me with well over $50,000 in student debt. I was laid off from a research position at my alma mater more than a month ago, and since then it has become painfully clear that the only opportunities available in New Brunswick are low-paying, service sector jobs. I check various employment websites and newspaper classifieds daily, and have kept in contact with former professors as well as former employers, and there is simply nothing else available.

Were I to accept one of these service positions despite being immensely overqualified, I would barely be able to pay my monthly housing costs and utility bills, let alone make student loan payments. The letters I am receiving from the National Student Loan Service and other similar organizations suggest that when my repayment schedule begins this November, my monthly payments will be more than what I pay in rent each month. With this in mind, how am I supposed to make ends meet working for seven or eight dollars an hour in a call centre?

I am writing to both of you, as my Member of Parliament and Member of the Legislative Assembly respectively, to enquire as to what you and the Federal and Provincial governments are prepared to do to help me and others in my situation. And there are thousands of us. I am aware of the interest relief programs which are in place, but these are a band-aid solution at best. What am I to do once my thirty month maximum has been reached? Furthermore, until I find full-time employment, I do not qualify for interest relief in the first place.

I have many friends and family members who have all left New Brunswick for greener pastures, all of them well-educated and saddled with huge amounts of student debt. Before I join them, I am looking to you, Mr. Scott and Mr. Green, for a good reason to stay.

Sincerely,

Mary