i saw someone on twitter saying to “leverage your network” i’d sooner leverage a shotgun into my mouth jesus fucking christ
plus all this is meant to be done at a time when you’re likely at your lowest confidence, most insecure, and most desperate.
just the idea that it’s my job to sell myself to these sorts of business goons who ENJOY seeing people desperate and on edge is so sick. i have nothing to sell, i am not a commodity, i am a human being. and everything’s ran thru some shitty AI now i’m sure. like the applications weren’t demeaning enough.
can’t we all just be assigned jobs by the government? it’d build social cohesion. like the hunger games. maybe you can opt out but I’d rather take my chances than answer these fucking personality tests or get so hopeless i’m actually applying for something with hours I hate with a miserable commute with a terrible wage which ALSO won’t hire me
“Leverage your network” is just corporate word salad for an otherwise good idea.
Throughout your life, you’ve studied, been friends with, or worked with people who knew you and you had respect for their sensibilities. That might mean as little as texting or emailing a couple of people and saying you’re looking for work and asking if they have any suggestions for you.
I’ve been working for over 20 years and in my experience, the type of people who are doing the gross version of “working their network” by pretending on LinkedIn are NOT any of the people I would ever want to work with again. They’re either fakers, insane, selling something, or never learned how to properly interact with people. Once you can smell them from their online activities you can learn to avoid them.
I’d say most quality job opportunities come from people you know, and it happens quietly. Nobody’s posting public garbage on social media - they’re having direct conversations with people who are able to connect them with a single person who needs to hire somebody and also doesn’t want to sift through thousands of resumes submitted by bots.
All that doesn’t really address your frustration, though. The game is gross, and it sucks that we have to play it.