I was hanging out with a group of actors in their 20s recently, and they were all very stressed about their employment — or lack of it — situations. One guy was on the verge of desperation; he had applied for 50 or so low-paying jobs without a single nibble, and he was hanging his hopes on getting hired to walk around asking people to sign petitions. A woman had thought she could get a job at Starbucks but was told they weren’t hiring. And another woman could only find a position at a telemarketing firm at which she was instructed to start each phone conversation with the lie “We’re not selling anything.”

Hard times, indeed, for the recently graduated or those without a lot of work experience. Which was the genesis of the blog Living Craigslist. The introductory post:

When you graduate college, the last thing you want to do is find a job pushing paperclips. You have just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an education, seemingly worthless now considering even McDonalds has stopped hiring mop boys.

Click for video

With the economy’s implosion widespread enough to cut one New England zoo’s budget (enough to force) keepers to put down 20 percent of its animals, suddenly filling in as the resident paperclip expert seems more appealing.

Unfortunately for me, I never knew a great deal about affixing one piece of paper to another with a curvaceous steel rod. It wasn’t my major in college and I didn’t feel I had it in me to figure it out. Besides I’m more of a staple guy myself. I turned to Craigslist. And why not? I had furnished my dorm room with other people’s futons and found enough odd jobs to help finance my now useless college degree.

Craigslist, it seemed was the only valuable skill I acquired from college.

Here are my rules:

• I will start with $2,500 I have saved from college
• I will have a car, a computer, and cameras to document the experiment
• Services I am currently covered by, Phone, Health and Car insurance will continue; I will however be writing a check to the charity my readers select.
• At no point am I allowed to live out of my car
• I am not allowed to live with someone I know for longer than a week
• I am permitted one large bag containing clothes and a few staple foods for the road
• I am not allowed to initiate contact with someone unless it is through an online interaction

But before we proceed, I need to be completely honest about how I decided to take this journey. I wanted a normal job. I even applied some places to be an apprentice paper clip pusher. I scoured job listings and applied like a mad man. I wrote cover letter after cover letter. Here is an example of a conventional cover letter I sent to a paper in northern New Jersey:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a recent graduate from American University and just finished working as a reporting intern for USA Today. While there, I contributed award winning enterprise content and handled online production for the Money section dotcom. I have a proven track record for swiftly writing and producing clean, multimedia reports and am confident my skills would carry over to your entry-level reporter position.

My understanding of the Web, comfort with shooting and editing film and photography as well as my eagerness to learn, set me apart from my potential competitors. Additionally, I have enjoyed numerous visits to northern New Jersey with friends and family, and feel relocating to the Tri-state area would be a refreshing and educational experience.

Prior to participation in USA TODAY’s internship program, I worked as a production intern for the CBS Evening News and as an editorial intern at Washingtonpost.com.

Here are a few links to my work.
• http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-02-04-economy-poll_N.htm
• http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/general/2009-04-19-scams-foreclosures_N.htm
• http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2009-02-11-valentine-day-spending_N.htm

A more thorough history and samples of my clips and photography are available at http://jpaul.info.

I look forward to hearing from you and will follow up with you late next week.

I never heard from that one. And for the most part, I never heard from anyone. I applied to around 180 journalism jobs over a four-month period and received only 12 responses. So I tried something new. I wrote as if no one was reading my cover letters. Like this one for the Howard Stern Show:

To the Human Resources Employee at Sirius XM That Will Never Read This:

To work for the Howard Stern show requires chutzpah. The kind of chutzpah a person needs to ask Larry David if he even knows what getting it on means. (http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4739945n) The kind of chutzpah needed to handle 180 rejections with grace. The kind of chutzpah I’ve got!

I am a recent graduate from American University and just finished working as a reporting intern for USA Today. In addition to having shameless audacity, my strong journalism background combined with a tireless work ethic seems a perfect fit for your recent opening as a reporter/writer for the Howard Stern Show.

Here are my flaws:

• I am 22-years-old. Hold it against me if your want but I am more eager (or desperate, you choose) and more enthusiastic to work day in and day out for less money than any sane person considers livable.
• I currently live in Washington, D.C. I know this is a little far from Midtown Manhattan, but if I can’t afford the rent, my tent pitching abilities are unrivaled—I hear central park is beautiful in the winter.
• I’m an illegal immigrant…just kidding!

My heart is in New York. Please respond to this application and I’ll be on a bus at a moment’s notice.

I’m still waiting to hear back from that one too.

I did however receive a few responses, like this one from the hiring manager at the Minnesota Premier.

Jason,

We fell into a candidate with 15 years experience who would be perfect for us, plus his wife just got a job at Purdue. However, we have hired eight writers here in the past 18 months, so people come and go quickly. Please stay in touch and thank you for the interest. I am very impressed by your work. Please keep trying.

Thanks.

Ouch!

So I have given up on the cover letter, and I am preparing to load my 2001 Toyota Corolla for a true experiment. Three cities, for three months each, testing my wits and the power of technology. Can I prove it possible to get food from the same place you furnish your living room? Can I live odd job to odd job?

Let’s find out!

You can retroactively follow Jason’s cross-country odyssey of meeting people and working odd-jobs from the beginning, or catch up with him in present circumstances; he’s now in Los Angeles, working at Denny’s, a job he has qualms about:

(M)y Craigslist life and pre-Craigslist self identity are at a crossroad. Working at Denny’s is obviously against so many of the values I hold dearly—conservation, sustainability and health and fitness, to name a few. They have all been put in jeopardy. It goes beyond my unwillingness to eat a meal at Denny’s.

I’m the guy who hadn’t, until a few days ago, walked into a McDonalds and bought something, and even then I only bought coffee. I am the guy who chooses granola over French fries. I am the guy who asks annoying questions in restaurants like, “Who is your yogurt supplier?”

And now I have to ask already overweight costumers if they want a side of pancakes? What?

On the bottom of our menu, and yes I say our—I am a Denny’s team member after all—the dessert section is not just called “Desserts.” No, we take it one step further by telling our customer, “You still have room.” Quite ridiculous when you consider one of our most popular items, a Lumberjack Slam (1170 calories), is a Man V. Food challenge in and of it self. But no, my job is to get you to buy more, spend more, and eat more. And I am surprised to find out, people actually buy desserts.

Who knows what the future holds for Jason? But one thing is clear — it will involve Craigslist.

Posted on February 1, 2010 at 11:26 am
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Categorised under : jobs and unemployment , living the recession
Tagged with : Craigslist , jobs