Job bob

Anyone who has ever spent more than 5 minutes looking for a job knows about the euphoria that follows right after you send an application in. Then comes the waiting and the wondering -- will they call? will they email? how will I manage an interview without my boss knowing? what will I wear? -- and every now and then, you allow yourself indulge in a flight of fantasy: gainful employment.

As you get older, you get more hardened to the reality. It takes something like 50 applications just to get a nibble and just because you've got your foot in the door, it doesn't mean you're going to get the job. It just means you're one of a bunch of people who managed to pass the basic requirement. But if this is your first job search, when you first sending stuff out, then I can see how easy it is to forgo reality and hang out in that rose-colored world where everyone has a job they love, and didn't have to work particularly hard to get it.

That's why I'm not sure I understand why people are jumping all over poor Krystal Grow, who was overeager and overenthusiastic about the possibility of getting an internship over at Spin Magazine. She wrote about her rejection here. The fact that she was brave enough to talk about her hubris, to acknowledge that she was hasty, and that wanting something doesn't always translate into a homerun on your first time up at bat. But from the reaction, you'd think Krystal had done something terribly wrong -- kind of around the same magnitude as declaring war on another country under false pretenses, let's say -- rather than just suffering from a severe case of overconfidence.

I guess all those 'critics' started their job searches jaded and cynical from the get go and didn't have to grow into "the eggs ain't even laid, let alone hatched" mentality like some of us have. Even so, is it really so hard to muster up some compassion? Or provide some encouraging words or support to someone who is just getting started on a rather stressful process? As a friend mentioned to me recently, it seems like panning things or people seems the 'in' thing to do these days. I'll stay uncool, thanks.