What They Missed

There was an article in the AARP newsletter about underemployment in the “over 50” age group.

That sentence may have said much more than I intended.  Hmmmmmmm…..

I was an investigator for law enforcement agencies for most of my working life, I have a private investigator’s license and have performed plenty of that work, I’ve worked as a security specialist for the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, I work as a contract employee for a bail bond company, I’ve done retail security…………….The best job I can find right now is as a driving instructor.  I guess that’s classic underemployment. 

I didn’t really need the AARP to tell me that, though.  And I really like my job so far.  Good boss and a good company.  They seem to be glad to have me, and that’s a big part of any job.  I now have a State of Ohio license as a driving instructor, and I signed a non-competition agreement that covers me for the next three years.  So, if I really like it and decide to start my own company, I’ll have to wait until 2014.  I’m good with that.

Before I managed to become underemployed as a driving instructor, I tried to be underemployed in a fairly wide variety of fields.  Here’s a partial list of places where I applied for underemployment, and couldn’t even manage to get them to tell me “No, Thanks, You’re Not Our Cup Of Tea”, nor any phrase that might convey a similar message:

-Every check cashing business in the area as an, um, associate, I guess,
-A local credit union as a teller,
-Starbucks as a barista,
-The Burdman Group (for the uninitiated, the Burdman Group is a local non-profit providing services to every known needy group) as a building monitor.

There were others, but the names of the businesses now escape me.

During my underemployment search I provided each and every one of the prospective employers with a word-processed resume.  I may never know why I was so very unsuccessful searching in vain for underemployment—perhaps the idea of a retired law enforcement officer made them edgy, or they didn’t want a licensed private investigator poking about, or maybe my honorable discharge from the U.S. Army, or my valid U.S. passport, or my computer literacy, or my ownership of reliable insured transportation turned them off.  Whatever it was, I’ll never know because they never said.  They simply round-filed my application and resume, then promptly forgot about it. It certainly wasn't because I'm a registered Republican, because I never mentioned that.

Well, Starbucks, Burdman, and the rest don’t know what they missed.

And I’m much better off.  I like being a driving instructor.

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