Job hunting sucks. Believe me, I know. I’ve spent the past six months doing pretty much nothing but looking for a job with limited success.

It’s painful to look for a job for several reasons. One, you get your hopes up because you like this particular company and this particular position. And then they never return your calls. Second, even the ones you’re not THAT interested in aren’t interested in you. And third, there’s all this paperwork.

To my mind, the third is the most draining of all. I’m an actor. I can deal with rejections — just ask every girl I know (hah!). It’s the filling out the exact same information on every application that drives me nucking futs.

Look at Monster.com, for example. If you go there and try and apply for a job, it asks you to sign up. During this sign up period, it asks you for your name, address, phone number, work history, education history, first-born child, skills, etc, etc.

Great! I’m all signed up. Now, looking for jobs should be easy, right? I click the Home button on Monster, go back to the main page, and then I search for “web developer” in Atlanta. Tons of stuff. I rub my hands together and laugh a maniacal laugh. I’m going to find a job in no time!

Click on the first job that looks interesting. I click on “Apply Now!”

What’s this? A pop up window? To the website of the company I’m applying to?

And what’s this? Another form? They want my name, address, phone number, email, skills, work history, penis-size, education history, first-born child, ethnicity, gender, and social security number?  Didn’t I just fill this in on Monster?

Argh!

And every job entry is like that. What’s the point? They’re ALL asking for the exact same information, so why can’t they just set up a standardized form to accept from Monster, Careerbuilder, Hotjobs?

Tell you what. How about I send you my resume, if you like what you see and decide to bring me in for an interview, it goes well, and then you extend an offer, THEN I’ll spend 30 minutes filling out an application for your files. Sounds like a good deal, right? That’s what I thought.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to write a script to automatically fill in all these fields for me.

I didn’t get into any graduate programs this year

Well…

…there’s always next year, right?

Right.

I wrote the guy back at my top choice, and I said “What can I do to improve my chances at getting in next year?” and he wrote back and basically offered some advice that boiled down to “You have a passion for directing.  Keep directing!”  He also told me to email him mid-Fall if I was interested in applying again next year.  I hope that’s a good thing.

So now I have a problem.  I’m working over an hour away from my home, and I work 8-9 hours per day.  By the time I get home, I’m exhausted, I’ve spent 11 hours away from home, and I want to eat and go to sleep.  I get home between 7 and 8pm, and from all of my previous experience, that’s too late for any decent rehearsal period at any show.

So what am I to do?

I got a few options.

I can find another job that’s closer to home.  Or I can move closer to my current day job (web developer).  Or I can just not direct.  I don’t really think that last one’s an option.  I have to get some experience somehow, and I have to do some theatre or I’ll go crazy.

Just kind of in a crappy situation, I guess.