journal features

old job search

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2005.03.11

I had an insight today into how communications styles have changed in the business world in the past decade. While throwing out a bunch of crap from various boxes in the storage locker, I found all of the rejection correspondence from my mid-1994 job search.

What struck me was that in the absence of the Internet, everyon would actually pay to mail a (signed) letter to every candidate that applied, even if it was just to tell the candidate that the job was already filled. I miss that! Today, even letters that you mail in to employers are ignored, let alone resume/cover letters that that you submit by email.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges