If I lied and said I was someone else, I'd totally get hired...

Today was a depressing and frustrating day for me.

I spent all day searching for jobs online. All. Day. Long. I found some jobs that I'm interested in...and qualified for, but that took me hours. Most of the jobs I looked at required 2-3 years of experience in the field or a field similar to what I was looking at. Some of them even said, 1-2 YEARS EXPERIENCE, INTERNSHIPS DO NOT COUNT

What! Wait a gosh-darn second here, Mr/s Employer! I went to school for 4 years, had an internship, am totally qualified for your job, but you won't even take a second glance at my resume because I wasn't employed by some other company...doing the same things I do in school? LAME. Yeah. At this point. It's lame. My parents keep reassuring me I'll get a job even though the economy is down because employers are more willing to hire recent grads because they'll pay them less. That's crap. Because apparently my four years of experience doesn't matter.

I'm tempted to write this in my cover letter:

Dear So-And-So,

I'm very interested in your position because I have four years of experience writing and editing at my college newspaper, writing and producing my own radio shows, interviewing and filming people for a newscast, and writing for a newscast. In fact, writing is all that I usually do. I noticed you mentioned in your job description that the desired candidate needs 1-2 years of experience in the projected medium. Does all of my experience count? Are you going to toss my resume aside because I'm a recent college graduate? I know I'm not supposed to ask questions in my cover letter, but, I'm biting my nails over here wondering if I have to make stuff up just so people will look at me.

Did I get your attention? Can I work for your company based on my superior-eye-catching skills based on this cover letter?

Thanks for not deleting this message! If you would like to set up an interview, I can be reached by cell phone or email. I check them constantly.

Sincerely,
Megan

What do you think? :-/

I wouldn't be surprised if people did make up things in their resume just so employers will look at them. Not exactly plagiarism, but cheating and lying none-the-less.

I would never do it. Not even out of desperation.


In other news, I got rejected as a reporter again today. If you're a student, seriously, you get the shaft. I was out trying to get interviews for another class. But I still think it's relevant to put on here because I'm assuming my other classmates run into similar issues that I did today.

I'm doing my audio documentary on running for my seminar, and I thought it would be a great idea to get people in the industry--selling shoes and apparel for runners, and who are runners themselves. I went to a small specialty store near my town. With my notepad and recorder, I walked in with a smile and went up to the desk.

"Hi! I'm a college student and I'm doing an audio documentary on running," I said.
"Yeah..." said the owner of the store.
"I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about running," I inquired.
The store owner didn't look at me when I said this, but looked at his customers instead.
"I can wait for when you have time," I said, noticing his haste.
"Yeah not today," he said quickly and threw me his card, brushing me aside to get to another customer...

I said I could wait! Or better yet--interview you while helping a customer!
I didn't bother him after that. He looked thoroughly annoyed that I even approached him without a $100 pair of shoes to purchase in my hands.
Next time, I'll call first. But I really didn't think it would be a problem. Like I've said in previous posts, I go out with reporters all the time and people never brush them aside like they're a hassle, especially when they're getting publicity about their company.
But hey. I'm a student. I'm just a college student trying to build up my portfolio so I can get hired by a company.

Maybe I'll go back when I'm working for NPR. I wonder if he'd throw me his card then...

Anyway, I guess my point for this post is don't pretend to be someone you're not. Don't lie about who you really are on your resume just to let people find out you're a cheater.
Be yourself.
Right now, I'm just a student. I might get rejected, but sooner or later someone's going to take a glance at me and notice that I do have some serious potential and a great asset to their company.
It might take a few months, but I'll get there.