Unemployment and the Job Interview

Unemployment and the Job Interview

Measuring "unemployment" is complicated because like a diamond it has many facets. In the U.S. currently, only about 60% of all people over 18 yrs. old hold jobs. By this measure, the "real" unemployment rate is 40%.

That perspective is too broad. Most people who don't work are in school, staying home to raise children, or retired.

Government statistical geeks have the difficult task of trying to measure people who want to work but can't find anything. They have a series of measurements numbered U1—U6, with each total representing a number which includes a larger detachment of the country without jobs. The parameters change as it moves upward on the scale. Are you asleep?

The U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (the more familiar U-3 rate), but also counts "marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons."

For the last couple of years, U6 numbers have been hanging around the 15% range of people without work who are out in the market seeking full-time employment. That’s a lot of job interviews going on!

image: dorothea lange

After a really good interview, one can spend the rest of the day playing the “what-if” game, daydreaming about the next appointment, replaying the conversation in the mind, even mentally negotiating the right salary. 

In my experience, job interviews are like the early stages of dating, especially when the meeting is held in a social setting. One can go through an innocent evening at a restaurant, having a reasonably good time, thinking that there could be some potential in the relationship; only to never hear from their partner again. The other participant made a snap judgment right after the appetizer that you weren’t their type and that is the end of it. 

Because they are polite and adept at hiding their true feelings, the repartee is cheerful perhaps even deceptive; nevertheless at the end of the evening there are no real signs of affection and the hiring party (in dating this is obviously cloaked) laments privately whether it was a complete waste of time. “We are not going to offer this person the job,” thinks the decision-maker; at least the etouffee was excellent! 

Employment is a huge commitment today, so there are many reasons to avoid resolution as to the offer of a job (or love). If there is no real connection it is always best to keep looking. Sometimes the only collaborator the pursuer has is time; in love and commerce the “ticking clock” can be one’s best ally. 

For me it comes down to the discipline of letting God be sovereign over all things big and small. Will I be able to surrender the future into God’s hands and open my heart to let Him work, even open to “rejection” at the hands of an erstwhile suitor? This type of surrender gives all choice to God, all I have to do is be diligent in the process (run the race) but bow my knees in prayer: “Thy will be done.”  2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

©Mark H. Pillsbury

bono and chris martin - what's going on - YouTube

bono and chris martin - what's going on - YouTube:

'via Blog this'

U2 and Coldplay have a sibling rivalry going on...

I know from growing up in a family of brothers, things are said about each other often that one wishes one could take back. As Coldplay rises to the top of the charts, Bono has said derogatory things about musical brother Chris Martin. Both groups keep a keen eye on each other and even use the same producer, Brian Eno. As it sounds confusing talking on the phone to some brothers, each band sounds like the other on some of their recent songs. Listen to "No Line on the Horizon" [U2] and "Mylo Xyloto" [Coldplay] on separate nights and the similarities are obvious.

I've seen both groups live, one in the Rose Bowl and one at the Woodlands' pavilion. Listening to the recent albums side-by-side, there is no clear winner. Neither group conquerors the other; indeed, their kinship is almost endearing, their talent cut out of the same clothe. U2 and Coldplay work on the same side of the street. Their DNA is so close, their audience so similar; the differences are infinitesimal.

Coming from a family of brothers makes me happy to see these British rock-n-roll brothers sync up so flawlessly. Any differences are humorous, tensions illusory. Musically the space between the two super-groups is minor, the talent immense. May they long live in harmony and unison despite the huge egos inherent in this business. Following these groups is like knowing that eccentric band of brothers that everyone wants to party with, but no one wants to choose between. It comes down to taste or mood. I love them both.

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@_U2_

@coldplay
@markpills

(c) Mark H. Pillsbury

[dear YouTube: the use of the link or any other copyrighted material from U2 or Coldplay is legal under the "fair use doctrine" and is not an infringement of copyright laws, per 17 U.S.C. 107]

Breathe now.

I think a lot while driving on Houston’s freeways. I don’t know why they’re called “free,” because many require tolls and the crowded chaos of these roads leads to distraction.

Driving and thinking is multi-tasking. Frequently the debris will wake you up as it flies by the windshield, or as it happened today, one gets stuck directly behind a huge bright orange trash-compacting dump-truck (Aggressive Waste Disposal/only in Houston Texas).

The smell was exquisitely rancid, putrid, and malodorously sweet! It perfectly accompanied the pounding percussion of Larry Mullen Jr. during the U2 song, “Breathe.” (see below)

Bono’s lyrics remind me that I have a love you cannot defeat. They rumbled in my head as I contemplated a meeting I just had with a young friend worried about the next step in his career. We don’t know each other very well, why would he listen to me? My mind races like loose electricity: did I make any sense, did I talk too much, not enough, how will he see that there’s nothing I have that he needs? All of us were made uniquely and must find our purpose, but ultimately “I found grace, it’s all that I found, and I can breathe. Breathe now.”

Lyrics ©U2 from No Line on the Horizon (Interscope 2009):

16th June, 9:05, door bell rings.
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There's a few things I need you to know. Three!

Coming from a long line of traveling salesman on my mother's side
I wasn't gonna buy just anyone's cock-a-too;
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home?
Would you?

These days are better than that; These days are better than that

Every day I die again, and again I'm reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street, with arms out
Got a love you can't defeat
Neither down or out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe. Breathe now

16th June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I'm coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju-Ju man, Ju-Ju man!

Doc says you're fine, or dying (Please?!)
9:09, St. John Divine, on the line, my pulse is fine:
But I'm running down the road like, Loose Electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease.

The roar that lies on the other side of silence,
The forest fire is fear so deny it

Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe. Breathe now

We are people borne of sound, the songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown.

Walk out, into the sunburst street, sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I've found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it's all that I found.
And I can breathe.
Breathe now!