John Borwick’s blog

It is misleadingly simple to apply for jobs on-line.

You can spend a whole day just looking for sites that might post jobs. After the initial invested effort, you can return each day to those sites, e-mail a few resumes, sign up for a new “robot” that sends you jobs as they become available, and wait.

The problem is that you and the organizations with the jobs have no personal connection. You never even shook anyone’s hand. You feel bad because your resume (which may have taken several hours to prepare) has disappeared to jobs@acompany.com; there’s no sense of accomplishment with at least having done something. The people hiring have never met you or talked to you, so they don’t feel at all bad in rejecting you (seen by them as “the unqualified applicant”).

This hits home for me because I’m reading The Rainmaker by John Grisham. He talks about how hard it is for his main character to get jobs. The character’s job leads (with strangers) develop when he gets a chance to really connect with potential employers.

Helios has blank CDs available for if you’d like to burn one and contribute to their collection. I’m not totally convinced of the legality of the situation.

If I *were* to make a CD, it would look something like this:

1. Hyper-Ballad, Bjork
2. Nagi / Hoshizukiyo, Out Of Perspective
3. 4, Aphex Twin
4. Kalpol Introl, Autechre
5. Maybe I'll Come Down, Soul Coughing
6. Flim, Aphex Twin
7. Les Yper-sound, Stereolab
8. Autechre - 04 - Slip, Autechre
9. Hunter, Bj�rk
10. 06, Aphex Twin
11. True Dreams of Wichita, Soul Coughing
12. Tone Burst, Stereolab
13. Communication Network, Out Of Perspective
14. All Neon Like, Björk
15. Polska Release, Sanna Kurki-Suonio
16. Strong Bad Techno, Strong Bad

Without a cable connection, I’ve been stuck trying to find places I can get wireless access.

Yesterday (and today), I went to Helios Coffee to use their free wireless Internet. Well, I guess you get what you pay for… although I’ve been able to use their wireless Internet in the past, it hasn’t been working these last two days.

It did sputter on long enough yesterday for me to receive emails, but weirdly it cut off again before I could send the two emails I’d queued.

How am I getting access, then? We’re at the NCSU Libraries.