Health & Fitness
Sisyphus and Me: Boulder-Rolling (a/k/a Job-Hunting) for Eternity?
Remember the myth about Sisyphus, doomed to roll a boulder up a hill, watch it roll back down and then push it up again? Why does that remind me of job-hunting?
It’s been a busy month for me, with four job interviews in the past four weeks. I feel good about this. No job offers so far, but at least I’m getting out there regularly, which I can only take as a hopeful sign.
Except if I allow myself to think about Sisyphus.
In Greek mythology, a king named Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to an eternal punishment that required him to push a huge heavy boulder up a hill, reach the summit, watch it roll back down, and then repeat this process. Forever.
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I swear, this image of endlessly rolling a boulder up a hill popped into my head today; I’m not making this up. It feels like an appropriate analogy for a long-term job hunt, don’t you think? Hopes up, hopes down. Hopes up, hopes down. Over and over.
When my mind starts to wander like this, it’s hard to stop it. Soon these questions occurred to me as I daydreamed about Sisyphus.
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What has become of me?
What has happened to my life?
It felt like I was stepping outside of my thoughts and observing my life from the outside.
This isn’t how I thought my life would be. I did all the “right” things: went to school, got good grades, graduated, worked at excellent jobs, contributed great work. Career-wise, things were moving along just fine. I chose to make a shift in career direction about 10 years ago and needed to start over in a new field; but I expected that, the need to move down a bit in order to move forward doing work I loved.
What I didn’t expect is what’s been going on for the past 18 months. My career goals never included the role of professional job-seeker. But we all have to play the cards we’ve been dealt, don’t we? It’s either that or fold. It’s our choice.
I don’t choose to fold. Even with today’s horrible monthly jobs report, with the June unemployment rate at 9.2% (see story by Reuters, Jobs Barely Rise, Dashing Hopes of Economic Revival - Careers Articles), I’m not ready to call it quits. I still believe that I will find a good job soon. It is blind faith? Maybe, but I’m a writer. I like writing people’s stories. And I know that I’m not done writing mine.
And whatever you want to say about Sisyphus’ futile efforts, you do have to admire his persistence.
