Guest contributor

Once upon a time, there was a donkey that loved carrots. All his owner had to do to keep the donkey trudging along, was to dangle a carrot in front of his nose. The donkey rarely got to enjoy those sweet, crunchy tidbits at the end of the stick, but he covered many miles lugging heavy loads in pursuit of that carrot! Do you ever feel like that donkey, with job opportunities “dangling” in front of you, urging you on, but never materializing into satisfying reality?

Carrot No. 1: Take one of my first really exciting job opportunities back in December. I had applied for an administrative position with a Maine state department. It was somewhat off my career track, but interesting nonetheless. I was thrilled to get a phone message requesting that I come in for an interview. However, two days later, a very apologetic supervisor left a message on my answering machine informing me that the state of Maine had just initiated a hiring freeze and – Poof – the job opening no longer existed.

Carrot No. 2: It always amazes me how you can correspond with someone by email and later discover that the person doesn’t really exist. I take everything I see on a well known “jobs and services” Web site with a grain – no, make that a block – of salt. However, when I responded to an ad on that site for an administrative assistant at a law firm opening soon in Portland, I received a cordial email from a man at the firm who actually signed his name, as well as supplied the name of the law firm recruiting for the position. The gentleman asked me to email days and times that I would be available for a phone interview, stressing that it was vital I be home at those times because the number of applicants made it difficult to reschedule interviews. He would get back to me with the specifics regarding the interview. I responded with the requested information and waited ... and waited ... after a couple of days had passed, I emailed and asked what day the interview would take place. No answer. Finally, I checked with the Maine Law Association to see if they had a record of the law firm, and their research confirmed my suspicions: No such law firm was registered in Maine.

My final “carrot” story involves a job opening that I found on a Web site dedicated to helping job hunters who want to telecommute (work from home). As a writer, much of my work takes place on the computer, so I thought I’d investigate the option of working over the Internet. I applied to a company in California that advertised job openings for writers, researchers and editors – All viable options. A few days later, I emailed the company to confirm they had received my application, but I got no response. Finally, I called the phone number on the company Web site and explained to the young woman who answered why I was calling. “We don’t have any job openings at this time,” the woman replied. “We’ve received over 2,000 resumes, and I don’t know why, since we haven’t had any jobs for a while,” she added. Maybe they should have removed their old job listings from the telecommuting Web site when the positions were filled?

Over the past couple of months, I’ve chased enough “carrots” to make me wonder if I’m ever going to get a nibble! Guess the key is to remember that, for all of those elusive, dangling opportunities, it only takes one within reach to land that next great job!

Gup-Mathews invites readers to send thoughts regarding unemployment to her at “The Write Impression” at www.writeimpressionmaine.com.