Why won't they just give me money?

Applying for jobs is hard. And boring.

Work should not be hard and boring. It can be hard, that's fine. That's challenging, exciting even! Work can also be boring. That is, unfortunately, the nature of work.

But hard and boring? That's just not right. Especially when the work in question is only trying to get work. There seems to be something wrong with this system.

The whole thing is especially irritating right now. Because it's not like there are actual jobs out there. Oh, there are job announcements! A few of them, anyway. I am not, however, convinced that any of these announcements are attached to actual jobs. Instead, my theory is that they are decoys, meant to lure the unsuspecting job-seeker into a state of false hope. Then, when the job-seeker is disheartened by his/her evident failure to measure up to any employment standards, the writers of the job announcements attack!

Yes! They attack! Suddenly, the job seeker sees new job announcements. These newly-announced jobs are similar to the old ones... But wait! The salary offers have dropped. And what's this about longer hours? More boring work? "Oh well," the disheartened job-seeker thinks to his/her lonely self. "What do I have to lose?"

And the cycle begins again. Ending only with highly-educated and highly-motivated persons prostrating themselves before the counter at an Auntie Anne's Pretzels, begging for a job, any job.

But they will no longer be hiring. And somewhere, in the distance, the malevolent gods of the unemployment world are heard to laugh.