Thursday, June 04, 2009

A Decade On

"My friend told me that story about waiting in line for the Village Voice to come out so he could see what jobs were available. I thought that was really striking because it really wasn’t that long ago, and it’s so different from the way we do things today."
- Elizabeth Goodman
I moved to New York City in October of 1999. Through a friend, I'd secured a basement bedroom on East 7th Street, but I hadn't found a job. Like many other unemployed New Yorkers, on Wednesday mornings, the day of the paper's weekly printing, I poured over the classifieds section of the Village Voice, circling any interesting job listings in red or green ink. Three weeks after I arrived in the East Village, I enthusiastically accepted a position as an art gallery preparator.

This morning, while reading Rachel Brodsky's Flavorpill interview with Elizabeth Goodman, I recalled those uncertain, early weeks in NYC. I also marveled, like Goodman, at how very differently we conduct job searches a decade later.

Photo credit: ripped from WhoIsStan's Flickr photostream

3 comments:

andiscandis said...

Uhhh, really? In 2000, I was job searching completely online.

Consider this: Senior Smoke-In was 15 years ago.

Hungry Hyaena said...

Andiscandis:

Hah! Frankly, the Senior Smoke-In seems a lot longer ago than that! I suddenly feel super jazzed about the prospects for personal growth and creative productivity in my next fifteen years. ;)

With regard to the online job search, I was definitely not on board the Internets train for a few more years. The job search could be done online in 2000, but I think that you were ahead of the unwashed masses. (I'm filthy.)

andiscandis said...

You are filthy. Always have been, always will be.