"It's a funny thing about life...

...if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."

My dad emailed me this quote from author Somermet Maugham after one of the many job-related talks I've had with my parents. The fact that my dad has an appropriate book quote or recommendation for any situation is testament to the fact that he is smart in a way I will never be. And also that he reads a crapton.

The point is, my job search is still in full force. The main problem with it is that while I'm flexible about what I could do next, the thing I really DON'T want to do is exactly the thing I was doing before business school. And so my resume, which no matter how much rearranging or emphasizing of other things will still always show what I was doing before school, speaks really well to recruiters and potential employers about me being awesome at the very thing I don't want to do and therein, my lovely readers, lies the problem.

Despite the fact that I have an MBA which is sort of the Unofficial Degree of Career Changers, I still get comments such as, "you don't have the required experience to get a job doing anything else." This would be true except NO IT'S NOT. I'm bright, I learn things quickly, and why the crap would I spend all that money to go to school just to do the same thing I was doing before at the same salary? (Do not even get me started on the people who say there's no way I'm getting my desired salary increase because I "haven't worked in 2 years" ALSKJFOAIWJERLKASJ).

I am not willing to settle. This is especially true because what I'm asking for is, compared to other MBAs, nothing. Last week I turned down a second interview. It was a job I didn't want to do and over an hour outside the city (!). It was a fancy firm that supposedly "only hires from the Ivies" and "pays a shitload" and sure, I was flattered that they were interested but I just couldn't imagine myself in that kind of role and frankly, I didn't feel like I needed an MBA to do it or that I would be proud to tell people that that was my job.

So I'm working as a receptionist until I find that close-enough-to-the-dream job, which seems all sorts of contradictory because answering a phone and making sure the fridge is always stocked with Diet Cokes (SERIOUS JOB PERK) certainly does not require an MBA and of course I don't sit here with my head held high knowing that I suffered through a 7.5 hour long Accounting review session just to pass the final, get a decent grade and eventually land myself here. But there's a comfort in knowing that this is only temporary and that after 3 weeks of working here I will have made enough money to pay off the massive chunk of interest that has accumulated on one of my student loans.

I will turn down as many interviews as I have to if it means that it leaves me open for something better to come along. I worked too hard to settle.