Work It! Job Hunting: The Musical

Over the last couple of  months, I’ve obviously been scanning job postings. I look at postings for all sorts of opportunities – both to see what I might want to do and to see what I might need to learn if I want to pursue various jobs. I find that LinkedIn makes this super easy, since I can do searches on my phone from anywhere.

Over the years, I’ve applied for so many jobs and received more “thanks, but no thanks” emails than I care to recall. Every now and then, I’ll get an automated reply from a job in Seattle that I’d applied to – over a year ago! Thanks, y’all, I appreciate that you closed the loop. But I really had to figure out something else to do with my life over the past year…hope you can understand.

The other day as I was scrolling through posting after posting and reminiscing about my favorite Broadway musicals, I had a thought. What if there was a musical about the job-hunting process? I mean, it’d clearly be a dramady, because most of what happens along the way would be tragic if it weren’t funny.

Here’s what I’m thinking. We need a song to cover each phase of the journey, so for this installment of Work It! The Career Chronicles, I’ve turned some of my all-time favorites into job-search appropriate numbers:

1. (God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on My Resume – This is my musical, so we start with an NSYNC classic. And let’s face it, how many times have we looked at our resumes in despair wondering, “How do I put into words what I do?”
2. …Baby One More Interview – From NYSYC’s soulful ballad about the required resume to an upbeat Britney Spears dance number on the interview process. There are days when – while thrilled to be asked to interview – we’ve wondered if we can really answer the “tell me about yourself” question one more time without being sick. But in the end, we always do because, “My unemployment is killing me.”
3. As Long As You Hire Me – NSYNC opened the show, so Backstreet Boys will be our mid-point. We’ve spent hours on the resume, we’ve done interview after interview. We’re tired, we’re feeling defeated. At this moment, all we can think is, “I don’t care who you are, were you work, what you pay.”
4. An Offer Like This – Who can forget Kelly Clarkson’s single as the winner of the first American Idol? We’ve been on a roller coaster of emotion, from thinking we’d never work again to now being on top of the world with an actual job offer. We’re belting out this one from deep within our soul because we know, “Some people search forever for that one special job.”
5. Working Ladies (Cut a Check For It) – As a Houstonian, I can’t leave out my girl Beyonce. We’ve come full circle now. We got the job, we’re happy, we’re working, we’re getting paid. So we’re bringing the house down with our closing number. Don’t forget, companies, “If you like it, then you can check for it.” Everybody, up out of your seats!

OK I know, my musical may not win a Tony, but I feel like it’d brighten our spirits. The process can at times feel soul destroying and impossible, so why not put it to music and have a laugh or two along the way? Honestly, sometimes you have to laugh so you don’t cry. To quote Kelly Clarkson, “What if I told you it was all meant to be?”