Job-Seeking in Community, Not Alone: A BenOp Mitzvah

Job-Seeking in Community, Not Alone: A BenOp Mitzvah June 19, 2015

This strikes me as a great idea:

…Next up on my end: I’ve been using the two questions “What do I do alone that I could do with others?” and “What do I do privately that I could do in public?” as prompts for BenOp-ish ideas, and, thus, I’m opening my living room sometime soon for a little salon for people between jobs to work on applications, get feedback on resumes, practice interviews, etc.

Job applications always make me miserable, especially because the slew of rejections (or rather “Sorry you’re not even worth informing we rejected you”) makes it hard to hold on to feeling of worth.  Plus, I wind up with big blocks of lonely time, when everyone else is at work (if I’m between jobs, rather than changing jobs).

So, I’m hoping that bringing people together to “ora et labora” (pray and work) and eat together might be helpful.  I tend to think of this kind of intervention as not only being comforting but of being a sort of truth telling.  Being in a weird, precarious spot jobwise can isolate you both from others and from the honest truth about how you are valued.  My goal is restoring a connection to reality that would otherwise be clouded by circumstances.

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