Between a rock and a hard place for Congress: Jobs or a rough 2010

Updated

For the last year or so, I've been conducting an experiment. Now, don't hold me to the scientific method because it's been a really informal experiment. But the results have been both scary, enlightening and not very surprising. Cutting to the chase, for almost exactly the last 12 months, I've been applying for various jobs via one of the popular online job search sites.

Some background first. I'm self-employed. I write about politics, I produce videos, I make cartoons. But last year when the market tanked and the really serious recession began, I began to seriously worry that my small business work might not endure through the economic slump. So in a panic, I started up a profile at the job search site, uploaded my resume and began to look around.

Fortunately, I've been able to keep busy enough to pay the mortgage and haven't needed to take an actual job somewhere. But just for curiosity's sake, once my studio and writing work appeared to smooth out, I decided to keep sending out applications through the job site for the balance of this year. Just to see what would happen. The experiment.

Here's the result. In a full 12 months, I wasn't called in for a single interview.

No calls. No emails. No interviews. Nothing.

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