I am still self-quarantining because of COVID-19, so I decided to try to clean up my home office and get rid of files and papers I don’t need anymore. As I went through my file cabinet drawers, I found a two folders containing rejection letters I had received over the years after applying for various jobs in Public TV, video production and journalism.
Including the rejection letters, my cover letters and initial job listings, both folders were a couple of inches thick. The documents covered the dates from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. After that, job searching moved online meaning fewer paper rejection letters.
As I sorted through the papers and put most of them in a bag to be recycled, I did retain a few letters from people I knew through mutual acquaintances or who had worked at someplace where I had worked. Most of the job listings came from two sources: “Broadcasting” magazine’s weekly classified listing of positions available and the job search service of the National Association of Broadcasters. It was through a listing in the now-defunct NAEB that I came to work at the University of Akron in 1975.
I also was a member of the International Television Association during the 1980s and 1990s, a group composed of mostly corporate and educational video production professionals. That organization also had a job listing service for members.
During the late 70s and 1980s, I concentrated on positions in the Southeastern US because I wanted get away from the brutal winter weather in Northeast Ohio. In 1990 enrollment at UA began to fall due to a decline in the number of high school graduates in the region. I sensed that the university might eventually close my department for budgetary reasons and that happened in 1995.
In the early 1990s, I began to cast a wider net and apply for positions all over the country. I got some serious nibbles from employers in Florida, Tennessee, the Carolinas and even Washington state. I also interviewed for positions in Northeast Ohio, but there were no offers.
Early in my career, I was dedicated to the concept of television as a source of good for the audience through my work in Public TV and educational video. I believed in the programming philosophy of public television to inform and entertain. I hoped to get a program director’s position at a PBS affiliate, but that never happened.
After UA closed the TV Center in 1995, I decided to repurpose my career away from video production. I was a reporter for Sun Newspapers, the chain of weekly papers serving suburbs of Cleveland and for Tire Business a Crain Communications publication. Both jobs allowed me to improve my writing skills and learn more about local government and business. I remain grateful to the editors and co-workers who helped me learn a new career.
Then in 2001 I returned to UA as a multimedia specialist and remained there until I retired in 2011.
Looking through the stack of rejection letters was humbling, but it also made me feel relieved. I am so glad I don’t have to go through the apprehension and disappointment of searching for a job anymore. During all the decades of job searching, I discovered that often it wasn’t necessarily what you knew as much as who you knew. In six of the eight full-time jobs I had during my career, I knew someone who knew someone about the job opening that I was applying for.
Some of the rejection letters ended with the phrase: “Best of luck in your future endeavors.” I’m so glad I don’t have to read that anymore.
