Introductions

Once again, the hourglass has been flipped. My supervisor admits that despite his efforts, he was told that the end date for our contract is firm for this June. Without a last-minute saving grace, the latest shot I had at full-time employment slips away again.

Careers in DC (and we know I mean throughout the DMV) have always been an uphill struggle to establish- that's why so many people here (the Faces and their staffers included) split their time or GTFO after they do their time- especially as one of the most expensive places to live in the US. It's fitting how the model of unpaid internships still exist after all this time, reflecting the ongoing started-from-the-bottom narrative based on a shred of truth pulled out of the meat grinder of industry. Hoping to "do your time" as if God will see your post-Bachelors effort and update your first job offer with a 3% boost to your salary.

You want to believe it, so badly. You want to believe that suffering is karmic and your higher-ups decide to hire based on your sacrifices, not budgets, or knowing somebody, or having the perfect value-add niche that can never be downsized.

Present realities however, indicate job security is a rapidly deteriorating concept. I share, along with many former gov't employees and contractors, the trauma intentionally inflicted by- what I've been coached to refer to in interviews euphemistically as- "shifting administration priorities".

The way I prefer to say it? In February 2025, I was DOGE'd.

I've been facing the barrel end of contingent employment more often than not, and see no respite in the near future. This is my ironic attempt at hedging, hoping to entertain if not inspire the feeling that there is hope in hobbies and passions to help make a living, while building out a future where employment, and the means to live, are a right.

I promise this isn't my manifesto- just an intro.

I eternally have several projects going on at any one point and my goal is to share something here (and sometimes I'm funny). Personal research, stories of my failings across the Beltway, the latest way I've reduced the value of my home, or the new stories I hope to make along the way with a like-minded community. If I'm lucky it'll grow to be something beyond me, a testament to the thousands of not millions of others doing something they love, imperfectly- the origin of amateur. Because there's a world beyond drowning in variants of your own resumes and forgotten applications in job search purgatory. A world beyond the contradictions you're trained to ignore, reappearing on the listings day after day.

Entry-level Position. Masters Preferred.