Finding a job in California is NOT fun

I was incredibly lucky when I got out of school. I graduated in 2007 aka the year before the economy decided to commit suicide. I had a plan. sad, but I'm anal. After I graduated, I had one month to secure a job. I got called by most of the jobs that I applied for and within a couple weeks had two job offers.

Now I'm in California. It is perhaps the worst place to find a job with the exception of Detroit. The Washington Post did a blog this summer called Recession Road. It was great. But it scared the shit outta me. Most of the posts were downright depressing, but it offered a genuine view of how people were(are) living right now. Before moving I knew that I'd have my work cut out for me, but I'm a bright little lady with a fair amount of great things to offer a company. My past experience with job searching was such a breeze that I'm starting to get in panic mode. I've applied to numerous jobs and have only gotten a call from a temp agency. My eyes are so tired of looking at the computer and researching that I've signed up to volunteer just to get out of the house and stop thinking about how depressing the job search is going.

Today was my first day of working in California. It lasted from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm. and paid less than half of what I got at my last job. It was only for today and is so far from the work that I want to do that I'm slightly embarassed to tell people about it. But money is money, I guess.