Job Outlook: Cautiously Optimistic, with a Side of Confusion

I wrote here a while back about my twentysomething kids' frustration in trying to find jobs, or more accurately, my frustration over their frustration. I complained about employers who don't seem at all interested in giving young people with even fairly mild disabilities a chance, and said those who did would get me singing their praises instead of shaking my fist.

A little while after that, I put a link to the post on Twitter and cc'd a few business who had particularly broken our hearts.

Two things happened almost immediately after. One of the companies I tagged, Chipotle, expressed concern on Twitter. I wound up having a phone conversation that gave me some faith that if one of my kids interviews at a Chipotle again, we'll have a less frustrating experience. If nothing else, we'll stop cursing when we drive by Chipotles now.

The second thing was that a job kind of fell from the sky.

I can't paint a direct line between my Tweet and the call from Wendy's, but it surely seems serendipitous. Unlike so many past job attempts, an online application led quickly to an interview, an acceptance, and a first day on the job. I probably shouldn't jinx it by writing about it, but ... I did promise to sing praises.

It's also particularly appropriate that this so-much-wished-for job comes from Wendy's, which is at least partially responsible for my kids being my kids. Those signs in Wendy's restaurants for the National Adoption Center got us started thinking "Hey, maybe we could adopt an older kid or two." Though we weren't successful finding a match through that program, the agency who did our home study to submit there ultimately started facilitating adoptions in Russia, and showed us a picture of our daughter, waiting in an orphanage. This kind of feels like a full circle somehow.

But of course, as the job fairy giveth, so does the job fairy taketh away. A job I thought my son had has evaporated. This is not the first time someone has said they're hiring this kid, made us wait, and then never done anything about it. It's not so much that I want to fight for this particular job as I want an explanation of how this happens. So Marriott, I've been tweeting at you, and maybe I'll be lucky twice. Check this space.