T'was ever thus

When I earned my frivolous English degree from Carleton 45 years ago it was useless.  Oh, it was certainly a good degree and I benefited from it all my career, but it didn't get me a job. 

This week's Maclean's Magazine confirms it once again.  "Universities are good at imparting knowledge, but though they have career counselling centres, most fail when it comes to teaching students how to get a job," says the tag line.

I used to tell my children to forget about university, unless they went into medicine, law, engineering, architecture..........the professions.  An Art's Degree?  Forget about it.  But I obtained an Art's Degree and luckily a job in the publishing field.  How did I get that job?  I went for my hundredth interview at a Toronto ad agency ( I think it was J. Walter Thompson), was gruffly turned down and promptly burst out crying.  Yep, I admit it, I turned into a "girl".  I was starving and desperate and the guy interviewing me became alarmed. 

He rushed over, tried to comfort me, invited me to lunch and then called one of the company's clients, which happened to be IBM Canada.  "I'd like you to interview this girl, she has potential," he said.  A day later, I was hired.  Talk about playing the "girl" card!  I didn't mean to, but when the waterworks started, it all fell into place.  How pathetic. 

But I parlayed the IBM job into one at Maclean Hunter and continued to be a writer all my life.  When I moved to Ottawa, I got a job as a speech-writer to then Minister of Supply and Services, the late Jean-Pierre Goyer.  That morfed into a public service position and I just carried on until I retired.

We never know how our careers will work out.  At Revenue Canada, I worked with many people who had started in a TSO or Tax Centre somewhere else.  Man, they were all so smart and I paled beside them when it came to technical knowledge.  But my writing skills and my English degree have always given me a leg-up.  To this day, with this blog, I simply have to write.