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So I went to ANPE/Pole Emploi today.


(Long pause).

Oh mon dieu. As my husband says "If those are the people who are supposed to help you get a job, good luck."

They were nice and friendly, but when you tell someone you have a Masters in communication and you're looking for a job as a Chargée de communication and they reply "So, do you want to keep "Secretaire Bilingue" in your account as the job you're seeking?" you have to wonder. I told her no, that before I'd gone back to school I'd been looking for a secretarial job, but that was finished now. "So, you don't want to keep even one of the secretary positions as a job you're seeking?"

Maybe it was the fact that she had to hunt and peck for the keys on the keyboard that kept her from concentrating.

I told her I knew the software Photoshop and she typed in "Photosop". For Adobe Premier, she wrote "Adobe 1er".

I wasn't expecting too much, but in the year that's passed since I was last on the unemployed list I'd forgotten what those meetings were like. The person is required to show you a job listing, for example, and check a box that you read it, even if you'd already seen it on the website and maybe even applied for it.

My field works by word of mouth, so being on the ANPE list will just get me cheaper movie tickets, public transportation, and, um, well, something. Here's to hoping it won't be long.