There are a lot of things that can be frustrating about being unemployed/job hunting.  Some you have control over, others you don't.  I think the most frustrating one I've come across is the apparent idea that people can't learn/change.  In the past 6+ months I've been told that I couldn't get hired to to temporary word processing because I haven't done so in the past couple of years.  I've been told that I couldn't get a job in a retail store because I've not worked in a retail store before.  These are annoying because they seem to ignore the fact that I've got other experience that shows I can either do the job or learn how to do so very quickly.

The worse corollary to this is the idea that people might not hire me because I've been unemployed for a while (too long for my comfort, but that's besides the point).  For whatever reason (maybe I'm applying for the wrong type of job, maybe I've had bad interviews, maybe I don't have all the skills listed in a job description, maybe something else that I don't know about) I've not gotten to the final step of being offered employment by any of the numerous companies I've interviewed with.  This is seen as a major negative by prospective employers (or so I have been told).  I don't understand this.  Why should the fact that I might not have been deemed the best candidate for one job shouldn't affect my being seen as a good candidate for another one.  No one, at least outside of those companies I've applied/interviewed at multiple times, can know why I didn't get a job (especially if I don't myself).  The job requirements might be very different.  The company culture might be different.  Someone else who was better qualified might have applied for the one I didn't get.  Who knows? 

Yet it sometimes feels like there are maybe 20 jobs available at any time and these are all given to people who are already employed somewhere.  This, in turn, opens up 20 new jobs, which are all given to other people who feel like switching companies.  And so on.  And with all this, the economy remains sluggish (new hires are happening, but unemployment remains high), which means companies are reluctant to expand (so that 25 new jobs would be there and only 20 filled by people currently employed elsewhere).

End of rant.

Note:  I took the title for this post from a book by Richard Feynman [well worth reading, as well as "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman"].