She waited in the line for 30 minutes before the Brampton Employment Resource Centre opened. Once inside, there was more wait. She sat in a chair waiting for her turn while people around her chatted.
She thought she was a people-person, but everything around her seemed to annoy her that day. She was tired of fruitless job search.

The place was crowded. There were all kinds of people around her. Two women sat in the front row, giggling and filling up an application. A group of middle aged men were standing nearby, with construction workers’ shoes on, as if ready to start some construction job right away. A young mother sat next to her, with infant toying with the milk bottle.
“They did not have any openings last week”, the young mother said, trying to make a small talk, and then added quickly, “Hi, my name is Kari!”
“Hi, I am Jassi.”
“So you are local?” Kari asked, while trying to control the little one who wanted to wander away from her arms.
“Sort of, but I have been in Canada only for a few months.”
A long silence; she grabbed the baby who was eager to wander around, “There are no jobs in accounting in Brampton area!”
“Really?”
“Yeah, the adviser showed me some openings in the restaurants last week, but I don’t want to be waitress; I need a real job!” Kari kept going; expressing her frustrations with the job search.
“I know how you feel”, Jassi said quietly. Kari most likely did not hear her; she did not respond. Or, she didn’t want to talk about her feelings.

“This sucks man,” the guy with construction worker’s shoes said, as he waked away from the counter. He obviously did not like the news, whatever the lady at the counter said.

“It was nice to meet you, I have to go,” Jassi said.
“Why? Don’t you want to meet the adviser; your turn should be coming up in 10-15 minutes?” Jassi had already walked out, even before Kari could finish her sentence. Continue reading →