Job

Job Search, Circa de 2025

~ Heather Davis ~ 4 Comments

After a few failed attempts launching my dream career (and due to our tottering economy), I’ve recently reentered the job market. To say it’s humbling to try and start over at my age is to understate the matter rather awfully. And although I’ve wasted both time & money obtained training and credentialling in hopes of making myself more marketable, I’ve had a front-row seat to the frustrating, time-consuming chaos that is the modern job market. So, just for fun and with a couple of tweaks from my 22-year-old (who has graduated with a bachelor’s in cell & molecular biology and enjoys student loan debt without the perks of finding employers who will disdain to hire the holder of a mere bachelor’s degree), I’ve created a tongue-in-cheek mock career site posting not dissimilar from the hundreds we two have collectively applied to (and subsequently been ghosted by).

All in good fun. 🙂 Enjoy.

Generic Modern Job Posting – Entry Level

Jo-Bob’s Stuff & Such is looking to add an Administrative Assistant to our team! We make stuff and such, and we pride ourselves on the stuffiness of the stuff we create. We’re looking for a top-notch administrator with an IQ of 278 or higher to do menial work around the office, type a few things, and answer our phones. Our ideal candidate will have scintillating good looks, proven fluency in a minimum of three languages, be conversant on the finer points of 12th century Russian poetry, and possess enough student loan debt to be decidedly desperate.

Qualifications:

  • Master’s degree (required)
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Google Suite, data analytics, and Python
  • Intimate understanding of quantum computing
  • Excellent trilingual written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to build your own functional communications device using paper clips, gum from the sidewalk outside, and heat distilled from the crushing weight of your own disillusionment
  • Exceptional time management skills
  • High-quality telephone etiquette
  • PhD in any field (preferred)*
  • Minimum of one decade experience in a clinical or executive office
  • Must be under the age of 40!

Why join our team:

  • Voted “Best Place to Work” by people we asked to vote for us
  • Flexible work environment: you can sit or stand at your desk
  • We pay nearly as much as a grocery store cashier
  • No nights or weekends (usually)
  • Tuition reimbursement (for qualified individuals)
  • We’ll put the word insurance here to give you hope
  • Retirement? Not in this economy. Nice try, though.
  • We’ll most likely replace you with an AI chatbot, but go ahead and submit your resume anyway
  • An AI chatbot wrote this posting and is handling all hiring and inquiries

*You won’t be hired without it.

Job: A Summary of Reflections

~ Heather Davis ~ 2 Comments

A brief walk-through of a few of my reflections through my latest reading of the book of Job:

JOB 1:6 – Why do most English translations grant the accuser a proper name when the original language is merely a noun with a definite article roughly translating to “the accuser?”

JOB 1:8 – Imagine the honor of being showcased by the Almighty as an exemplary servant! I mean, yeah, the temporal consequences stunk, but still…

JOB 4:12-16 – Job’s buddy Eliphaz seems to confuse either nightmares or demonic visitation with a word from God.

JOB 8:4 – Bildad isn’t the most comforting, either. I can’t do better than the paraphrase of this verse I heard on Wednesday night: “Sorry your kids are dead, but they probably deserved it.”

JOB 11:6b – And his pal Zophar tends more toward condemning than comforting, too. The title of this section in the ESV says it all.

JOB 13:5 (NIV) – Nice one, Job. Silence would indeed suit these guys well.

MOST OF JOB – Lord, help me not to be like Job’s fair-weather friends. Teach me how to shut my mouth and listen more. Also, I hope Job got some better friends after this crisis.

JOB 38 – What is it about the human race (yours truly included) that makes us believe we are actually entitled to know things? We are created things yet we somehow think all our whys should be indulged by an answer, as if we could possibly grasp the vast and ancient wisdom of the Ancient of Days. How like a small child we are, sulking when our Father doesn’t provide us with an answer we can come to terms with and not realizing we aren’t even capable or understanding even if He deigned to tell us (see also Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6).

JOB 41 – What in the sweet summer sunshine is Leviathan and how can I avoid ever meeting one??

My overall takeaway from this past reading of Job is to stay in my lane and trust my God even when nothing around me makes any sense. Lord, help us to remember who we are and who You are, amen!

When Job Is My Portion

~ Heather Davis ~ 6 Comments

This past Saturday, I woke to one of Tennessee’s typical grey winter days. After reading my morning portion of the Word, I caved in to my Aussie’s pleading stares and vocalizations. A quick check of the weather app assured me the looming clouds would not spill over for “at least 60 minutes,” nonetheless, I donned my rain gear and set off with the furry victor happily trotting at my side. Since my portion is in Job at present, it seemed appropriate to me to listen to said book while I walked to enhance my morning’s reading, and I decided to backtrack and listen from Job chapter 1.

The weather app lied.

About a half-mile into my walk, a misty drizzle started. It was fairly warmish and the drizzle was light, so I decided to keep going. Besides, my poor pooch had already missed several walks this winter due to my state’s bipolar weather and my own health issues. As I passed the lake, I noted my friend the limpkin still inexplicably hanging out at the water’s edge despite being a good 450-odd miles from the northern edge of his typical range – not to mention last week’s snowpocalypse.

He stared at me as I passed, possibly wondering why the crazy human trudges through the mist and still stops to snap photos of him. Good question. I moved on, listening to Job’s lament and feeling a bit dissatisfied with my choice. But I kept walking.

About halfway through my short route, the drizzle picked up to a light rain. By this time, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had begun their potshots and part of my mind drifted to my own times of trial. The rain lent a dismal ambience to perfectly complement the audio.

When the light rain began to drift toward downpour, I debated the merits of fighting the rain for control over my phone’s screen to make a call. Instead, I put my head down and determined to finish the last 3/4 mile or so as quickly as possible. Then I saw movement. Through the raindrops coating my glasses, a familiar vehicle drew near.

My husband had noted the increase in damp and come to my rescue. Hallelujah!

The whole experience reminded me of a dark and dismal time in my life. Like Job, I’d lost a lot (though not all). The people I’d called “friend” abandoned me in my hour of need, and I felt myself alone, groping through a cold and misty waste with nowhere to turn. Then out of nowhere, as I trudged ahead in a grim and hopeless determination, my Rescuer appeared.

I found the Word of God – not just the Book but the Redeemer it speaks of: Yeshua Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Immanuel, God-With-Us. My Lord and my God. In my darkest hour, in abject fury and despair, I shouted my unbelief and unbelievably, He came to my rescue anyway.

He took me under the shelter of His wings and slowly began the work of healing my wounded heart, untwining the deeply-rooted sins that infected my soul, and cleaning up the mess I’d made. My journey since then has still had moments of despondency and pain, but I now have a safe and warm destination to look forward to.

Just as my husband picked me up and drove me home, my Lord and Savior is carrying me through the murk of life. And I know that someday, He will bring me Home. This is what I keep in mind when Job’s lot seems to be my portion. Even without the Book, Job himself clung to this hope and kept going.

My friend, so can you.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

(Job 19:25-26)