I plan to apply to low-wage jobs on Hot Jobs and all the other job sites with this cover letter and resume. Of course I'll alter the cover letter to the specific low wage job and company, and notice the email I'm using which is strappedworker@gmail.com in honor of
Strapped the book by Tamara Draut. I've also done a resume below which I'm going to send out as a Word doc too LOL.
Cover letter -
To Whom it May Concern :
I am writing you in interest ( well, not really) of your sales associate job at department store X . According to Tamara Draut in her book Strapped, the largest job growth, accounting for 58 percent of new jobs, will be those requiring only work-related training. These jobs are primarily in the low-wage retail and food sector, including such jobs as sales associates, food preparation, bank tellers, cashiers, and wait staff. So sign me up for a slice of your retail slavery. I really need your $6.00 an hour or whatever you pay.
But what is my experience for this sort of work you ask? Well, I've worked these low-wage jobs while I was in high school and paid my way through two years of college doing them. I'm still in debt too. Like many strapped people in their twenties and thirties, we actually want a future that's not retail slavery. We try to go to college then get all this debt piled up on us. Some of us don't even get to acquire a Bachelors Degree because of the debt and other circumstances. But even the people that do end up with Bachelors Degree's find there aren't really many good paying jobs in their fields out there. Let's not even talk about the fact that a Masters Degree is the new Bachelors Degree. So we really disdain the fact that we find ourselves stuck in your vicious debt-for-diploma corpratist trap. Oh, and we don't have healthcare either not that I expect that from you anyway.
But let's talk about me since I want to work in your retail slavery. I went to school and got an associates degree, but like the people Tamara Draut highlights in her book Strapped, there were no jobs in that field. Actually she talks about someone in the book who has a shockingly similar history to me. Now I'd like to go back to college but I'm in the debt trap.
So I guess you must like this vicious debt-for-diploma cycle because it means people can't get ahead, which means more bodies for you. But even then you are smart not to hire everyone that come off as "over qualified" and would leave as soon as something better came up anyway. Because truthfully that's what I would do.
In closing, you should hire me because I don't really want your job. I really don't want to work here. But if there's nothing else out there, then I guess I'll stick around for now.
Sincerely Yours,
Strapped Worker
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Resume -
Strapped Worker
246 Poverty Lane
Low Wage, NY 10470
Phone: ( It just got cut off )
Email: strappedworker@gmail.com
WORK EXPERIENCE
2005-Present Big-Box Retail Store Anytown, USA
Sales Associate
¨Merchandising specalist
"Point of sale monetary transaction tech
¨Sales floor sanitation specialist
1999-2004 They Are All The Same Bank Anytown, USA
Teller
¨Took people's money and signed them up for credit card debt
¨Got them to take out loans to get into more debt
¨Made the corpratists very rich
1998-2001 A Grocery Store Chain Anytown, USA
Cashier
¨Monetary transaction specialist
"Did emergency aisle disaster relief
¨Put up with irate customers
SKILLS
Well, I have all these graphic design skills but why do you care?
EDUCATION & TRAINING
2000-2002 The College That Took My Money Anytown, USA
Associate Degree in Applied Science
Major: Multimedia Development and Management