I hate being unemployed

I really do. I hate it with a passion I usually reserve for people who smell bad in my vicinity.

I was watching the Canucks game on Saturday with a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in years, and they were telling me it’s no big deal, the weather’s nice, enjoy this time off. Thing is, I already did that. That was September. I’m all good for the time off, thanks.

I’m taking these night courses at BCIT. The instructors say things like, “I know you’re really busy with your day jobs”, and I cringe. From introductions in the first week, it seems I am the only unemployed person in either class. Also the only database administrator (besides the instructor), though maybe it’s time I stopped calling myself one.

I’m cursing my decision to focus on MySQL database administration for the last 3 and a half years. I am 90% certain it was a complete mistake and that I should have focused on software development instead. All I’m hearing from people in the industry here in Vancouver is “nobody wants your skills” and “no company wants to pay for a MySQL DBA, what would they need one for?”.

Hand me that noose, will ya?

I’m now applying for jobs outside of Vancouver, because I’d rather have a job far away than be unemployed in my home town. Given my love for this city, my connection to family and friends here and my dislike of change in general, that’s saying something. I want a job more than I want my life here.

The next suggestion I get after relaying the above paragraph to someone is always that I should reevaluate my priorities, because living-to-work is bad. Well, screw that: I don’t want to change. I just want my career back. And as much as I try not to, I’m going to be miserable until that happens.