Hat on Top, Coat Below
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File Under “Old School”
December 10, 2011
As part of my ongoing quest to manage my files of magazine clippings, I recently weeded out the contents of the job hunting folder, which had pretty much been sitting untouched since I was last looking for work in 1999. A lot of the articles were from much earlier than that, including these gems:
—An undated piece (I suspect based on the layout and fonts it’s from Glamour in the early to mid-1980s) titled “10 Steps to a Good Strong Resume”, which urged the job seeker to “make sure the keys on your typewriter are clean” and “have your resume duplicated professionally” because “a carbon copy or photocopy doesn’t make you look professional”. A typewriter! Carbon copies! It’s like getting in a time machine.
—A 1987 article which says “You may want to buy or borrow an answering machine if you’re actively looking.” How quaint. (On the back of this page, there’s an ad for the Doubleday Book Club: 6 books for 99 cents.)
I found lots of articles from Working Woman magazine, which I read cover to cover for years. I don’t remember why or when I stopped. I definitely wasn’t still reading when the magazine folded in late 2001. I didn’t know the magazine had folded in until I Googled it just now. That’s how I find out stuff these days, so why am I still holding on to all these paper files? Nostalgia? Laziness? Fear? I wish I knew.
On this date in 2010: Winters Past
2009: Copy ‘n’ Think ‘n’ Share
2008: Not Quite OCD
2007: WDW, Part One
2006: Just Another Bummed Out Sunday
2005: Tastes of the Season
2004: No entry
2003: It’s the Pants
2002: I’m Back
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2 Comments
December 10th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Well, if you figure out the why of it, let me know, because I have a tendency to do the same kind of thing. Maybe what I need for Christmas this year is for someone to scan all the old crap and throw it away, so that when I don’t look at it for years and years, at least it’s taking up a negligible amount of space.
But hey, seeing the cool glimpses of the past you’re unearthing just might give me the necessary reinforcement to keep all that stuff around (I’m sure my wife will thank you for your influence!). It really is amazing, though, how many things have changed in such a short amount of time.
December 10th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
Right after I posted that comment, I saw that “On this date in 2009” was a meme you’d copied from me. Neat little convergence there.