Something on the local fishwrap’s web site cheesed me off this morning. It’s the picture that accompanies a story about a job fair for military veterans.

In the picture, some guy is talking to a recruiter while wearing a t-shirt and jeans, backwards baseball cap and with a baby strapped to his chest.

At one time I was a lot like the guy in the picture. I was late 20s, a veteran of the nation’s Elite Fighting Forces, and with a baby at home. I was also completely broke, desperate for work in a job market that was not hiring and a soon-to-be college graduate who was competing for jobs with people 6-8 years younger than me. Yet I still went to just about every job fair offered within a 200 mile radius of my school my last couple semesters wearing suits, ties and carrying nothing but a folder full of resumes.

I found job fairs to be pretty useless — except for all the free swag — because it’s such a meat market and of all the literally hundreds of resumes I left at literally hundreds of tables across the southern U.S. I got exactly one call-back regarding my resume that led to exactly zero job interviews. Wait, check that. I had in fact lined up a job interview. It’s just that the company went under before they interviewed me.

Anyway, if this is how people look for work these days it’s no wonder they’re still looking. And it’s no wonder why I’m not. Idiots.