Quotessence
Home / Books / Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream

Book by Barbara Ehrenreich · 7 quotes · Work, Business, Jobs

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorkBusinessJobsCareersJob HuntingCorporate WorldWorkingEmploymentExecutivesJob SearchingWorkersDownsizingLayoffsNetworkingProfessionalsResumesAgingCapitalismChangeClothing

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream Quotes

“I had pictured the corporate world that I seek to enter as a castle on a hill, outside of which the starving vagrants wander, beset upon by wolves and barbarian hordes, begging for entry into the safety of the fortified towers. But now I see there is another zone out here: a somewhat settled encampment, where people toil for uncertain rewards at minor tasks invented by the castle dwellers. There is an advantage to occupying this zone: you are free of the rigid conformity required of those who dwell inside; you can actually “Be Your Own Boss!” A few do very well, acquiring pink Cadillacs or fortunes from real estate deals. Many more are ruined or pour themselves into efforts that generate near-poverty-level earnings year after year. There is no safety out here; the wolves keep circling.”

JobsWorkBusinessCareersConsultantsJob SeekingCorporate WorldProfessionsJob HuntingMulti Level Marketing
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Create image

“Less mutable qualities, like age, may have worked against me too. My résumé revealed only that I was probably over forty. But even that relatively youthful status could have repulsed many potential employers. Business journalist Jill Andresky Fraser warned me that a forty-plus woman was unlikely to be hired except by someone seeking a “motherly secretary,” Katherine Newman, among others, has documented corporate age discrimination, quoting, for example, a Wall Street executive who told her, “Employers think that [if you’re over forty] you can’t think anymore. Over fifty and [they think] you’re burned out.”

JobsWorkCareersAgingEmploymentEmployersJob SeekingMiddle AgeAge DiscriminationJob Hunting
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Create image

“As the New York Times reported in June 2004: “The most common rejection letter nowadays seems to be silence. Job hunting is like dating, only worse, as you sit by the phone for the suitor who never calls.” The feeling is one of complete invisibility and futility: you pound on the door, you yell and scream, but the door remains sealed shut in your face.”

JobsBusinessSilenceCareersRejectionNew York TimesJob Hunting
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Create image

“My major takeaway from Ron, now that I have a chance to reflect, is that getting a job is like gaining acceptance into an eighth-grade clique. There exists an elite consisting of people who hold jobs and have the power to confer that status on others, and my task is to penetrate this elite. Since my actual eighth-grade status never advanced beyond that of loathsome pariah and nerd, I have no practical experience of elite crashing, but it makes sense to include a ruthless scrutiny of the “product” I am trying to sell.”

JobsElitesNetworkingSocializingJob HuntingCliques
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Create image

“[Networking] feels fake because we know it involves the deflection of our natural human sociability to an ulterior end. Normally we meet strangers in the expectation that they may truly be strange, and are drawn to the multilayered mystery that each human presents. But in networking, as in prostitution, there is no time for fascination. The networker is always, so to speak, looking over the shoulder of the person she engages in conversation, toward whatever concrete advantage can be gleaned from the interaction—a tip or a precious contact.”

InterestConversationConnectionNetworkingSociabilityAdvantagesJob Hunting
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Create image