It’s been almost a year since I started working at McDonalds. Although it was somewhat tough in the beginning, working there turned out to be a fun, profitable experience, and still is. However, dued to several factors, which include pressure from parents and friends, I have decided to slowly start looking for a job that is more closely linked to my interests, which obviously means a job that concerns technology.

There’s no problem at all FINDING that kind of job in Trois-Rivieres, as it is big enough to be the home of many PC repair shops, retail stores and specialized businesses, but what the major issue is the condition I’m in. If being a geek where the only prerequisite to say, working at Future Shop (local Best Buy owned big boxer), there wouldn’t be a problem, at least not if your definition of a geek looks like this one, but there are other things to take in consideration.

First of all, my age. Despite the fact that most people I work with keep thinking that I’m 18 and inviting me to pubs and bars that I am not of legal age to go to, the fact is that having 1992 on your application as date of birth never looks very appealing to an employer who is used to hiring people in their early 20’s. People must give me a couple of years above my age because several things I guess, the way I talk, act, think, look, but sadly, those details are things that even the best resume in the galaxy can’t duplicate. I’d love to actually go to the damned store and interact with whoever is responsible of hiring, but sadly it’s something that Futureshop’s online application forms don’t really allow. The result? To them, I’m just another pimply teenager who plays too much Counter-Strike and therefor thinks it would be cool selling computers and stuff. Already, my chances are slimmer than a Macbook Air.

My next biggest problem is my lack of eduction. Not that I’m a dropout, but a big retail environment, you rarely see people who haven’t completed their high school (Quebec’s high school, which is grade 11 equivalence), so being on the way to completing my 10th grade isn’t really impressive. What the employer doesn’t know is that like all the nerds of this planet, I’ve been schooled by the internet, and I know much more than your average teenager. Everybody who know hardware has had a laugh in a retail store at least once, I’ve had a couple of experience myself: “this 1300$ AMD-based laptop can run COD4 on high”, “this 8800 GTS 640 is better than the GTS 512, because it has more memory”, “I don’t know what STP cables are”, and I’m not listing them all. I don’t want to be cocky, but I’m confident of my skills, and I think that I’m on par with the average sales person, to say the least. Again, they don’t know that. To the big boss, I’m your average noob who thinks their 3.8 ghz P4 is better than any Core 2 Duo.

I used to think I was bulletproof, but I thought about it for a while, and it seems that my chances of working with computers at my age aren’t all that great. All I can do is hope for the employer to take a look here (I’ve linked my blog on my resume), maybe even my posts or blog down at OCN, and to consider my CCNA letter of recommendation. I haven’t applied yet, but I’ll be doing so soon… wish me the best of luck.