
I’ve come to accept that the job hunt is a long and arduous process. Sometimes, you’re lucky to have a family member or fairy godmother who can make a call and throw a little pixie dust into the air so that in the morning you wake up with a job, a book deal and a pony.
Most of us lack pixie dust. Instead, we rely on resilience, patience and padded resumes.
In one day, I churned out 5 cover letters requesting to be considered for recent postings in a variety of fields:
- Auction House Junior Specialist
- Gallery Coordinator
- Culture blogger for an online edition of a magazine
- Documentary film researcher
- Professional Wingwoman
The Professional Wingwoman was my father’s idea.
He has lots of ideas about what I could be doing for work: running a gourmet hot dog shop in our home town, hosting a “fresh baked farm bread” stand in upstate New York, working as a barista in my own NYC cafe. Very few of his suggestions are practical or have to do with art history, though he’ll argue a cafe is a great place to hang paintings.

The wingwoman option struck him while he was watching Rachel Ray (!?!). The founder of wingwomen.com, a dating service for men who lack game — the only thing they can pick up at a bar is their own tab, and only if it’s very short — was a guest. My father thought it was a natural fit given that my college years were spent mostly in the company of sporty guys with ivy-league degrees and monosyllabic names. Indeed, I had 4+ years of wingwoman training.
Figuring it was better to have more lines in the sea, I took my father’s suggestion and went fishing again. I updated my CV, uploaded a photo and submitted an application.
I’ve only just started to receive interview requests on job applications that went out in November. Who knows if I’ll hear back from wingwomen.com. But maybe, just maybe, in May instead of “art historian,” I’ll have a new career teaching another art form — the art of the pick-up.
http://whogivesamonkeys.com/
Hi! I can put myself in your place feel your frustration. Any way check the blog address. The lady is a film maker, worked with TV and is a researcher. Try talking to her. She might be more helpful than a fairy Godmother. Take care.
I just felt like asking you to try.
The job search is certainly a test of endurance. Hope it is going well for you. Love the wingwoman idea.