Does it strike anybody as odd that in a liberal town you can only get hired if you look conservative?

Let me start of by admitting, this is not your traditional cover-letter.

I am looking for a job, perhaps even a new career. I have over nine years customer service experiance through working in various call centers. I would love the opportunity to work directly with customers, but I’m perfectly content hanging out behind a monitor. I am both intelligent and fairly smart. I think about things before I act, and I’m excellent at taking orders. I’m am an ideal INTP (Meyers-Briggs peronality test) who loves to challenge concepts and is constantly seeking more efficient ways to complete tasks. I love to learn, and if I don’t know something, I’m more than willing to spend the time needed finding the answer. I speak Google fluently.

Since I live in a liberal town that seems to only hire those who look conservative, I must mention that I do have a few visable tattoos. If that is a hands down “no” in your business, then please, read no further. If I’ve raised your curiousity you’re welcome to continue. We’re taught as we grow up to judge a person by their personality and their actions, and yet we refuse to hire those who look different. My hair is a normal color now, but in an interview I was once asked if I would change my hair color (which at the time was red/purple) to a normal color for a position. My answer was no. This shocked my interviewer, and he asked why. I simply stated that on the back of the application was the phrase that we do not discriminate based on age, race, sex, color or religion. Race implied the color of my skin – so what did color mean? I added that I have never had a problem with my hair color interfering with my ability to create a strong personal connection and relationship, even with those who are stand-off-ish at first. My eyes cut right through any insecurities somebody may have about me. Perhaps it was my overall personality, but I was offered the position and advised that the hair color policy would be waived for me [I declined the position, and a friend working there said the policy was to be waived just for me, and that he’d even increase the rate of pay if I’d come work there]. I didn’t think about the response or question before providing my answer, but I do remember how passionate and clear I was when I said it.

I do have facial peircings. My eyebrows are even tattoo’d on as dots (you can see them here: https://tattooed4eternity.wordpress.com/). When I got them I did have in the back of my mind that someday they’d give me trouble, but I ware really worried about how people would look at me, and what would be said. I’m actually very shocked by the number of times I have been stopped by people, both young and old, nearly everywhere and asked questions about them and I have gotten a lot of complements on them, and far less strange looks than I expected. They’ve given me a new-found confidence that I had been lacking before; however, my need to job search came earlier than expected. I was hoping to have my BS in Philosophy/Psychology and looking into law school before they’d ever arise as an obstacle.

Since having to start looking for work I have tried various methods to cover them up, and they all look far more ridiculous than just being me [way too ridiculous to post]. I have one more effort I will try, but I figure that standing up and being straight-forward and honest to you about who I am will be a better approach.

People who write advice about why one should hide tattoos during an interview say that its because people fear that those who have tattoos are more apt to be deceptive, or have ill-intent. I’m not going to hide anything from you. I’m not trying to deceive anybody. Thats not in my character.

I can easily minimalize the facial piercings and aside from my eyebrows nearly all my tattoos can be hidden with a longsleeve shirt, however none of my tattoos are offensive and all have deep meaning to me. I have no problems explaining that the lotus-flower, “17” and koi on my left arm are all symbols, rather ironically, of strength through adversity. The “Love” on my inside right wrist is because of a movement called “To Write Love On Her Arms” which is a suicide-awareness organization. I wear it to show others who know of it that I’m available to talk to. I will soon be getting a tattoo of the Constituion as it means a lot to me. My looks may show up as strange at first, but it only takes seeing me a few times before it becomes “normal”. I used to change my hair color to vibrant colors every few weeks – enough that my co-workers would start asking when I was going to dye it again if it had been awhile. Everybody looks forward to seeing what the next beautiful creation will be.

If you can’t tell by now, I truly enjoy writing, editing, and exploring. I love philosophy, psychology and politics. I spend as much free time as possible listening to our local KGMI radio station (I prefer seeing whats going on in the world to hearing the same songs over and over again). I’m rather eclectic and enjoy a little bit of everything, and even recently took up bike riding. I rode 1300 miles last year, including on the 50 mile Tour de Whatcom and have a goal to ride 2011 miles this year. I have a three year old, and am a single mom with a mortgage and I am planning on spending the next year or so finishing up my degree online through Shoreline Community College. I was looking forward to getting my pilots license fairly soon, but thats on hold until I’m working in a job that is comparable to the salary I was making before (my last job paid $15.18/hour). I am looking for at least $12/hour to be able to survive in my house – however, that is negotiable if working in a position that receives tips as I have ever confidence in my ability to pull those in.

I am hard working and dedicated. If you take the time to look at my resume, you can see that since I graduated high school in 2001 I have been unemployed exactly zero days up until this point. I cannot sit at home and collect unemployment and waste tax-payer money. I cannot sit at home on food-stamps or any other government programs are out there for those who are incapable or unwilling to work. Thats not me. I’m fully capable of working, and I have been taught a strong work ethic. In fact, if you look deeply at my resume, you can see a month and a half period where I over-lapped jobs. I worked two 40 hour a weeks jobs full time so that way I was not ever without work.

Here are just a few jobs that interest me: Data Entry, Customer Service, Retail Service, Food Service provided its not cooking, Pharmacy Technician (do not have the needed licenses yet, willing to work towards them), Editor, Personal Assistant, Receptionist, Bar Staff, Electronics… once I’m done with school in about a million years I would like to be either a professor or a lawyer. Right now, I’m looking to get out there and learn something new.

There are some other things about the jobs I will not do. I will not be a telemarketer ever again. I cannot in good moral consciousness call and harass people to sell them things they don’t want, and they don’t need. I’m sorry, but nobody needs credit card insurance, and in this day and age with cell phones having unlimited long distance, NOBODY needs to switch their long distance provider. I will absoltely without a doubt NOT work for either Vector Marketing selling Cutco knives nor for Kirby. I have no problem with Customer Service over the phone, just no high-pressure sales unless the customers are calling us. I will also not take any job that involves you pre-paying me for service in an amount that exceeds my charges so you can have me Western Union the excess back to you. Especially if you can’t figure out that the routing number on the check should come before both the check number, and the account number on the bottom of the check.

The company I work for will demand nothing but the best showing of integrity, loyalty, respect trust and dedication, and I expect the same from the company that I work for. I have high expectations of my world, and those around me. I love showing others how to be more efficent, and how to think more efficiently. I will not work for any company that seeks to use and abuse either its employees or its customers. I have worked in that situation, and I cannot and will not be made to compromise my morals.

I do not expect this cover letter to be well-received by a lot of people. I know I come off as harsh, and blunt which is far from who I am. Truth is, I’m just laying myself out there for you to see. If you are at all curious to see how an interview would go, know that I’m actually a very quiet and reserved person. I just have bills to pay and I can’t tolerate letting other people work to pay them for me.

Respectfully,

Eternity