Courtesy Scott Thomas
- Scott Thomas, 66, has been trying for years to re-enter the corporate world.
- He applies to jobs daily and has started using AI and an automated tool to streamline the process.
- Applying to jobs has become a “weird treasure hunt” for Thomas, who hopes to work another 15 years.
Scott Thomas, 66, lives near Tampa, Florida, and earlier in his career, worked in customer service operations at companies including Citigroup. Since then, he’s owned several businesses, including fitness centers. He has been trying to re-enter the corporate world. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I spend about four to six hours a day completing job applications. It’s become this weird treasure hunt for me. Each time I try to stop doing it, I go, “Well, now I have nothing to hope for.”
So every day, it drives me to keep searching. I’ve gotten to the point where I get about 75 to 100 emails a day filled with job postings. Every morning, I go through my inbox, and by the time I get done, it’s cleared out, and I’ve applied to maybe 100 jobs. That’s every day.
It’s just me and my dog, so that’s pretty much all I do. I don’t watch TV. I don’t watch movies. I have a part-time business pressure washing, but I only do that two or three times a week.
The golden opportunity
Every day, job listings are right in front of me on my computer. It’s almost like FOMO. What if I missed that golden opportunity?
I can’t retire. I lost my businesses just before the pandemic. I owned two fitness centers. I basically have already used my retirement money, and now I have to go back to work during everyone else’s retirement. My buddies say, “Oh, I just retired.” I’m like, “Well, I’m going back to work for the next 15 years.”
I’m OK with it. I’m kind of bored and want to use the skill set that I’ve built.
If the fitness centers had stayed in business, I would have been happy adding a couple more and ending my career that way. But since they didn’t, I have to think of another way to get back on track.
I have no capital left, so I really can’t start another business. The only way to get back to the lifestyle that I was used to is to catch a pretty significant, senior-level job. I’m searching for anywhere from $80,000 and up a year.
My brother is like, “You need to go to Home Depot and work in the electrical aisle.” But I’m just not going to do that. That would be admitting defeat. It wouldn’t be utilizing what I worked so hard to create.
I’m a professional interviewer
There’s no question that ageism has been a problem for me. One guy just flat out said, “How long do you think you’re going to work for?” I said, “Well, at least 10 years.” He said, “Really?” So, I knew I was in trouble there.
I don’t know if I look 90 years old or 40 years old, but I think I look my age, or maybe a little younger. They’re going to figure out my age by the timeline on my résumé. I always question whether I should chop my résumé in half.
At this point, I’m a professional interviewer. Every time they tell me, “Great answer. Love it.” But then afterward, they sit back and go, “Wait a minute. He hasn’t done this for 15 years.” That’s my Achilles’ heel.
I don’t ask for feedback anymore because they just give me a whitewashed answer.
I’m an AI fanatic, so I really push that hard during the interview process: I say, “I jumped on the AI bandwagon before it was a wagon.”
I’ve learned more about customer service operations by reading job descriptions and preparing for interviews than I ever did doing it. I’m reading the white papers and watching the webinars. In seven years, I’ve spent more time doing research than I ever did sitting in my office at Citigroup. When you’re running it, you’re not doing the deep research. You’re too busy.
I can interview as often as I want, really. I think, “Hey, I might hook one. It would be great.” That’s what keeps me going. If I give up, I’ll just be sitting here doing nothing. So I might as well use my free time to keep trying until my fingers don’t work anymore.
Applying is therapeutic
I started looking in 2019, about a year before I lost my fitness centers, because I had that feeling that I wanted to get back into corporate.
I have well over 100 versions of my résumé and have used AI to help make it clearer. Before, it was a laundry list of all kinds of stuff.
I use LazyApply, where I don’t even know it’s happening, and I get a rejection letter from a company I’ve never heard of. That’s just within the last couple of months. For the most part, I use Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn. Networking is difficult and time-consuming, so I use more of the shotgun approach.
Applying is therapeutic. Otherwise, you can fall into a deep depression with this number of rejections. I’ve tried to be fearless about keeping going. It’s part insanity and part ambition. I think now I’m going for the world record. Not many people have done the two things I’ve done: One is not getting a job, and the other is not giving up.
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