I cancelled LinkedIn Premium. It was about forty dollars a month, or roughly four hundred and eighty dollars a year. I am not employed at the moment. This is temporary. I know because I have begun assembling the equipment a temporarily unemployed person needs. LinkedIn Premium was a subscription to the idea that a better profile would solve the problem. I have decided to solve it with infrastructure.
about twelve thousand dollars. Shark rating 0.4.
The rating is not a product score. It is my estimate of how likely I am to survive Donna seeing the receipt. A pod would let me commute to work without leaving the property. Donna said, “We do not have a property.” I said that is a detail we can solve after the pod.
about one thousand seven hundred dollars. Shark rating 0.6.
I can walk while waiting for a recruiter to remember me. The walking is not exercise. It is pacing with infrastructure. A normal desk would let me sit and worry. This one lets me worry at a steady pace.
about two thousand dollars. Shark rating 0.7.
I need a place to store my applications. Not the files. The dignity. A rack says the job search is serious and has cooling requirements. Donna asked if it was for a job or a heist. I said it is for a job, but I understand the confusion.
about three hundred dollars. Shark rating 0.8.
For interviews. I want to sound like a person with an office and not a person with a dishwasher. The dishwasher is not part of the team. The foam will make sure the recruiter does not hear it finishing a cycle during my answer about teamwork.
about eight hundred dollars. Shark rating 0.9.
A barista is a subscription too, when you think about it. This one has a reservoir. Donna said we already have a coffee maker. I said that one makes coffee. This one makes mornings.
about one thousand two hundred dollars. Shark rating 1.1.
Thinking is horizontal work. I need a chair that admits it. The kitchen chair pretends thinking happens upright. That is why my best ideas arrive at night and my worst ideas arrive during interviews.
about seven hundred dollars. Shark rating 1.2.
I need to see the whole job market at once. On a normal monitor I can only see the part that is rejecting me. With an ultrawide I can see the rejection and the spreadsheet where I track it. That is called context.
about one hundred fifty dollars. Shark rating 1.3.
For video interviews. Also for a podcast about being between roles. The podcast is not a hobby. It is a public diary with better sound. Donna asked who would listen. I said the same people who read my cover letters. Nobody yet, but the audio will be clean.
about eighty dollars. Shark rating 1.4.
Recruiters should see me lit like a person who is ready. Not lit like a person sitting under a kitchen bulb at four in the afternoon. The light goes around the camera. It says I have considered the frame. I have.
about one hundred dollars. Shark rating 1.5.
The laptop camera makes me look like a witness in a documentary about paperwork. I need a camera that makes me look like a candidate. Same face. Better lens. That is the whole argument.
about one hundred twenty dollars. Shark rating 1.6.
For interviews I can appear in front of a bookshelf. The bookshelf is not real. The books are not real. The job is real, eventually. This is not deception. It is set design for a serious life.
about one hundred sixty dollars. Shark rating 1.7.
Cover letters require a sound. The sound should say I am typing with intent. The laptop keyboard sounds like a person tapping a spoon against a mug. Donna said the words matter more than the sound. I said the sound helps the words arrive.
about thirty dollars. Shark rating 1.8.
A desk with visible cables looks like a desk that has given up. I have not given up. I have zip ties. The cables will go under the desk where they can think about what they have done.
about forty dollars. Shark rating 1.9.
I will label the folders. The folders are mostly empty. The labels will say what the folders will contain once the job arrives. A folder with a label is a promise. A folder without a label is a place where old menus go.
about fifty dollars. Shark rating 2.0.
I want my resume to survive coffee. Also weather. Also the job market. Donna asked why I needed to laminate a resume when most applications are online. I said I am not going to let a good document be ruined by a format.
about two hundred dollars. Shark rating 2.1.
I need to turn paper into files. The paper is mostly old pay stubs. The files will be evidence that I once had a job and will again. That is not nostalgia. That is an archive.
about ninety dollars. Shark rating 2.2.
For the archive. The archive needs a backup. The backup needs a name. I will label it. This is why the label maker came first. Donna said the label maker came before the thing it labels. I said that is called planning.
about seventy dollars. Shark rating 2.3.
I need to destroy the old versions of my resume. They are not bad. They are just not the person I am now, who has a shredder. The new versions will be better. The old versions will be strips.
about one hundred dollars. Shark rating 2.4.
I will draw the plan. The plan will have arrows. Some arrows will point to the word “income.” Donna asked if I needed a whiteboard to write the word “income.” I said I needed it to write the word “income” next to the word “timeline.”
about thirty dollars. Shark rating 2.5.
The desk is wood. The wood is fine. A pad says the desk is a workstation and not a place where mail goes to die. It also gives the mouse a boundary. The mouse has been wandering.
about forty dollars. Shark rating 2.6.
The monitor should be at eye level. My eye level should not be the kitchen table. A stand is a small piece of furniture with a large opinion about posture. I agree with it.
about thirty dollars. Shark rating 2.7.
The laptop needs to be elevated. So does my posture. So does the conversation with Donna about why I need both a laptop stand and a monitor stand. The answer is that one is for the laptop and one is for the monitor. That is two problems.
about one hundred eighty dollars. Shark rating 2.8.
One cable. That is the whole pitch. One cable is the difference between a home office and a pile of adapters with a lamp on top. I want to plug in once and become employable.
about one hundred dollars. Shark rating 2.9.
If the power goes out during an interview, I want to be the person who stays on the call. Not the person who disappears and then emails a note about infrastructure. The battery is not for the whole apartment. It is for the part of the apartment that is applying for jobs.
about three hundred dollars. Shark rating 3.0.
The neighbor has a leaf blower. The leaf blower has no respect for my calendar. These do. Donna asked if I could just close the window. I said I could, but then I would hear the window.
about forty dollars. Shark rating 3.1.
I need light that is honest but not hostile. The kitchen overhead is hostile. It makes every document look like a warning. This lamp will make a cover letter look like a plan.
about thirty dollars. Shark rating 3.2.
My feet should be supported during long stretches of waiting for an email. This is not a luxury. It is lower-body infrastructure. The floor is a surface. The footrest is a decision.
about four hundred dollars. Shark rating 3.3.
I will sit in it for hours. Some of those hours will be work. The rest will be looking at the work. The chair should not be the reason I stop. Donna said the kitchen chair is fine. I said the kitchen chair is a chair the kitchen has finished with.
about forty dollars. Shark rating 3.4.
If I stand, I need a mat. If I do not stand, the mat is still there, reminding me that I could. This is called accountability. Donna called it a mat. I said a mat is a tool.
about one hundred twenty dollars. Shark rating 3.5.
I need a place for the paper I am not scanning, laminating, or shredding. The system has three parts. This is the part with a lock. The lock is not for security. It is for the feeling that the paperwork is contained.
about twelve dollars. Shark rating 3.6.
I will write down every call, every follow-up, and every idea. The ideas will not all be good. The notebook does not judge. It just waits for the next page, which is more than most people do.
about fifteen dollars. Shark rating 3.7.
A notebook without a pen is just a stack of paper with aspirations. I need the full set. Blue for applications. Black for notes. Red for the stuff Donna tells me to stop writing down. She did not say which stuff. I wrote it in red.
about eight dollars. Shark rating 3.8.
I will put them on the monitor. They will say “follow up” and “do not forget the thing.” The thing is still unclear, but the note is ready. A note on a monitor is a message from the past to the person who is about to open a browser and forget everything.
about fifteen dollars. Shark rating 3.9.
I need to see the month. The month needs to see me. The phone calendar hides the month behind a tap. A wall calendar is always open. It is also a place to write “interview” in pencil and then look at it for three days.
about twenty dollars. Shark rating 4.0.
I will work in blocks. The blocks will be twenty-five minutes. Donna asked what happens after twenty-five minutes. I said I reset the timer. She said that is not what she asked. I said the timer is not for her question.
about twenty-five dollars. Shark rating 4.1.
Hydration is part of the job search. I read that somewhere. I did not read it. I am saying it now. The bottle is metal and does not sweat on the desk. A desk with no sweat is a desk with confidence.
about twenty dollars. Shark rating 4.6.
I will pack a lunch and eat it at the desk. This is not sad. It is a cafeteria with one employee and strong Wi-Fi. The bag keeps the lunch cold. The cold lunch is a sign that I planned ahead, which is a quality employers say they want.
about fifteen dollars. Shark rating 4.9.
The floor is cold. The job search is long. Socks are the most defensible thing on this list. Donna said, “Just buy the socks.” I am buying the socks.