Part of my attitude problem has been feeling like I've paid my dues. I've worked for minimum wage; an assembly line job where I got debilitating RSI; in an old-school craft factory where a bunch of older men with accents made it clear they thought i was a wimp for not being cool working with tool whose safety guards had been removed for efficiency; as a night-shift gas-station attendant, where the only wonder is that the time I was robbed, it wasn't at gun-point. I was past 30 when I got my first steady full-time job with benefits and nerd pay.

But a prospective employer knows none of that. if I have to pay dues again, fine. But this time it damned well better go quicker.