Review: Camp Camp “Gwen Gets a Job”

The woes of job searching.

Spoilers Below:

Gwen interviews for several different positions, but they all reject her. She’s miserable at camp and groans about her bad luck. Max finds her rejection letters, and realizes that she’s trying to leave the camp. Knowing that David would freak out about her leaving, Max blackmails her into finding something that will entertain him. He’s gotten bored at camp, and wants to try out something new. Gwen reluctantly agrees.

She overhears from Nikki and Neil that the Wood Scouts have something important of Max’s and she swears to get it. Meanwhile, the whole camp slowly begins to find out that Gwen wants to leave the camp. Over at the Wood Scouts camp, the scouts are discussing how to defeat the Flower Scouts’ cookie sale. Gwen offers to give them the secret to defeating the Flower Scouts’ sales in return for whatever Max’s item is.

Gwen makes it back to camp and shows Max the prize: his teddy bear. She complains about how infuriating it was to get the information in the first place, all while keeping the secret from David. David ends up finding out, and Gwen is distraught. However, David ends up being supportive, knowing that while he loves the camp, if Gwen doesn’t, then he supports her decision to look elsewhere. He points out that the skills Gwen used to get Max’s toy back can boost her application, and offers to drive her to her next interview.

The interviewer is impressed by Gwen, but hands her application back, saying that she’s overqualified.

Overview:

Well, it sure was an accurate description of what it’s like to jobsearch these days. This episode hits a little too close to home, especially for anyone’s who’s tried to search for jobs in this awful job market.

Gwen’s problem is that no matter where she applies to, she can’t get a job. Without prior experience, all she has available are entry level positions, and she lacks the confidence to assert herself during the interview process. She’s tried for many, many jobs before, and was rejected from all of them. It doesn’t help that the interviewers ask her common, but annoying questions. When she finally does find her resolve and confidence, they claim she’s overqualified.

Still, it’s nice seeing that David is so supportive. He does accurately point out that skill sets come from strange places, and finding your talent isn’t necessarily straightforward. Instead of criticizing Gwen for wanting to leave, he’s able to see that his happiness doesn’t equate hers.