In the dim morning light, Tim Millard sat up in bed and checked his cell phone.
“It’s 12:38 a.m. I just received an email regarding one of my job applications,” he said.
He opened his inbox. “Oh, I got rejected again.”
The audience murmured sympathetically, then burst into laughter as Millard explained the “three-step formula” for a common rejection email.
“Step 1: Thank the applicant for applying and maybe give some general praise about their skills and experience. Step 2 is the clincher. You tell them that after careful consideration, you didn’t get the job. And step 3, the blowjob. You tell the person, ‘Visit our careers page. Join our talent pool. Go out and scream into the void, because it’s probably just as good.'”
After months of unemployment, Millard, 45, told CNBC Make It that she was tired of the “demoralizing, dehumanizing and depressing” job search process. So he decided to write a one-man play about it.
Tim Millard performed his one-man show “After Careful thought” at the 2026 Atlanta Fringe Festival.
nicky smith
Why he shares his story
Mr. Millard worked as a multimedia content producer for the Atlanta-based consumer research and reviews platform for six years before being fired in July 2025.
Millard said she initially felt optimistic about her job prospects.
“I thought, ‘I have talent. I have good marketable skills. I’ll get a job, no problem,'” he recalls. “After a month or two, I started thinking, ‘Oh, this might be a longer journey than I thought.'”
Millard is far from alone. Currently, 27% of unemployed Americans, or nearly 2 million people, have been looking for work for more than six months, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many unemployed workers are struggling to find new jobs in a “scarce and thin job market.”
Millard estimates she has submitted at least 300 job applications since being laid off, piecing together freelance work to “keep a roof over my head, pay my bills, and make sure there’s food in the cat’s plate.”
In November 2025, a longtime friend suggested Millard turn her job search woes into a stand-up show at the Atlanta Fringe Festival, an annual performing arts festival that showcases live theatre, comedy, dance and storytelling.
“He told me that people would find this work funny, relatable and honest,” Millard says.
Millard was initially reluctant to the idea. That month, the U.S. unemployment rate hit 4.6%, its highest level in four years, and he wasn’t sure if anyone cared about his personal situation. He also feared that speaking publicly about his job-hunting struggles could make him “unhirable” to certain employers.
At the same time, “another part of me said, ‘Tim, this is your chance to say what you want to say, so why don’t you give it a go?'” he says.
Emphasis on “human connections”
In January 2026, Millard submitted a rough outline of his show to festival organizers. A few weeks later, he joined the company.
Millard’s first thought was, “I did it!” he says. His second was, “Shit! Now I have to write the show.”
While Millard still spent most of his time applying for jobs, he wrote a series of short stories that reflected different aspects of the process.
“Some days I wrote about what it’s like to have to go to the Georgia Department of Labor office. Other days I write about what it’s like to have expenses pile up while trying to find a job.”
On May 28, he performed a show titled “After Careful Consideration” in front of an audience of about 25 people at the festival. The show’s opening night was “better than I imagined,” he says.
“I no longer feel hesitant or hesitant about talking about my struggles,” he says, looking out over the audience. “I didn’t want to be in this situation, but I’m in this situation and it’s time to make the most of it and have a little fun.”
Millard said the most rewarding part of his five appearances on the show was hearing from the people involved in his story. “So many people have come up to me and said, ‘I’m going through the same thing,’ or, ‘My husband or wife or my lover is in the same situation,'” he says.
Many of them felt unable to publicly discuss their struggles due to shame. “So in a way, I feel like I’m helping tell their story,” Millard said.
“Even after I get a job, I’m still going to talk about this because I don’t think enough people talk about the human cost of unemployment,” he says. “If my own story can help someone else fight unemployment, it’s worth it to me. Even if it doesn’t help someone else, I’m still going to talk about it.”
As the job search continues, Millard is focusing on building “relationships” rather than sending applications into the “blank.” He also leans towards creative approaches. A month ago, he set up a folding table near a popular walking trail in Atlanta and handed out free water bottles with copies of his resume.
“I put a sign on the table that said, ‘We need water. We need work. Let’s help each other,'” he says. “I think it opens up even more doors than applying online.”
