Those were the days?

My daughters are, to be blunt, tired of my more than occasional lectures that begin with the line – “When I was your age.” And they’ve never missed an opportunity to tell me.

But truth be told, I believe there’s always merit in my sermons, no matter how repetitive.

Both in high school and college, their research for term papers and similar assignments could and would be done in a matter of minutes with a laptop or tablet.

I’m old enough to remember when you actually were required to learn how to navigate the card catalogue system in a library in order to compile enough sources and content.

To my point, the job search thing, particularly for my oldest and most recent college graduate, is well, to be kind, going somewhat slower than her mother and I had hoped.

Case in point.

Three days ago she happily bounded into my office to announce she had applied for two positions, both online.

It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and she awoke that day somewhere around 10:30.

Gee, I remember when 90 percent of the time you applied for a job, it was pure cold-calling and it began promptly when the workday began. And it wasn’t just two, but a minimum of five.

But that was back in the days before we heard the term “human resources” when the department responsible for hiring, maintaining and in some cases terminating, employees was called “personnel.”

They’re also tired of me regaling them with the story of how I sold my first free-lance story – by cold-calling five publishing houses in New York in 1984, my shirt and suit soaked in the oppression of a 92-degree mid-July heat.

I strongly suggested to her when she first embarked to college that she study accounting – having covered the profession for a dozen years I was well aware of the scramble to find young talent and the high probability that she would quickly find a job. Instead, she opted for communications with a specialty in public relations, so now she’s in a fierce dogfight for the few positions that open in her field compared to say, accounting.

By contrast her best friend pursued an accounting degree and is now an auditor at a Big Four firm.

I’m sure she’ll land something eventually. As an added motivator, I reminded her that her school loans kick in at the end of December.

Hopefully by that time, we’ll be helping her furnish an apartment as well.

First things first.