Breaking into the American job market is hard enough, but one man is working hard to break into 50 different markets — in 50 different states.As part of his 50-week employment mission, Daniel Seddiqui is making his way across the country state by state, working a different job at every stop. Preferring jobs which are culturally and economically relevant to the state he’s in, Seddiqui is on a quest to understand the American people through the jobs they do.Already through week 21 of his journey, 26-year-old Seddiqui left Louisiana on Sunday morning after proving himself behind the bar serving drinks to locals and tourists in New Orleans. He even visited the University last week as he made his way down the river.After graduating from University of Southern California with an economics degree, Seddiqui tried to find employment through more conventional means. While seeking work in any field related to his degree — banking, accounting and other related fields — he spent more than $6,000 traveling across California to interview for jobs.In the end, he failed to secure one after more than 40 interviews.Desperate for a job, Seddiqui looked to his love for athletics to pull him through. After sending an e-mail to 18,000 university coaches in the country, he found a job coaching cross country at Northwestern University in Chicago.While he was there, he worked as a part-time accountant and painted stairs to make ends meet. But when the cross country program fell apart, he was unemployed again.An unpaid internship coaching football took him to the University of Virginia, though he had no prior experience with the sport. Continuing circumstances kept him moving from job to job, and by the time he was working at a Home Depot in Atlanta, Seddiqui said he had had enough.”That was when I asked myself ‘What the hell happened to my life?'” Seddiqui said.That was when he devised a plan to escape from the traditional working experience. His travels had exposed him to the cultural differences between states and the variety of jobs those differences created.After weeks of persistent phone calls across the nation, he was on the doorstep of a new adventure in American employment — 50 jobs in 50 states in 50 weeks.”At first I kept getting rejected, but I was use to that,” Seddiqui said.By Sept. 1, he was in Salt Lake City working in the humanitarian services business for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints where he put together hygiene kits for the victims of Hurricane Ike.Just a week later, he was in Denver working as a hydrologist.”That was kind of over my head during the first day,” Seddiqui said. “I’ve worked six science jobs since, and I always manage to catch on.”From week to week, it was never the same. He was sometimes forced to sleep in the back of his Jeep Grand Cherokee as he roamed the country when he couldn’t find a place to stay.For Seddiqui, this adventure has been more than just about finding work. Because he tries to work in careers that relate to the state he is in, he said he’s showcasing what each state has to offer both culturally and economically. “I use to drive through farm fields without caring, but now I can completely understand their function,” Seddiqui said. “I care more about this country now than I ever have before. I’m living the life of someone in each state.”As his travels became popularized through his Web site and local and national media, Seddiqui was offered numerous book and movie deals.”I want to write about my first-hand experiences with these careers because so many people get out of college into a career and don’t know what they’re getting themselves into,” Seddiqui said.Seddiqui arrived in Louisiana last Monday after spending a week as a petroleum engineer in Houston. On his way to New Orleans to work a stint on Bourbon Street as a bartender, he passed through Baton Rouge and visited the University. On his Web site, Seddiqui said it was the nicest campus he had seen.On Tuesday, Seddiqui was behind the bar of the Funky Pirate on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Though he doesn’t drink alcohol, he said he enjoyed the music and culture of the city.”I wonder why people would go to Europe when they could just go to New Orleans,” Seddiqui said.Working outside his comfort zone is something Seddiqui is accustomed to, but he said working in a New Orleans bar made time go by fast. “He’s willing to test and try things, and that is what it takes in life,” said Pam Fortner, co-owner of the Funky Pirate. “He just has an initiative about him, who knows how he didn’t get a job in California.”Fortner said Seddiqui is a people person and worked well in the bar room. However, she said she’s sure he would never settle down into a career on Bourbon Street.”I think he would be more geared to a conventional job,” Fortner said. “I feel he could do the job, but I think he wants to get closer to using his degree.”Fortner housed Seddiqui in an apartment she owns on Bourbon Street while he was in town. Because he had never been to New Orleans before, Fortner gave him time off from the bar and took him on a tour of the city.Fortner and Seddiqui drove to the Lower and Upper 9th Ward, Lakeview and St. Charles neighborhoods to tour some of the parts of the city still blighted by Hurricane Katrina.”People still talk about Katrina like it happened last week,” Seddiqui said. “It’s really hard to comprehend.” On Sunday morning, after an eight-hour shift behind the bar, Seddiqui packed up and headed for Mississippi, where he will work as a nutritionist. With 29 weeks left, there is still work to be done.—-Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]