A Week in the Life

I started my job on Tuesday and I am not exaggerating in the least when I say it was an AWFUL day. It all started in the morning. I woke up and took a shower and only realized when I was getting dressed that I forgot to to shave my legs and I was wearing a skirt. Good thing I had stockings! Then I tried to peel my hard boiled egg for breakfast and the shell WOULD NOT come off. It messed up my egg (which by itself isn't bad, but just keep reading...) I had to be to work at 8:30 and MapQuest said it would take 25 mins. I wanted to make sure I was ontime so I left at 7:30. I figured it would be better to be early than late. Well, its a good thing I left early because I hit tons of traffic. I pulled into the parking lot at 8:25. I get upstairs and tell the receptionist I'm starting today. I got a perplexed look, she made a quick call and then asked me if I was in the right place...no one was expecting me. So I sat in the lobby for an hour while they straightened it out. Once I got where I needed to be it just got worse. The room where I work is a large closet (not really a closet, but pretty close) with no windows. There was a major crisis that morning so tensions were high and people were too busy catching up to really start training. I sat on a chair off to the side for an hour or so. I got to go to lunch, but not until way late and my blood sugar dropped pretty far...those of you who don't hang out with me on a regular basis need to know that when my blood sugar drops too low I get mean. Being in a new situation, I had to keep all that hostility bottled in. Let me tell you, that is healthy for the soul...not. After a day of feeling so lost and socially-restricted (did I mention I work in a closet?) I left. I hit even worse traffic going home. I left work at 5:00 and didn't get home until after 6:00. (commute count: 2 hours...yuck!) I get home and we have to take the dog out (which is my ...favorite... thing to do. ever.) and as we walk into the hall I ask Nathan "You got keys?" Ya, you know where this is going. I just broke. I fell to the floor (a.k.a. two year old tantrum) in the hallway of our building and started sobbing. Big, old aligator tears were streaming down my face. I immediately think that well have to call a locksmith to come unlock the door, and that will cost us a pretty penny. Nathan thinks to himself that he has a better idea...he decides to be SpiderMan and climb up our downstairs neighbor's balcony up onto our balcony and come in the apartment that way. Yep you read that right. Just for reference, here's a pic of our place, just so you can see the scene of insanity.


I couldn't watch him do it, because I knew I couldn't watch him fall to his death. I stayed in the hallway, crying when suddenly the door opened from the INSIDE...SpiderNathan's mission was successful!! I couldn't believe it!

We had a quick dinner, went to bed early so I couldn't use staying up late as an excuse to bag out on the job. Wednesday I went back, against my better judgment and I liked it. Today was even better! I have started getting to actually do the processes, which helps my time pass faster and helps me feel like I should be there. Working in the cave is taking some getting use to...not sure I'll ever fully enjoy it, but for now it's ok.

In other news, we got an offer on our house. It came only a couple days after we dropped the price AGAIN. The offer was another $5K below the new price AND they want us to pay their closing costs...we countered and hopefully we'll hear back soon.

My mom was here visiting last weekend that it was really nice having her around. In completely un-Holly form, I took no pictures. But much fun was had. I showed my mom that Sushi can be yummy, I helped her spoil me, we loved the fur kids, took Besta to the dog beach and just enjoyed spending some time together.

Well, I gotta head off to bed. I'm a working woman now. :)

Oh man...

A while back I interviewed for a job. The recruiter who contacted me about the job treated me like I had NEVER had a job before. When I had my interview she called me SEVERAL times to remind me to dress nice and arrive a few minutes early. She also tried to alter my resume and butchered it. (read here)
Anyway - she contacted me on Tuesday late afternoon about a temp job with the same company. Not my idea of a perfect job, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. So I told her I needed to talk it over with my hubby and I would call her first thing in the morning. I called her Wednesday and told her that I was in, but I couldn't start the day they wanted: the 31st (my mom will be here), it would have to be the next day. You know what the Idiot Stick Figure said to that?

"Oh, ok, the 32nd"

Seriously. It hung there in the silence for a good thirty seconds (silent because I was too stunned to say anything), then she giggled and corrected herself. She said she would talk to the account manager with that company and call me that afternoon...I haven't heard back from her. She probably got lost on the way back from the bathroom.

The art of rejection

Last week I was contacted by a company about a job. I interviewed on Friday and was told they would be doing round two of interviews on Monday. I was chosen for a round two interview and had that on Monday afternoon. They told me they wanted to move quick. They wanted to have the person hired and ready to go by Thursday. I had all the necessary qualifications. Accounting experience, event planning experience, reception experience. It was also located only 3.6 miles right down the street. It was perfect for me. I was perfect for it. I felt like I knocked the interviews out of the ball park. I was witty, charming, happy. I got good vibes back from them. Several family and friends said they had a good feelings about this job.
I was told I would hear by yesterday at three o'clock what their decision was. I woke up, went on my walk and began waiting. I was a nervous wreck, so I took a nap. I read, surfed the web, watched TV. Anything to get my mind off the ticking clock.

The later in the day it got, the more my anxiety went away. I could feel the cloud of rejection pressing down upon me, strangling out the hope I was holding on to. Three o'clock came and went with no call. I paced with the phone in my hands for ten minutes. I finally amassed the courage to dial the number for the call I knew would yield no positive result. The woman answered, told me they had 'Chosen another girl'. I respectfully asked for feedback. She said I was great, they just 'went with someone with more experience'. I thanked her and hung up. Immediate the tears began to well. I felt like a failure. I felt ashamed. I felt...rejected. I stumbled to the bedroom and cried for a while, allowing myself to feel the things I hadn't let myself feel. Feelings I had pushed away so as not to show weakness. I examined myself, searching for flaws. Was it because my hair was pulled into a bun? Was it because of my weight? My teeth? The shoes I wore? My outfit? I had all the experience they could have ever wanted. I knew I was being let down easy and I was angry. I thought I had the right to know the real reason why I was not chosen. I thought I had the right to a phone call to tell me so, instead of having to anxiously wait all day only to call and learn of my rejection in that way.

I made myself a batch of pity cookies. I thought they would help, but the sweetness did little to heal the bitter wound of rejection. I found myself unable to sleep last night. My mind wandered down the paths of self-doubt and frustration. When I finally found the slumber that eluded me it did nothing to cure my sadness.

I awoke today with all the emotions still frothing near the surface. I am exhausted from the job search. It has been four months of rejection. I feel like I need to do something else. Something that will heal the wounds left by the pain of repeated, constant rejection. Something that will lift my spirits. I will be on the search for just such a thing. I hope to find it.

Boring...

Sorry for not updating, but my days are not really that exciting. An average day goes like this:

Up at 5:45 to go walking with Sara at 6
Back between 8 & 9
Shower
Breakfast
Search Monster.com, Craigslist, USAjobs.com, hotjobs, etc for jobs
Send out resumes
Nap
Watch TV/read/craft something
Kill time till Nathan gets home
Dinner
Take Besta out
Bed

Exciting huh?? This weekend should be a little more exciting. We've got some super fun stuff planned for Saturday and Sunday and the best part is that they are both FREE! Hope all of you Beehive State'rs have a good holiday weekend, I wish I was there. Well, truthfully I wish I was at Bear Lake. :)

Its Official

They went with someone else.
Time to hit the pavement.
Again.

To market, to market

First the Admin Assistant for the payment processing company. Um, ya. NOT AT ALL what the recruiter (who shall from now be referred to as the Idiot Stick Figure) sold it to me as. Turns out it is more of a help desk/operations type job. I would not be an admin assistant in any sense of the word. I would be one of a team of four who do the IT stuff for the company. The hours were WAY stickier than the Idiot Stick Figure told me too. They are open 365 days a year from 6am to 9pm and someone from the four person team has to be there at all times. They tried to re-assure me saying that I wouldn't have to work the WHOLE holiday. If I worked Christmas, I wouldn't have to work Christmas Eve. Sounds good? Ya, it would be if I didn't have to travel 600 miles to be near our closest family (and the majority of our family is 1500 miles away). The Idiot Stick Figure took my resume, altered it to "make it more uniform". The problem? She made SEVERAL grammar/spelling mistakes. She had emailed it to me, and told me to take two copies with me to the interview. I corrected all the errors....but she had emailed it to them (which I didn't know) so when I showed up they had the other, error ridden one. I was SO embarrassed when I saw it. I would NEVER send out a resume with mistakes like that. After the interview I had to decide if I would be interested in the job and let the Idiot Stick Figure know. I decided that even a sucky job is better than no job. So I called and told them I was still interested, if it came to that. I'm still waiting to hear back.

Well, I never heard back from the downtown job.(Group Administrator for the marketing firm) I was kinda ticked about it. After my second phone interview I hadn't heard back when they said I would so I was proactive and called them. The woman I spoke to said they were making a decision and would let me know that afternoon or first thing the next morning. That was last Thursday. I'm guessing I won't hear back. I don't know about any of you but I feel like if I make the effort to interview with you the least you could do is make the effort and let me know if I got the job.

The softball thing was not good. It was not enough hours for WAY less pay, and they required me to go to a two week training, that was NOT paid. Um, I don't think so. The business is family owned and I have had my share of that over the years. The interviewer also asked me almost every illegal question out there: How old are you? Are you married? Do you have any kids? (There is something else, but it makes me sound shallow...part of my job would have been to clean the bathrooms...um, I don't think so)

So it looks like I am back on the market. Hmpf.

Feast or Famine

It is crazy how in life it seems like it is either feast or famine.

I have been on the hunt for a job for over three months. I had one interview right at the very beginning (like the day after I submitted my first resume), I was offered the job and I turned it down (it was an hour commute each way). At the time I thought that if I had received an offer only 24 hours into my job search I was sure to find something else soon, so I had no hesitation turning the job down. After that it was famine. I sent off at least one resume EVERY DAY, most days I sent of several. I only heard back from the scammers. My favorite was the guy who was going to pay me $30/hr to sit at home and 'process payments'. All I had to do was deposit the payments into my checking account, and simply forward the money on to him. Minus my salary of course. If only it were that easy.
Then I appealed for help. I had the thought to update my profile on Monster.com, so I did. The next day I got a call from a corporate recruiter. When I was on my way to that interview I got a call from another recruiter. Then today I get an email response from one of my Craigslist submissions. Talk about a feast.

First is an Admin Assistant position for a payment processing company. The company is about a 30 minute drive, which I'm learning is not bad for Chicagoland. The hours would be funky though...most days I would work 6am-2pm, but sometimes I would need to work 12pm-9pm. I already interviewed with the staffing agency recruiter and she forwarded my resume on to the company and they want to interview me. That one is this Thursday.
Second is the Group Administrator for a marketing/digital consulting firm. This job is downtown, and is super convienient since the Metra line that runs in our area ends in the building where this company is located. It would be about an hour commute each day when you factor in the walk to the Metra stop and then the time on the train (funny how now an hour commute doesn't seem so bad). I have had two phone interviews with them so far. Next is a face-to-face, they are supposed to call me Tuesday to set it up. When I asked, I was told the field has been narrowed to 3.
Third is a Receptionist for an indoor softball facility. This would be way more laid back than the others, and I don't think it would be near as much money, BUT it is the closest to our place...it is actually on the same street we live on, just about 40 blocks west. I have an interview with them on Wednesday.

So, the field is ripe, ready to harvest...here's to hoping I get a couple offers, well, I'd be happy with one. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, I know they have helped.

Progress

So I had a corporate recruiter contact me yesterday afternoon and I had an interview with her today. You know it is awfully humbling to have to beg for a job with an interviewer who is five years your junior. They didn't have a job for me right now, but they wanted to pre-screen me so that if something does comes in they know I'm not a freak.

On the way to this interview another corporate recruiter called me, I told her I was just getting on the freeway and asked if I could call her back. She said she'd call me this afternoon...I hope she really does call me back.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed that one of these interviews pans out into something that will help pay the rent. :) This is one (of the few) thing(s) I hate about the military. It makes it hard to move up the corporate ladder when you have to change jobs every 2-3 years. I have thought a lot about opening up my own photography studio, but you do the best if you can build a clientele and with me moving so much that makes it hard to build up a 'fan base'. I need to work on building a career that could move with me, but that requires school, which requires $$, which we are VERY short on. Nathan can transfer the GI Bill to me, but not until he's got 6 years in...which we are about 18 months away. There is some little program out there that will give military spouses some cash for school, but it won't go too far here in Chicago and I have to work...to pay the mortgage on the house we no longer live in (argh), and then catch us up from this road of financial ruin we've gone down (argh).

Prayers

I will update you all soon on my very adventurous last week (plane trips and wedding stuff and the zoo, oh my!) but first I need something. Our house still hasn't sold (five months on the market) and I still have yet to find a job (going on three months searching). The combination of the two is putting us in serious financial trouble and if something doesn't change pretty quick we will be in big, deep do do. Seriously. Like the B word. (which would surely complicate adoption later on...)

Our realtor is having an open house this Saturday. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Pray that someone will see the house and want to buy it asap. Pray that one of the dozens of resumes I send out EVERY week will be seen by someone who will want to hire me.
Thank you. I know prayers work, I just know it.