better late than never!

It's the blog you've all been waiting for I've been wanting to write since September...I got a job!

Before you jump out of your seat like I did, it's just a 2-month contract, but if I get in there and don't F it up, the full-time spot should be mine.

So just before Christmas, a friend of mine from college sent me an email saying she thought a job was opening up at the Chicago office of her firm. In the span of 4 days I sent my resume to HR, got the job description, did a phone interview, and did an in-person interview. The interviews went really well, and I felt a great connection with the company and the people I spoke to. The office closed for the holidays, and then I got the call for...a temporary opportunity. Say what?

Based on what the HR girl said, I think what happened is: they realized they needed someone to come in and start doing the work this week but they weren't done with my interviewing process and the hiring process would take even longer. Also, they were moving insanely fast with someone (me!) who didn't even have experience doing the job, which is probably not the best idea from a corporate perspective. Then some genius probably realized I'd be willing to start ASAP on a trial basis, which would give them time to at least go through some of the normal HR motions (i.e. at least posting the job internally) before straight-up hiring someone that had no experience within the position or company. Fair enough.

If they like me and I'm doing a good job, they'll hire me before my contract is up—so that's what we're hoping for here! Although I would love to have a 100% guarantee that I'll end up in this position permanently, I do feel pretty good about where I'm at. If I bring my A-game for two months, it's going to be nearly impossible for them to think about re-training someone else and pulling me from client projects.

Oh, and what is the job already, right. So I'll be a "planner" at a retail marketing agency. Which from what I can tell, basically means I'll be doing a lot of research about the way people shop, and then I'll create a report that will go to other people in the company (creative, etc.) and they'll figure out exactly how to solve the client's problem. If any of you know what my wonderful friend Amy does, it's that. The agencies are a little different (hers is primarily advertising, this one is primarily retail marketing) but the position should be essentially the same. Which is funny—I've always loved hearing about her job because it's so interesting, but I never thought I'd be doing it because agencies can be so hard to crack into.

The firm itself seems laidback; has a lot of young people in it; has HQ in Dallas and offices in NY, Chicago, and LA; and I'd be lying if I said my ears didn't perk up when I heard people discussing happy hour. It definitely seems like the kind of place I can make friends while doing some kickass work, both of which I'm in the market for these days.

Let Operation A-Game begin!

The Dungeon, Finale

Well guys, I didn't get the job with Deb.

I'm not crushed, though. I'm actually not really disappointed at all, other than thinking it would've been nice to at least get the offer for self-esteem's sake, right? But if I had been offered it, I probably would've taken it for lack of a better option, and that is definitely no way to start off any job. Hopefully this rejection will allow me to get one step closer to my "dream job," if you will. Although I hear no one's hiring people to personal shop in Target and then test out masseuses all afternoon, so...

At the end of the day, I'm glad that I at least finished out the interview process, because I think it will make me a stronger interviewer in the future...mostly because I'm not interested in peeing my pants if I ever meet another Deb in a dark alley/office.

The search continues!

lucky #50

Today I applied for a job at my 50th company in Chicago. In light of this milestone, I reviewed some stats on my job hunt. For your entertainment:

59: jobs I've applied for at those 50 companies

8: employee referrals

6: rejection letters

2: companies I've interviewed with, positions still pending

0: job offers

As Christmas approaches, I am a little nervous about companies closing down their shops for the holidays. I've been dreading this lull for a while, and nothing makes it worse than knowing it will be 2011 when everyone starts focusing on hiring again! However, I have heard that January is the best month to get a job, and that's a statistic I can get behind.

Oh, and I'd like to give a shout-out to my friends Keely and Katie, who I mentioned before were also enduring hellacious job hunts themselves. Both recently got great news - Katie got a highly coveted nursing job in the PICU at Tulane Hospital and begins training this week, and Keely has a legal job lined up for post-graduation in Fort Worth! Considering Keely's professors told her that only 10% of law students will be able to find jobs after graduation this year, and Katie was among a few hundred applicants for her job, these are huge feats! Congrats friends!

The Dungeon, Part II

The second interview came and went yesterday, and I lived to tell about it!

I think all my anxiety and over-preparation panned out in my favor this time, because I handled these questions (this time from five people) with more confidence than last go around. Deb was my final interrogator, so I was about to pee myself warmed up by the time I entered the lair. In fact, the two women I met with just before Deb asked me questions that they explicitly said Deb would be very interested in during our interview. The fact that they were straight-up prepping me for my duel showed me that they liked me...and that Deb truly is one scary m-f-er.

I took a different approach to our second encounter. Instead of being eager to please and easily intimidated, I just blew off her side comments and kept talking until she seemed to agree with something I was saying. And I even made her laugh. Who knew! She asked me what were the two biggest things I'd bring to the position, and I said that I would say "a fresh perspective" but since she would think that was a canned answer, I'd pick something else. I also told her that I'd spent a lot of time trying to figure out if her questions about their print magazines were actually trick questions. Oh, and I even said that I was trying to figure out whether the print mags existed because somebody upstairs liked them or because they served a real purpose. Gargoyle laughter abounds!

I guess being a candid, critical biatch was the way to Deb's heart? Who knows. At the end I asked her what she thought my biggest challenge would be, and she said she thought the job was thismuch too big for me. I said fair enough. Then she said that she thought I could do it. I said thanks, I did too. We became best friends. Then I left.

So who the F knows. They're considering one other person and expect to have an answer to me within the week. I still have really mixed feelings about the job - I would be totally fine if they didn't offer it to me and would have a tough decision on my hands if they did. Regardless, I'm really glad that I went back and looked fear in the face (no seriously), because I was insanely intimidated by that woman and really needed to prove to myself that I wouldn't let someone I didn't even know squash me to snot. So I did. And I'm not snot. Yay!

The Dungeon, Part I

Well, I'm happy to say that I finally got an interview for a job!

Unfortunately, it manifested itself as the most humiliating, condescending, and fruitless three hours I've ever spent trying to sell myself to a company.

Where to begin...2 weeks ago, I applied for a job on Monday, and got an email on Tuesday asking me to interview for 3 hours on Wednesday. Because of the quick turn-around time and the lengthy process ahead, I felt confident walking in. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to prepare for the interview (just the one afternoon), but I did what I could. The position is for a Managing Editor for a trade association (let's leave the actual name out, shall we), so I made sure to have a handle on the publications I was to be in charge of, as well as reviewing a few basic underpinnings of the trade.

Enter, Wednesday morning. First I meet with the HR woman, who is a gem. She seems impressed. I feel good. One down, three to go.

Then, she takes me to Deb, who doesn't even look up when I enter the room, nor does she shake my hand. All good signs of what's to come.

I would categorize the next 45 minutes in the dungeon with Deb as the complete and methodical destruction of my self-esteem. She interrupted the majority of my answers with the comment "Everybody says/knows that...what else?" Other popular responses included:

"That directly conflicts what you just said."
"Everyone says strategic, what exactly are you talking about?"
"We don't hire people so they can learn, we want to know what you can bring to the company."
"I'm concerned about the fact that you seem to believe the industry is doing exactly the opposite of what it's doing."

(That humdinger came after she asked me what my strategy would be for making their print publications more relevant, and when I gave her an answer, she said she was shocked that I would try to drive people to print instead of to the web. Okay Deb, sorry, I didn't realize it was an option for you to ask trick questions.)

Finally, once all hope for me getting the job had been completely decimated, she asked what I knew about marketing. Oh you know, that little ole INDUSTRY. I'm not sure how to answer a question like that. I mean, what do you know about history? What about science?

So I just put the nail in the coffin by saying that I could tell her about Product, Placement, Price, and Promotion, and she naturally responded with: "Everyone knows about the 4 Ps, what else?"

End scene.

After the annihilation of my soul, I still had to meet with two other women. Both were so kind, and one told me that Deb tears everyone to shreds, but seeing as how Deb would be my direct manager and only on-staff colleague, it really didn't make me feel any better. I spent the afternoon shell-shocked and had a good healthy cry that night because I couldn't stand the thought of having to work with someone like that every day, and I hoped they didn't offer me the position because I didn't want to have to turn down a perfectly well-paying job out of principle.

But life wouldn't be as easy if we never had to make choices, would it? So, on Monday morning, I'll be going back into the firey pit with Deb and three other woman for a second grueling three-hour round of interviews. I have no idea why they called me back or what she could possibly have left to ask me, so I assume she'll spend the time munching on the leftovers of my emotional carcass. And no self-respecting unemployed person can turn that down!

a little recharge

On a scale of 1-10, I love our life here in Chicago at about an 8. It's pretty awesome getting to spend so much time together; I love biking everywhere; sleeping in is rad; the fall has been beautiful; we're starting to get pretty good at tennis; etc. The only missing 2 points are due to 1) not having a job, and 2) not having old friends.

Point 1.

People that are employed fantasize about being unemployed, but I will be the first to tell you that it's only fun for a month or two. Then it gets stressful, you get hopeless, and every rejection starts to feel like a personal jab at your self-worth. I'm basically in a semi-permanent state of angst. Even when we're doing something fun, I think about how I should've tried to find more jobs that day or wonder about how many jobs will get posted tomorrow. Nevermind that the bank account is a slow leaking hemorrhage....

Point 2.

I love the girls that I'm getting to know here, I really do. They are funny and smart and just have a different sort of air about them than my Southern/Texas friends (maybe someday I will be able to put my finger on this). I value the time that we spend together and I really look forward to it. But sometimes it's hard not being around girls that I've known for years and years, you know? There's so much comfort that comes with that. Your comments have a context that eliminates the need for explanation. You're less self-conscious about your actions and your jokes. It's easier to apologize. You can ask questions on a deeper level without feeling intrusive. It's just...easier.

To remind you, I categorized our life at an 8. I'm happy! But I'm starting to feel like I'll never find a job that I like, and I miss my friends. So I've got "Recharge: Stage 1" coming up tomorrow, when I head for St. Louis to stay with Brad for a few days, and then we carpool to Memphis for homecoming. This sound seems appropriate - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Then I have "Recharge: Stage 2" shortly thereafter, when Brian and I head to Texas for an early Thanksgiving with my mom and then AUSTIN for two engagement parties! We'll get to celebrate with all the people that matter the most, go out like we haven't gone out in months, eat our weight in breakfast tacos, and soak up some unseasonably warm weather. Glorious.

These two stints should be just enough time for me to remember that I am worthy of a good job, I will eventually get an interview, and that someday my new friends will be my old friends too.

unemployment central

This is a crappy time to not have a job.

I'm slowly learning that the whole crazy-high-unemployment-rate-thing plaguing the U.S. is actually affecting little ole me.

Others are struggling too. Keely is a 3L looking for a job, but the options are so slim in North Carolina that she actually interviewed at the public defender's office in South Carolina (even though she just bought a house in NC). The interviewer told her that 5 years ago she might have gotten a job there, but now they had people with multiple years of litigation experience applying for entry level positions. Katie got her nursing degree in May and has yet to find one single opening in all of New Orleans, she guesses because all the part-timers have re-flooded the workplace in an effort to make ends meet. I mean, isn't nursing supposed to be one of the most surefire careers you can have? What is going on out there?!

So I guess it's no surprise that my phone is not ringing off the hook. My search is very specific: I want to work for a consulting firm that serves nonprofits. This makes it easier to target possible companies but means that positions are limited. I got my wake-up call last week when I applied for a job at a local firm, a job that I'd already done before at an equivalent firm. Honestly I figured I was a shoe-in to at least make it to the interview level, since I already had the required experience, and I had a master's degree and the current people in that position don't. It's a small firm, about 30 people. I figured maybe 50 people applied at most. Thus, I didn't take it too well when I got a rejection letter. I called the firm and found out that more than 400 people had applied. The good news is, I don't have to take it personally. The bad news is, I'M NEVER GOING TO GET A JOB WHEN 400 PEOPLE APPLY FOR A TINY NICHE POSITION.

Needless to say, I've decided to expand my horizons. Now I'm considering positions in prostitution, tattooing, video game programming, pest control, witchcraftery, auto repair, dog walking, and mathematics. Surely something in there will stick.

On a slightly more positive note, I saw that someone from a company that I applied to had visited my LinkedIn profile. So at least all my applications aren't flying off into the ether.

And another thing: I ended up emailing Rejection Firm and asking them to re-review my application, because I have a website with writing samples set up, and I knew they hadn't visited the site (because who wouldn't put a tracker on that?), which made me think maybe they'd never even read my email at all. It was a longshot, but I didn't really have anything to lose. About 20 minutes after they got my email, they totally went to see my site! They're still not going to hire me, but at least they followed through and thoroughly read my application before kicking me out the door. I'll take it!

Day 1 of Unemployment

A wedding post is going to follow, but it's a little daunting to try to succintly comment on so much awesomeness, so in the meantime, I just wanted to post a little guy about being my lack of paycheck (and thus presence of total freedom).

Today wasn't my actual first day of being unemployed, but it was the first day that I really FELT unemployed. The two are totally different situations. As I have trouble ever sitting still and such, I hope you are totally amazed at my ability to have watched 5 hours of Netflix TV in one day - and counting (the night is young, peeps). I slept until 11, then started a PBS series on National Parks so Brian and I will know what the F we're looking at on our trip, and then we topped that off with 3 episodes of LOST.

When LOST began in 2004, I was still in college and thus had no time for such things. For whatever reason, I missed my small window of opportunity to begin watching the series while I was out of school. Then, once I'd started back with classes and the show's popularity was really heating up, I knew I again had no time for such things. Because once I start, IIIIIIIIIIIIIII can't stop!

Fast forward 4 years.

So Brian and I are looking through Netflix's live-streaming options for a movie on Tuesday night. I'm generally disappointed by the options but have consented to watch the Life of David Gale. Then. LOST appears. And I realize that the one thing standing between me and this TV show that my friends have been obsessed over for years....is now gone. GONE. Thus, it's ON!!!!!!

We're already on Episode 11 of the first season and I don't know how on earth we're going to finish this before we leave for our GART (Great American Road Trip) in 3 weeks but we've gotta make it happen, because no way am I going to watch this crap on a tiny handheld DVD player (that we don't even own) while I'm in the middle of the woods. I'm tense enough in my perfectly suburban house with an alarm. I most absolutely would decide that we were going to be eaten/flayed/tortured/killed if we were watching this from the inside of a tent!!!!

So okay, with that, back to the tube...