Issue #24 The Find A Job Issue
Welcome to A Most Unreliable Narrator, the slice-of-life newsletter of GenXer around town, Lisa Rabey. I talk about anything and everything with a bit of swears. I’m glad you’re here.
After a long, cool, temperature wise, summer in Northern Michigan, we're back in Louisville for the winter. I sound so posh, don't I? "We have a place in Northern Michigan." I always feel the need to qualify it, "We bought it as a foreclosure." I don't know why this bothers me so, the need to qualify these kinds of statements, but it's been something I've found myself doing when I started making good money with my first big girl job and I had all this posh stuff I felt I deserved because hey! I lived under the poverty line for so long, having money to buy fancy mascara was my right, goddammit. But there is a price for finally having a big girl job, one I never felt I would have to pay, but I lost contact with a lot of friends when I started the big girl job because they felt they "couldn't compete" with what I was able to financially do—which seems, weird? Strange? Depressing? All of those things. The opposite also turned out to be true when I became jobless and I had that crazy year of mania, those same people didn't invite me out when they had money because they assumed I couldn't afford it. Sure, I wasn't making fancy mascara money anymore but I could at least spring for a movie.
(And it should be noted many offered to pay for my meal/movie ticket/whatever and I always felt humiliated letting them pay for me. Being dependent on TEH is something I've been working hard to accept but honestly, even after the last few years, it's still hard to swallow his help even though he's never asked for anything in return.)
Wow, where did this come from? Not from a too far off place it seems. We came home several weeks early as I had a job interview for a local to Louisville public library system and it was the first job interview in months so we packed up and came home. The interview went extremely well, so well they called AND emailed me the following day to tell me how refreshing I was and how much they enjoyed having me. They asked for more references (I gave them three per their instruction and they wanted at least two more), asked what I have been doing for the last three years (um...), and if I planned on staying in the area. I gave them all of this, including the line I tell everyone: I am consulting and freelance writing which is not that far from the truth. They had told me they hoped to have decisions made by the end of the following week so I followed up with an affirmation of my interest on the following Wednesday and I hoped to hear from them soon.
Crickets.
I keep trying to be hopeful as the HR person for this library was slow on the ball setting up the interview but jesus christ, if I'm not going forward with the process at least have the decency to email me and tell me.
Someone asked me if the case is still hitting me hard and I don't know what to say to that question anymore. A friend of mine left a position in April of 2016 and just now got a job so it's not just me having problems in the job market. I remember it took nearly a year from graduation to find my first big gig, so again, maybe the case has nothing to do with it. I've been asked many, many times if the case is ever brought up in interviews and the answer is "never."
While I was up North, I applied for four retail jobs, interviewed at three and received offers from those three. One I turned down because I had to buy a uniform (white shirt / dark colored pants / sensible shoes that were not Chucks) which I did not own. While we're not in the poorhouse, and we're trying to not spend unnecessary funds, we would have to invest in white shirt / dark colored pants / sensible shoes which would take a few weeks if not closer to a month to recoup the cost and seeing we were only in the area for a short time, the job lost its luster.
The second job was at a craft store, where I could wear my jeans/t-shirts/Chucks, where work started at 5A which meant I was up at 3:30A, left at 4:20A to drive through 12 miles of rural roads before the beginning of my shift. This was labor work which didn't bother me but only getting four hours a week did so we parted ways and I was told I could never work for the company again and I chuckled because yeah, I don't think so. The third job was at a local gas station in our village where I would be running the registers from 4p-10p, which doesn't sound bad, and it wasn't, but after nearly two weeks there is when I got the call for the library interview and we had to leave early. The gas station knew we were seasonal so it wasn't much of a surprise to them but they were slightly pissed because I had only been there for two weeks so I've pretty much fucked myself out of that position for next summer if we go up again for the season.
Since the beginning of August, I have applied for nearly 40 jobs, including retail, with the majority of the jobs here in Louisville. I was arrogant enough to believe getting a retail job would be a snap as it was up North but things have changed in the last 15 years since I worked for peanuts in a high-stress job. The job applications are all online and every single company I've applied to require a 50+ question personality test. One company included GRE worthy math word problems did my head in. Nevertheless, I persisted. If I can't even get a retail job, I have no idea what in the fuck I am going to do.
Frustration has become the breadwinner of my life.
It's been several days since I've last reported here and things have changed slightly for the better. With still no word from the library, and it was nearing two weeks since my interview, I called and left a VM for the HR director which she followed up with an email the following day, cc-ing the director, the library is in the process of re- orging and they were still taking in interviews and they would let me know soon. One-half of me is hopeful while the other half is saying, "Come the fuck on! Just tell me yes or no!" But for me, this is my end of the pestering them to find out my status. I will or I won't get the job.
Last week I sent in an application for the position of "internet researcher" with a PI firm. The head of the firm called me the very next day for an informal chat and said they would follow up the following week if they choose to take me a step further doing a sample search. Two days later I got the email with the request to sign an NDA and providing me with the sample person to research! If I get this gig, the work is sporadic depending on what needs to be done and what not. Since the hours are not guaranteed, they make it very clear people use this gig as a side hustle and not something to live off of, which is fine. I would also be on the company's payroll and not as a contractor which is a huge relief.
Also last week I blindly sent my resume and a charming email to a local bookstore on the premise they may be looking to hire and a few days later I received a polite note they were not hiring at the moment but they want me to come in and fill out an app just the same. Cool, cool. A few hours later I got an email from their head of event coordination my resume was passed on to them and would I be up for an informal chat about the gig as an assistant event coordinator? The job is really up my alley: I would be doing outreach and promotion for events at both stores which total over 250 events a year. I've done this for past jobs, just not on this scale and a few years ago I was the unofficial planner / DJ / MC for a friend's wedding for 150 people which she dumped the work on to me the day of so I know I can do this. The pay is shit but there is an opportunity to turn it into a full-time gig which at this point, I'm grateful for anything.
In the last week, I've gone from nothing on the horizon to possibly three, albeit part-time, gigs with the last two hustled. We went to a local festival yesterday and on our walk home, we stopped at one of the largest antique stores I've ever seen, over a million items, and ended up chatting with the manager. Turns out they keep hiring Comp Sci people from the local unis who give up on as they find themselves overwhelmed with the cataloging work so I put myself forward and gave the manager my name/email/phone. Another side hustle, sure, but at least I'm thinking out of the goddamned box.
Too much text at this point, with a few silly gifs added for text break-up , all about jobs, so I'm closing off for now.
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