I leave tomorrow, returning to New York (via Charlotte) in order to move. I have reserved the U-Haul, had a few minor repairs and maintenance done to the truck, collected packing supplies. So, of course, first thing this morning I get a call about a job. Now I have an interview set up for 11 a.m. Monday for a job in New York City. So, what will happen is this. I will interview, they will love me, but they will wait until I've driven a U-Haul full of my crap all the way to Jackson, Mississippi, before calling to offer me the job. Then I'll have to turn around and go back to New York and find a new place to live. Even when I have good luck, I have bad luck.
In the meantime I haven't heard from the other job I interviewed for in Chicago. The more time that passes, the more I'm sure I didn't get the job. Am I so far out of the loop that I don't even know when an interview has gone well?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Unemployment Update: A few fishies decide to bite
I'm not sure where we left this, but here's some numbers:
Number of weeks unemployed:10.5
Number of applications sent out: About 60
Number of rejections: 5
Number of potential jobs I'm actively dealing with: 2
So I was reject last night for the job at the Chicago paper. Not terribly surprising. I wasn't expecting to get the job I actually wanted in this market. In the meantime, however, I've been contacted by two other places.
One is a small communications firm also in Chicago. I sent my resume in Friday afternoon and by Monday morning I had an e-mail waiting for me asking me to call the president of the firm. We had a short chat — about 30 minutes — and then she sent me a test article to write for a newsletter. We've also set up a video conference interview for tomorrow and I've filled out an employment application. The video conference is interesting. I think it's a way to do an in-person interview without actually being there in person, which saves their company a lot of money. If I can drop it in seamlessly during our interview, I think I'm going to suggest she pitch that story to the newspapers as a way of getting her company some extra press: ways companies who are hiring in this economy are using technology to save money in the process. Can't you just see the business section of a newspaper jumping all over that? Who wouldn't want to hire a creative thinker like me?!
While that was going on I also heard from a job I applied for back at the beginning of August in New York City. They said I was being considered for the writer position and to send two writing samples, which I did today.
What happens if I get two job offers and have to choose?! Obviously, this will never happen, but oh the agony if it does. And then once I take a job, of course, all the greatest jobs in the world will come tumbling along into my lap. "Oh, Bucky, please take these jobs that pay boatloads of money and require travel to exciting, international destinations while not requiring anything approaching real work at all." Sigh.
Well, it's nice to dream anyway.
Number of weeks unemployed:10.5
Number of applications sent out: About 60
Number of rejections: 5
Number of potential jobs I'm actively dealing with: 2
So I was reject last night for the job at the Chicago paper. Not terribly surprising. I wasn't expecting to get the job I actually wanted in this market. In the meantime, however, I've been contacted by two other places.
One is a small communications firm also in Chicago. I sent my resume in Friday afternoon and by Monday morning I had an e-mail waiting for me asking me to call the president of the firm. We had a short chat — about 30 minutes — and then she sent me a test article to write for a newsletter. We've also set up a video conference interview for tomorrow and I've filled out an employment application. The video conference is interesting. I think it's a way to do an in-person interview without actually being there in person, which saves their company a lot of money. If I can drop it in seamlessly during our interview, I think I'm going to suggest she pitch that story to the newspapers as a way of getting her company some extra press: ways companies who are hiring in this economy are using technology to save money in the process. Can't you just see the business section of a newspaper jumping all over that? Who wouldn't want to hire a creative thinker like me?!
While that was going on I also heard from a job I applied for back at the beginning of August in New York City. They said I was being considered for the writer position and to send two writing samples, which I did today.
What happens if I get two job offers and have to choose?! Obviously, this will never happen, but oh the agony if it does. And then once I take a job, of course, all the greatest jobs in the world will come tumbling along into my lap. "Oh, Bucky, please take these jobs that pay boatloads of money and require travel to exciting, international destinations while not requiring anything approaching real work at all." Sigh.
Well, it's nice to dream anyway.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Moving
Barring any job offers between now and Oct. 12, I will be moving home — either in with my parents or with my brother. Sad that a 34 year-old woman has to move home.
I'm not entirely sure it was the right decision, but after being pestered about it by my parents and boyfriend I caved in and decided to move — only to hear from my mother than she now thinks I shouldn't move. (It would be better only to move once, she now says.) Of course now it's too late. I've given my notice, paid the penalty fee of two months rent (bastards!) and they've already rented out my apartment for Oct. 15. I still have to pay half October's rent (double bastards!).
So anyway, I'll be driving back north soon to load up my U-Haul.
Hope I get a job soon!
I'm not entirely sure it was the right decision, but after being pestered about it by my parents and boyfriend I caved in and decided to move — only to hear from my mother than she now thinks I shouldn't move. (It would be better only to move once, she now says.) Of course now it's too late. I've given my notice, paid the penalty fee of two months rent (bastards!) and they've already rented out my apartment for Oct. 15. I still have to pay half October's rent (double bastards!).
So anyway, I'll be driving back north soon to load up my U-Haul.
Hope I get a job soon!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Traveling
In the last two weeks I've been in or through the following states:
New York*
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Ohio*
Indiana
Illinois*
Missouri
Kansas*
Maryland
West Virginia
Virginia
Tennessee*
Georgia
Alabama
Mississippi*
The asterisks are the states I've spent at least a night in.
That is a LOT of states. Before September is over, I'm likely to add Louisiana and South and North Carolina to that list. If I don't get a job, maybe I'll spend October hitting up the other 32 states — though if I go to Hawaii I may never come back again. People have got to stop moving, myself included.
New York*
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Ohio*
Indiana
Illinois*
Missouri
Kansas*
Maryland
West Virginia
Virginia
Tennessee*
Georgia
Alabama
Mississippi*
The asterisks are the states I've spent at least a night in.
That is a LOT of states. Before September is over, I'm likely to add Louisiana and South and North Carolina to that list. If I don't get a job, maybe I'll spend October hitting up the other 32 states — though if I go to Hawaii I may never come back again. People have got to stop moving, myself included.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Unemployment Update: The Fall of our Discontent
As we begin month three of my unemployment, I have received two more rejections (both for jobs at the U.S. Mint — times must be tough when people want jobs writing about the joys of the mint) and I have done one phone interview.
The interview was for the RedEye, which I wrote a previous entry about. I did actually call on that Friday, but the editor was off site at a meeting, so I left a message. The Monday, as I was arriving in Kansas (moving the roommate - more on this later), I received an e-mail from a Tribune company recruiter asking me to fill out a questionnaire and return it no later than Sept. 1, which was the next day. So the next morning I got up, went to the Bagel Express down the street from my now former roommate's parent's house (okay, this is getting confusing. Her name is Alice, and she will heretofore be referred to as such.) and spent a couple hours answering the following questions:
1. Why are you currently on the job market?
2. What is your current (or most recent) compensation?
3. What is your desired salary range/ requirement?
4. Current authorization to work in the US:
5. Availability for a phone screening/Best number to reach you:
6. How are you innovative? Give an example of ideas that you’ve come up at work – can be a big or small idea or a project.
7. How are you solutions-oriented? Give an example of how you navigate workplace challenges.
8. What do you think makes RedEye work as a newspaper? What could be improved?
9. List four adjectives that best describe you.
Apparently my answers were good because the next day (I think we're at Wednesday now), I got an e-mail from the editor, asking if I could do a phone interview at noon on Friday. And thus the phone interview was born. Aside from forgetting that there was an hour time difference between Chicago and New York and spending about 30 minutes in excruciating agony wondering why she wasn't calling before realizing that fact, I think the call went well. I liked what she had to say about the paper and the position and she seemed to like my answers to her questions. She had several, "I agree with what you said about..." moments. She also said they were looking for someone outside the paper, someone with a "fresh perspective," which is a point in my favor.
She also said I would hear back from her within two weeks, one way or the other. I hope its one way and not the other! This has become my dream job, ensuring that I will not get it and for sure, wind up in Little Rock.
The interview was for the RedEye, which I wrote a previous entry about. I did actually call on that Friday, but the editor was off site at a meeting, so I left a message. The Monday, as I was arriving in Kansas (moving the roommate - more on this later), I received an e-mail from a Tribune company recruiter asking me to fill out a questionnaire and return it no later than Sept. 1, which was the next day. So the next morning I got up, went to the Bagel Express down the street from my now former roommate's parent's house (okay, this is getting confusing. Her name is Alice, and she will heretofore be referred to as such.) and spent a couple hours answering the following questions:
1. Why are you currently on the job market?
2. What is your current (or most recent) compensation?
3. What is your desired salary range/ requirement?
4. Current authorization to work in the US:
5. Availability for a phone screening/Best number to reach you:
6. How are you innovative? Give an example of ideas that you’ve come up at work – can be a big or small idea or a project.
7. How are you solutions-oriented? Give an example of how you navigate workplace challenges.
8. What do you think makes RedEye work as a newspaper? What could be improved?
9. List four adjectives that best describe you.
Apparently my answers were good because the next day (I think we're at Wednesday now), I got an e-mail from the editor, asking if I could do a phone interview at noon on Friday. And thus the phone interview was born. Aside from forgetting that there was an hour time difference between Chicago and New York and spending about 30 minutes in excruciating agony wondering why she wasn't calling before realizing that fact, I think the call went well. I liked what she had to say about the paper and the position and she seemed to like my answers to her questions. She had several, "I agree with what you said about..." moments. She also said they were looking for someone outside the paper, someone with a "fresh perspective," which is a point in my favor.
She also said I would hear back from her within two weeks, one way or the other. I hope its one way and not the other! This has become my dream job, ensuring that I will not get it and for sure, wind up in Little Rock.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)