I really love the West Coast… so much so I’ll suffer through trying to convince a woman that is old enough to be my grandmother and almost snorts as she says out load “you have a degree” while eying my resume, that I want to work in her corporate store. I’ll take the degradation of walking into a grocery store hat in hand asking politely if I can fill out a job application.
I want to be here and if that means bagging groceries for the next year I’ll do it… so long as I can pay rent with the pay. There is no other place I want to be right now and this is why I’ll do these things if this is what it takes to stay here. I’ve been going everywhere to apply.
I worked my ass off in college to earn that degree… and right now its my experiences out side of the class room that I’m drawing on to find a job in the mean time. There is a part of me that weeps every time I start to fill out yet another job application for a remedial job. But Its what I have to do to survive for now. Hopefully one day when the economy comes around I’ll be able to get a job as a designer but for now I’ll sling goods made in third world nations in sweatshops or bag your groceries until that job comes along.
The thing that kills me it the in between times. The your over qualified for this but your under qualified for that. I’m just trying to catch a break here. The way the economy is at the moment I’m looking at serving a 6 months to a year sentence in retail. Why are these store managers so worried about hiring me? Have the looked past the end of there nose and seen how bad it is out there? Even if I wanted to I’m not going to pull off getting hired by them one day and three days down the line get hired for a real job and quite. I actually plan on looking into keeping the minor job for weekends or holiday work to help pad the bank account when I do get the real job so I can keep my self even further from living on the street.
I’ve worked three jobs a year, went to school full time, and was raised in a high- volume local print shop before that. I’m not afraid working… not even a little bit. I’ll bust my ass if given the chance. At my last job even through I wasn’t being paid for it, and was being told that I was to slow and that’s why I was having to work nights and weekends, I still did it. I take pride in my work no matter what the work is. I can’t do a half ass job. It goes against the grain.
Out side of what my resume says I’ve worked for Piggly Wiggly as a cashier, bagger, shelf stockier, and clean up. Ryan’s Family Stake house as a waitress, dishwasher, and front line staff. Offense Defense Tennis camp as a camp councilor for 2 years in Boston, MA. Villa Tranco as waitress, kitchen staff, expediter, dishwasher, deserts and salads, and helped prep catering jobs.
I’ve volunteered to work booths for Avon, WUSC 90.5 fm, Orangeburg Printing Company, Dog shows for kennel clubs, 2 hour radio show for 5 years, Worked at the local zoo in two departments, and more.
I don’t like being board and I don’t like sitting on my hands. But there is a down side to all this work. I forget to eat when I get busy, I loose my appetite when I work with food, I’m usually tired all the time when I’m working all out like this. So this is why I took this past month off. I wanted to rebound get some down time. And now its time for me get a job and all I get is either your over qualified or your under qualified. This sucks!!
I can’t wait for this period in my life to be over. When I can look back at this and go man that sucked… glad I’m not there anymore.
