Work

Talking about a project, looking for a job, what I’m doing at my job.

Transition

So I just got home from my first day of work in San Francisco at Rasputin Music. It was super fun and it reminds me of working in the music library at WUSC. I’m going to be a floor person so I’ll be walking around, alphabetizing CDs, vinyl, DVDs, and other such merch. Its interesting how starting a job in the bay area really makes if feel like Its real… I’m really living here. I could feel the switch from tourist to resident when the through crossed my mind “Oh I hope I’m not going to be late for work” as I boarded my last train.

I think its finally starting to officially sink in that I’m here to stay. I brought my lunch, like any good thrifty commuter worker wood. I was sitting there eating thinking about what I had learned so far and what was coming up in my training next when I look up and just soak in the experiance of my first lunch break in the city. lol I had a lunch break! lunch box and everything. With my home made sandwitch, orange slices, and granola bars. I watch a group of people cross the street and looked up at the tall buildings surrounding us and had this over whellming feeling of satisfaction as it sunk in that I have finally made it.

I spent the frist few hours going over the 4th and 5th floor of the store with Ben the store manager for the day. Then I went down to the front counter and worked as counter help for the rest of my shift. They didn’t want be trained as a cashier but as help because sometimes the floor staff help in that capasity at the ront counter. They have a bit of a tag team approch to there front counter. They have one person there as counter help opening the merchandice cases and then baging the merchandice when the cashier is done ringing it up. So I learned how to open most of the cases they have in the store, checking VHS and records to make sure there in the right case. Pretty easy stuff… just doing that and making sure the back of the regesters stayed neat and tidy and the crates for the cases I was taking off didn’t start over flowing.

It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for my next shift. Which is two days from now. I start Bed Bath & Beyond Tuesday so that will help with the boredom while waiting for my next record store shift. :0) My phone kept going off while I was at work. I sit here for months with no calls and then all of a sudden I start working and everyone has questions or wants to talk. lol thankfully I put my phone on vibrate and just checked it when the vibration started to get a little annoying.

The cashiers were wondering why I, the new person, wasn’t being trained to start out with them. When they asked if I worked in another record store before I said no so they looked even more confused so I filled them in on my years of experiance at the radio station. This is why my general manager decided to make me a floor person and not a cashier. :0) That experiance is finally making me money again. Its still little money but its money. I didn’t get paid much being a Music Director at the station. I’m not getting paid a lot at the record store either but that’s ok. I like the work and its easy.

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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.

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