GAME05

well, happily moving forward in the career. after only a phone interview, i was just offered a job working at a State Park not in Wisconsin. minimum wage and seasonal stinks, but it's great experience and a recommendation from the boss after the season would go a very long way to landing full-time work. after the season i'll sign up for the Police Academy. fortunately no age maximum that i've found yet. an LE plus all the education/certifications i have, provided i do a good job this summer, and i'm a top candidate for a full-time Ranger position even in this economy.

thanks. it's lawn care, but checking shouldn't be necessary. i'll only be doing it for a summer.

so the lawn care job is commission-based, primarily. but i don't do any active selling and the hiring manager said there wouldn't be a situation where i was ever out of work to do. but there are work goals (hit X# of houses per week) and i didn't get clarity in the second interview to what happens if i don't happen to meet that. will go back to ask. still, it will pay more than minimum wage and give me my time for certifications. there's a fear of "what if i don't meet my goals and don't have the time to meet them because of classes?" fear of mine that's possibly unwarranted.

that stinks, Jimbo. i know just what that feels like to be working at a job, know your stuff and do a good job, and then they replace you with someone else. rough. .................... well, it took me about two months, but i finally found some work in Madison. wasn't easy. i've been offered a minimum-wage job at a movie theater (i'll be a popcorn jockey!) starting Monday. and i also have a second interview tomorrow for a lawn care job, which i have a very good chance at landing. the lawn care job doesn't start for two months, but it pays twice as much with a few more hours per week. money is secondary to me because my real purpose is getting the various certifications to strengthen my Parks&Rec resume (not all are available the next two months). still, the lawn job represents another $6,000 or so on my pocket vs. the movie job over the course of the summer. so i've decided to go to the second interview and basically agree to work there on the condition that they give me the days off when the certification classes come along. if they don't, then bye-bye. if they do, then work the movie job for two months with a lot of volunteering. and since volunteering is very important for me, taking the lawn care job will mean working six days/week and then volunteering somewhere on that one day off. and if i have a job interview, i'll tell them it's another certification class. i'm really doubting they'd agree to the time off (roughly 10 total days off during the summer), but i can always ask and see what they say.

when i was last there, Fort Atkinson was at least an easy-enough drive to Madison. and there's probably more to do in Whitewater that i never discovered. last year i was living in Victoria, Texas. i'd ask locals the best part of living there and they'd all say how close it was to so many big cities (2+ hours). i didn't say it out loud, but thought "oh, so the best part about living in Victoria was that it's easy to leave Victoria."

thanks for the advice. i talked to another friend of mine about it. he reminded me that what they're looking for is the best person for the job NOW, which is probably me. and no matter when i leave, i'll be doing so for more money or to better my career, and who can argue with that? everyone else at that company is doing the same thing. the life of an Assistant there is already fairly short since the company is in Fort Atkinson and no single, young person they hire really wants to stay in small-town Wisconsin for very long. so i applied and i'll let HR decide. on another note, just letting out some frustration, but wow it's tough even finding part-time work right now. i've had one single interview since i've been back here and didn't get the job because it didn't appear i would stay at the position for 2-3 years--the $8.25/hr part-time position. just amazing the state of the economy that people can actually expect this and keep a straight face.

ethical question... i'm having a lot of trouble finding even simple part-time work, though keep my open for full-time openings. i used to be a magazine editor, worked at one place for 2+ years before i quit to hike the AT. enjoyed the job and was good at it, but don't like the industry because jobs are terrible to find and i've seen too many editors with 10+ years of experience working for $35K per year. my plan right now is to work whatever PT job to pay for my Parks and Rec certifications to make me more marketable for a job. well, i noticed that my old editorial company is hiring for what appears to be my old job. we'll just assume they'd actually hire someone back who'd quit the job previously. i don't hold that an employee owes a company too much loyalty just for being hired by them, but is it maybe unethical of me to accept the offer (should they even make it) when my intention would be to quit a second time? it seems like that's really a jerk move. sure, maybe i decide to stay, but one promotion above me only pays about $34K/year, and Parks and Rec still pays better, plus sweet sweet government benefits and more job security. it just seems like maybe lying to the editorial company saying "oh, i just miss editorial work" and quitting the same place twice just isn't right.

thanks. i feared "it's who you know" would be the answer. it's frustrating i've been here almost three weeks with nothing and all i'm looking for is something part-time. and being here with the father i think that makes him frustrated by me and probably thinking i'm being lazy about it, too. nothing at Plastics Ingenuity, checking a contact at Land's End, applied for an editorial job at American Girl (am a former editor), Gander Mountain and D's Sporting Goods (i'm experienced in retail and the outdoors), and a few others. did the online Gander Mountain thing, maybe today i'll still walk in and try to talk to a manager. edit: i'll add that i used to work at Subway in Middleton and the owner is the current Mayor, Curt Sonnentag. he liked me, but i didn't see him every day and it's been maybe 10 years since i worked there.

i wanna go ahead and as a seemingly-dumb question: how does one go about finding a McJob? i just moved back to Madison and really just need 20 or so hours per week at whatever job. that's enough to give me the time and money to build my professional resume more. 20 years ago you'd walk down the street and look for Help Wanted signs. 10 years ago you'd look in the newspaper. but now? is it a matter of scouring job boards? is it still best to walk in just in case they don't actually send you to their website? do you go to a company's website first and apply there? i'm nervous that i might end up still sitting in front of the computer in two weeks saying "but i haven't found much yet" when i'm not necessarily looking for something fantastic. maybe not McDonalds quite yet, but not a $50K/year job, either. also, how much do you recommend changing up the resume for menial-type work? i currently have a McResume where i don't add my Graduate degree and in place of most professional jobs, i list the smaller jobs i had in between, all to make me look more appropriate for minimum-wage stuff. last year, Wal-Mart almost didn't hire me because i used my professional resume. but since i'm in my mid-30s, i'm obviously not intending to make grocery stocking into a career. so keep the McResume or keep the one that doesn't omit everything?

my Manager interview today went surprisingly well. a lot of preparation brought a lot of confidence, few nerves, no stumbling and a lot of good answers--even a couple of "that's just what we were hoping to hear." so even if i don't get it, i've become much better at interviews. though if i do get it, i'm suddenly wondering about the support network available (would be a lot of new responsibilities, yet they want someone who "knows everything") nodded to the next interviewee as i was leaving--younger than me and wearing a polo shirt to a managerial interview.

a year of identical previous experience, a Master's Degree, and i'd even been working there part-time for three months--yet i didn't even make the cut for the in-person interview round for a job that paid $23,000 per year. what's a guy gotta do? but i have an interview coming up for a good job. admittedly it's a bit over my head, so i'm not expecting anything to come of it (though i'll still be prepared and all that stuff). but still, my last three interviews were essentially jobs for 1) cleaning bathrooms, 2) mowing lawns and 3) emptying trash; so at the very least, it's still nice to get this interview to know where i stand in the marketplace and that i'm at least competitive for higher-level jobs in the field. i'm still working to boost my resume, but at least it's good to know it's not entirely me, but that it's just a really lousy marketplace right now.

It's a trap! ask for to much and they won't consider you; ask for too little and you'll be making less than your peers. delay salary stuff for as long as possible. "I expect a salary commensurate with my experience, the responsibilities of the position and the current market rate."

even at age 35, i'm slightly tempted to scrap the career field my Master's degree is in and look into somewhat-unrelated work in the private sector. a few years of entry-level pay, sure, but it would still represent a much higher salary than what government work offers. i've been pretty frustrated that my Master's degree hasn't meant much in finding full-time work, and even if i were to land something, the pay being offered isn't much more than i made working in fast food 10 years ago. i should be a shoe-in for a job i just applied to (that's not just being cocky), but am pessimistic because of nepotism (i hope that's ok to say since i don't believe i've ever given away exactly where i work). this week i'll be dumbing-down my resume in order to apply for about any job i can find--not including my Master's degree and substituting some career jobs for my filler ones. funds starting to run dangerously low. it's great one one hand, but also kinda hurts to hear your little brother offer to loan you money. i'm willing to move anywhere fairly decent, but it's too bad that nobody's going to fly me out and i can't afford it, myself. the only long-distance option is moving somewhere and then looking.

working at a park part-time now and the full-time opening closes next week, so we'll see. they have a "huge stack" of applications, but i work there already, have excessive education and related previous experience. but we'll see. but what's frustrating is the full-time pay is an absolute joke. it's still a step up for me with the benefits, though. as much as i may end up liking the job, i'm going to keep looking for better opportunities just because of the pay. my coworkers get the same pay, but they get free housing (i won't).

i give my job its notice tomorrow afternoon. woo-hoo! choosing North Carolina over Colorado was tough because my brother, his wife and an eventual niece/nephew are there. but when i think of just me by my lonesome, North Carolina seems more like home (second to WI, anyway), and i think that's most important. beyond finding a career job, i have so many plans on how i'd like to improve everything with this new start. i'm so excited for this.

yeah, "assertive" is what i really meant. didn't end up saying anything because maybe i'll be leaving sooner than i thought and i'll just mention it in the exit interview. i'm getting both excited and scared/nervous about my upcoming move to North Carolina. a small part of me is still thinking about Colorado because my brother is there, which would be fun, but i also have a good friend in NC and i lived there the past six years. i know it's the right move because i can't continue being as lonely as i've been (and because the job stinks), but having no unemployment benefits and about $4000 saved won't be easy. even small-time jobs can be tough to get these days, and being 35 and over-educated doesn't help for those. $400/mo rent and i can put a deferral on my student loans, so hopefully i can land a $9/hr job to start and get by with that for a while. i'll be putting my work in a major bind, but that's their problem, i guess. now to decide when in April to go...

thanks, Cheez. i think i'll still talk to the boss in private about it. call it practice on being aggressive in the workplace instead of being passive. i'll just ask the boss to put himself in my shoes and tell me how he'd interpret it all, then just accept his toned-down response. if i wasn't already leaving, i'm upset enough by all of this that i would have quit, anyway. on a side note, i've learned that men are actually worse gossipers than women are.

*post deleted. comments too specific to my job that i only wanted to raise the question temporarily and not leave it up for permanent record. one never knows how deep a future employer might dig into internet records if they'd be able to match up game05 to my real name.

after some thought, i think i'm just going to leave things as they are. i already told her i'd be willing to come over or that i could do an initial phone interview, and i got no real response from that. and it's a different person doing the interviewing, who will know i'm still interested. if he'd throw my resume away without going through a minor hoop of at least calling me, then i probably wouldn't have landed the job, anyway. and more, i'm going to be thin on money as it is when i move there in April, so $500 is a lot.

huh. the 'desperation' thing is something a friend also mentioned, though i hadn't considered that it puts HR in a tough spot. when the lady said "so do you want me to just take your name off the pile?" i said i'd still like to be considered (for whatever that's worth). i'm not sure how else to put it other than explaining that the opportunity is valuable enough to me to cover my own flight. and heck, in this market there aren't that many decent opportunities out there. but it wouldn't be the first time i've lost an interview because of distance. going to bed now and will have to decide when i get up on calling her and pushing the flight or not calling at all.

got a call this morning and the HR lady was very impressed with my resume, even said so twice. i think she mostly called because she wanted to find out if i actually did live 1,000 miles away like my resume indicated. once confirmed, the air kinda went out of that balloon. a phone interview is not an option, and there wasn't much of a reaction when i offered to fly out there because the pay really doesn't merit the expense of flying out there (at least in her opinion, anyway). i think the best route is to check my work schedule tonight, look at flights, call her back and be able to say "hey, i found a flight and i can get there next Wednesday. how would that work?" at the least, as an HR Director, she would be able to say if i'm a top top candidate to make the trip out worth my while, or if i'm kinda so-so and don't have a great chance. i have the feeling that a lot of prospective employers are just disregarding my application since i'm applying for mid- to entry-level work from so far away. stinks to be an out-of-state applicant, but at the same time, i've become much more marketable in the field by taking this job than if i'd stayed closer.

i work with a pseudo-governmental organization that deals with water use/usage in Texas, and we have a pretty small lab. (actually, i think we're hiring for lab technicians.)

i wanted to give an update since people helped me out and i'd made a lot of posts about downloading a virus on my work computer. before the boss came back from vacation, i stopped by work to pick up my phone and said "Sorry about that virus" to the secretary, who told me she'd downloaded a virus that next day, too. IT told her it was an issue company-wide. she also said she was going to mention to the boss that she'd downloaded a vurus, too, which made me feel better about it. the boss is back and he didn't say anything to me. regardless, i've since stopped using the computer entirely. i bought a book and read that on night shift, instead.

i've worked at D's Sporting Goods before, which has high turnover. i also really enjoyed my time at Wal-Mart--i worked in the deli, so i didn't have the same pressures of having to stock a shelf at a certain speed. and if you end up going into food service, i also enjoyed my time at Subway. -------- it appears my job should have an unofficial opening coming up (not me). but you'd have to live in Texas otherwise the commute sucks. it's in the Parks field.

i'd say that because you haven't had a job in your field since graduation, that definitely qualifies you as a new graduate, regardless of how long you've been out of school. i know you've checked, but i'm surprised the Department at school doesn't have more resources for finding graduates positions. i know it's not the same, but my boss' daughter just graduated law school and only 5% of her class found work (five years earlier it was the complete opposite statistic), so they hired her and a few other people to work at the university.