How Did It Go?

I have just completed two weeks with a new position.

It has been very interesting.

I applied for this position because it was with a financial planning company and boy, did I need some help in that area of life.  Well, that problem is half mine, half not finding a permanent, full time job, which was not something I feel I have always had a grasp and control over.  If so, I would not have been without a permanent job for going on for almost 7 years later this year.

ALMOST SEVEN YEARS?  I could not believe that.

Not that I was not working.  I was...after 2 1/2 years of struggling with much of the population, hence, I do not take full responsibility for lack of employment, because I did everything I knew how to do, to get a job. 

I hope I can say at least, that all that was not a complete waste of time.

For example, I am finishing up my Masters' degree. 

Who would have thunk?

I have to say, I hope that awful part of my life is finally behind me. 

It is NO FUN not having a job, a career, or a way to feel independent and responsible. 

It is a huge weight off my shoulder. 

I took even more desperate measures-by allowing myself to apply for positions that were really not where I wanted my career to go, such as administrative assistant.

Opening up my options did wonders.  I did have some reluctance because after I finished my Bachelors' degree, I applied for a lot of admin positions and I did not even get one call.  I must have applied for 20-50 positions a day, for three months straight!  It went down to about 50-100 a week when I had to get back to work at my part-time job. 

NOT ONE OPPORTUNITY!

So I was not sure how finding employment going to happen.

All I knew is that I did not want to start the new year without a job.

It took a couple of weeks and many, many interviews. 

I had a handful of great interviews but never heard back.  Sigh….

I actually had one bad interview, or at least I thought it went really bad, and I was asked to come to the office for a face to face interview.  I had forgotten to look up the company before the interview, because I thought I did not have a link.  It was not advertised through the Internet.  Bad me!  I had been going through 3 interviews or more a day, both face to face and phone interviews, my schedule was getting quite full. 

Something had to happen!  I couldn't do this for much longer.

Then, I decided to go ahead to this one that I really wasn't sure about.  I had an interview two days before, and I really wanted that job.  It was with an HR IT company.  I was so sure the interview went well.  But I went anyways to the financial planning company that I remember applying as an administrative assistant.

I went in and was given a 12 minute test of various things, like basic math, corrections, consecutive items, and stuff like that.  I was so into the test, that when the manager came in to stop me, I said, "Twelve minutes, already??!!"

I sat and waited for the owner to talk to me. 

We had a very long interview session.  With experience on both sides of the table, I overly shined-that is not bragging, that is what was told to me after I was hired.  I was feeling quite comfortable and the owner was given me clues that he wanted me to start right away.  He told me that he liked me and that he was only going through the other interviews after me because they were already scheduled.

By the time I got home from the interview, I had received a call from the owner asking me a few more questions about the job.  A few hours later, I received another call from the owner's son to call him back.  He had good news for me.

All the while between calls, I was really contemplating if I wanted to be an admin again.  I do enjoy supporting, but my heart is in HR and recruiting.  I am really enjoying my classes in school and I want my career to go that way.

But I needed an income. 

I was reminded of something my father would always say, "Sometimes we have to do things we don't like."  My sister will tell you that is not true, because you don't want to be miserable all your life.  That is true for me.

The position was not what I really, truly wanted, in an area that I knew would be difficult to get to, completely opposite to where I wanted to work and live.  I wanted to be closer to school so I could finish on time or early.  I don't see that happening, unless a miracle happens between now and May.  I was also not too fond of the hours.  Nice to sleep in, but it is kind of late for me to get home and do assignments for class. 

But I knew how to do the work.  Plus, I would be learning a customer relationship management system, CRM, which was something I needed to have in my skills set.  And I have always wanted to learn more about financial planning.

It wasn't all bad.  There were some good things and I knew that I wasn't going to wait for a job that may never come through. 

Which, as I mentioned before, never came through.

I figured that I can work here, learn everything I can while getting my studies and certification done, and have some fun. 

Yeah, fun, remember that? 

I really like the people I work with.  It is small, conservative, formal, quiet office.  I keep hearing that it gets busy.  I happened to be hired during the week of their seminars, which meant that I had to work late twice a month.  I was not really ready for that, since I just started my classes the week before, and I was trying to get ahead in assignments, as not to get behind later on. 

I did not go and celebrate the acquisition of employment because I have become very, very superstitious.

After obtaining two positions I wanted, after having them fail, I was not going to celebrate until I was with the company for a month.  At least by then, I will know if I am still with the company.

I haven't even updated most social areas.  I did put something on LinkedIn, but haven't fully completed the information.  It can wait. 

So as one of my favorite songs says, "I'll be here for a while," (311-Here for a While). 

After my first week at the job, the owner's son asked me how my first week went.  I answered something like, "there was a lot to do, and you haven't fired me yet."  He laughed, probably thinking I was making a joke.