That Wasn't Three Hours

Today was my mandatory workshop about unemployment. I got a notice a couple weeks ago that I had to attend and allow three hours for the workshop.

I got up, got ready, walked downtown to catch a bus.

An aside: I hate riding the bus. I really do. I think it comes from 11 years of school bus-riding. But, ugh. Hate it.

I got to the office where the workshop was to be held and, holy kittens, it was one of the more depressing places I have ever visited.

Everything was gray. The walls, the carpet, the down-trodden unemployed. Yeesh. Luckily I got to text message a friend who was at work (across the street!). She offered me happy support via text and told me to visit after my workshop.

The jobless mass (about 50 of us) were invited into a room. There had been a couple forms included with the notice to attend and the no-nonsense woman in charge of things told us to turn one of the forms in. Then she disappeared. She reappeared and passed out some packets and a sign in sheet for each of us. She disappeared again. She reappeared and collected the sign in sheets. She then went through the six or so pages of the information packet.

She then excused us.

Whaaaat?

Okay, cool, so instead of sitting in a gray room for three hours, I sat there for about a half hour. I was a little annoyed but then relieved. Time to visit my friend!

She was in a meeting.

Time to stand in the shade outside her office and read a fantasy novel loaned to me by a friend!

Meeting ended and I got to visit an office. We had quick QT and I went to a bus stop and rode downtown (I actually don't mind the bus when I'm heading back to downtown) and stopped for some food.

Finally catching up on internets for the day and I've got one of my employment requirement thingees taken care of. This, in addition to the job I applied for a couple evenings ago (or was it last night?) and that weird interview mean I'm all set for qualifying for the check this week. I'm still planning to apply to a firm where my mom's coworker's husband works (woo, networking!).

Hooray, adventures.

I've Gone Nocturnal

When there's something on my mind that I don't want to take the time to think through I end up staying up late to exhaust myself, thereby not giving my brain the chance to think about whatever's troubling me.

Last night I didn't want to think about that interview. I didn't want to come up with a plan just in case they offer me a job.

I stayed up until 5am.

When I got out of bed today (at 2:30 in the afternoon), I decided to shower, drink some raspberry soda (my new thing), and look over the materials sent to me about an unemployment workshop I'm scheduled to attend tomorrow. I think there will be presentations to a group and then one-on-one attention from people who know how to find you a job? I was thinking about this whole workshop thing as me being bored for three hours while some squares try to teach me how to internet. My well-rested brain created a new scenario for me today, though. I'm going to this with an open mind and I'm going to see it as an opportunity to discuss with someone in the know how to handle this whole I-interviewed-really-well-but-am-afraid-these-people-will-devour-me-on-their-lunchbreaks situation.

So while I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to this workshop (I HATE riding the bus alone to a destination with which I'm unfamiliar), I'm not going to see it as a waste of time. As my favorite webcomic dinosaur says, "the worst that can happen is adventure." Umm, but I'd like good adventures, not, like, bus-breaking-down adventures.

My Interview in the Twilight Zone

I got a phone call yesterday while having lunch with a few lovely ladies I used to work with. It seems that a real estate-related company I sent my resume to wanted to interview me. I cleaned off my ironing board and got an interview outfit ironed and ready.

I googled the company...and found some really negative stuff about the company. The negatives I found were all a few years old and I did see some positive comments, but I was a bit troubled nonetheless. I really want whatever company I work for, whatever their field, to operate ethically. I don't want to contribute to dubious practices. I decided to go into the interview with an open mind and, if anything, it's interview practice.

I got about 8 hours of sleep, got up, went out and grabbed coffee and breakfast, showered, slathered on some makeup and hair product and did my best to look like I haven't spent the last six weeks in pajamas, and headed out with plenty of time to get to the interview.

I got to the neighborhood where the interview was to take place pretty early, so ducked into a store and bought a couple cds. I ended up getting to the office about 10 or 15 minutes before the interview was to start and I was invited to sit on the couch in the front of the office. I looked around for a bit and kind of got a weird vibe from the place. It was...nice, I guess, but not great. I had the feeling that if you were in charge of managing property, you shouldn't have visible water damage and chunks of the wall coming off.

The interview itself was fine. The woman interviewing me seemed nice, but a little nervous? I answered the questions well and apparently came off as professional and punctual (ha!). They like their staff to look really professional, which I think I'm going to keep finding as I do this whole looking-for-a-job thing, so I should probably get a couple more pairs of nice trousers. Also, she didn't answer my question about visible piercings or tattoos, but I suspect she wouldn't like the ink on my arm to be visible.

The job posting I'd responded to had asked for desired salary and I'd asked for a couple thousand more per year than I'd made at my last job. I noted that that was negotiable depending on benefits offered. They'd pay me about a dollar less per hour, but pay 100% of medical insurance. I'm not sure if that cuts it for me, which seemed like a relief at the time because the woman definitely approached it as, "We can only pay you this much..." like she knew that could be a deal breaker. I told her that I wouldn't be available to work for a couple weeks, she told me she had a couple more interviews lined up, and that I'd have a few days to think about if I'd like to get into this line of work.

She saw me out and, knowing that the office looked out on the sidewalk I was walking on outside, I didn't run away down the street, as much as I felt like I should. I actually felt relieved to get out of the building.

So.

I do want to get off Unemployment and get back to work. But I guess I need to consider some standards. I don't want to commit to a year of work that I know I can do but would probably be bored doing. I'm fine with monotony if there's the payoff of it being for a company I believe in, staffed by a bunch of cool people. But I don't want to dread going to work. I can't afford to be too picky right now, but, jeez, feeling relief upon leaving an office? That's a bad sign.

Not Much to Report

Sending out cover letters and resumes.

Haven't heard back about anything besides one of the federal jobs...I wasn't qualified.

Star Trek viewing count is now 5.

Applying for more jobs tomorrow.

Ugh, have to go to an unemployment workshop for three hours next week. Mandatory. That is irritating.

Gah, Finally!

Basic resume and basic cover letter? CHECK. And, just as I suspected, they really didn't take that long to do. And my sister helped me word things because I was having vocabulary issues today. And wanted to get the resume out today for UI claim purposes.

So! I applied for a job at my university. It'd be a pretty silly position for me to have, but I think I could have a blast with it. I also applied at a medical office that's only a couple blocks from where I live. Just think...I could run home for lunch. I'd save stupid amounts of money! Whoever wrote the job posting had fun with it and I feel as though I meet the qualifications remarkably well. One strange thing was that the job listing asked for a resume and wage requirements. Wacky. I think I did an okay job wording that business in the cover letter. But, man, is that awkward.

Okay, so fingers crossed on those! I think both could be good.

Done:
-simple resume
-simple cover letter

To do:
-work with (former) boss on epic comprehensive resume
-clean my apartment (yeah, still haven't done that. and it's a good idea as I've been spending ages in it.)
-buy groceries
-go out less often for meals. it's fun, but not practical with my current finances.

Playing Tourist

I've had a few days lately of getting to play tourist in my city. I have an annual pass to the Space Needle and got to take a good friend up for a sweet view of the city. A few days later we went to a chocolate factory for a tour and saw the Fremont Troll (which I'd never been to in the 20+ years I've lived here), got some soup and ice cream, and got to spend a ton of time catching up.

I met with a couple former coworkers yesterday and we went to a sushi buffet, which was wonderful.

These superfun excursions have provided excuses for me to be a bit lazytrousers. I haven't really worked on my resume. And I haven't yet gotten insurance sorted out (bad news bears, that, as I got a couple letters from my doctor saying I need to follow up on some tests I had a few months ago...whoops). I'm also starting to think that when the HR manager at my last job told me that they'd be giving me two weeks' pay, she really meant that they'd be sending me the check for the last two weeks I worked. So there's a thousand bucks that I'm not getting. That's pretty frustrating.

I've decided to apply for administrative and marketing positions at the university I went to. They do a lot of hiring from within, so I'd like to get a foot in that door. Plus, I love my school and it's ridiculously close to where I live. I checked out their benefits and they're amazing. Medical, dental, and vision are all paid for, plus free tuition and gym membership on campus. If I worked there I could totally start on graduate studies. That's something I've been considering for some time and the main hindrance was lack of funds. Fingers crossed!

Also, I made an appointment to get my hair cut! It's going to be my last splurge until I get a new job (that's the plan, anyway), but I'm going to get a cut that will be good for a job interview. I want to look put together and not like I've spent the last month sitting around and internetting.

Done:
-Um. Tourist things?
-hair appointment!

To do:
-omg, resume
-resume sent to university
-get my sleep schedule back in order!

Paperwork and Travel Bug

I still haven't figured out what I want to do. The Seattle weather last week made it very easy to be lazy. I did manage to apply for three more federal jobs, but nothing I really felt strongly about. I still haven't figured out if I want to follow my passions or just get a job.

So, yeah, gotta figure that one out.

I met with my (former) boss this week for a couple hours over coffee. We talked about options for professional references and we figured out a plan for getting the best resumes together. I'll be working this week to write up a Master Resume. This will have every task and responsibility I've done and had in each job and volunteer position I've had. I'll pull information from this master copy for each resume I send out for the non-federal jobs. I'm excited to have this document put together, but, man, just rewinding my brain to the days in retail and food service weirded me out. Spending a couple hours concentrating on that may cause irreparable damage to my mental and emotional well-being.

I kid. My time at a toy store and in a couple coffee shops were pretty great. So long ago, though!

Another occurrence of this week was that I got my last paycheck from my (former) place of employment. Also included were paid out overtime and vacation hours. In nearly four years at this job I took about two hours off. So it's a significant amount of money.

For now it's mostly going into savings (after making a credit card payment and a student loan payment). But my plan since the lay off day was to get a new gig as quickly as possible so I'd be able to splurge on something. I'm thinking of a few more tattoos (easily hidden in case the future job frowns on that sort of thing) or a trip. I started looking into the prices of tickets to far off places and there are some more than reasonable plane tickets to be had out there! The farthest I've been from Seattle is Ottawa, so this travel option is looking really appealing. I've found some under-seven-hundred-dollar tickets to European destinations, so this is looking pretty feasible. I've got a nice passport that needs some stamps in it!

To do:
-work on Master Resume
-find some more jobs to apply for