Working Girl (October 23, 2008)

My road trip was definitely one of the top highlights of my life and I took some time once I got to Raleigh to try to absorb it all and recharge and figure out my next step. Once I decided I was going to try to stay in North Carolina and make a go fot higns, I applied for several different jobs that I felt I was qualified for, that related to my major and career path in some way, and that I thought I could be good at and enjoy. Some of the jobs I interviewed for include editorial assistant at the Garner Citizen News and Times (a local publication), production assistant at Gulf Stream Communications, and PR assistant at The Rivers Agency, apparently for none of which I was qualified or the right candidate. In addition, postings for jobs in any aspect of entertainment or communication in Raleigh were few and far between.

My nice break in August was a welcome reprieve from the grueling pace of my road travels, but as September rolled around and the rejections continued, my vacation seemed to drag on to the point where sleeping in and watching TV on the couch all day actually started to wear on me and become boring. I might even go so far as to say that I wanted a reason to get up out of bed early in the morning. I wanted somewhere to go like everyone else who was working and something to do that would make me feel like a productive member of society again instead of a waste of a person hiding out in the suburbs.

By October, I was still surfing the Internet job boards, tweaking cover letters, and sending out resumes, with little or no feedback. However, I wasn't willing to give up on my dream of making it on my own out here in NC. With the holidays just around the corner and retail stores guaranteed to hire extra employees for the upcoming busy season, I decided that for now it might be a good idea to temporarily postpone my career-oriented job search and instead take a seasonal retail position to establish a local resume and start replenishing some of my road trip funds.

I applied to Blockbuster, Borders, Circuit City, Hallmark, and Marquee Cinema. I heard back almost immediately and simultaneously from Borders and Circuit City and even went on interviews for both jobs on the same day, Monday, October 20. Initially, I liked the idea of working at Borders more because, during my extended vacation, I was able to tear myself away from the TV more and more frequently to quench my renewed thirst for reading and Borders has a loan out program where employees get to borrow any book for free, like the library, but better, in my opinion, because the library tends to only have hardback books and I am not a huge fan of those. However, during my interview, I found two big negatives to working at Borders: one, the location of this particular Borders was in an odd, somewhat isolated area that didn't seem to get much heavy consumer traffic other than a short lunch and evening commuter rush and, two, the majority of the employees that I saw as I wandered around the store were in their 40s, much older than I, and I was hoping to find a job that also had the added benefit of serving as a social network where I could make friends in my new hometown.

My interview at Circuit City was much more positive. I noticed that the majority of the employees were relatively young, appearing to be my age or a bit younger, perhaps in college. I also felt more comfortable with the manager who interviewed me at Circuit City. I felt that a rapport was quickly established and that there was an easy flow of conversation as opposed to an impersonal Q&A session. The manager, Brian, must have felt the same way because after we wrapped things up, he called in his assistant manager, Vonetta, so that she could conduct a brief second interview and speed the hiring process right along. She clearly approved as well and even said as much, and Brian came back in and basically offered me the position if I wanted it. I explained that I had had another interview and wanted to weight my options rather than make an impulsive decision, but I think I pretty much knew what my answer was going to be based on my initial gut feelings regarding both jobs. I started working as a customer service associate at Circuit City 3 days later! Yay for finally having a job!

Unfortunately, that same week, news began to surface that Circuit City was in big money trouble and that it would most likely be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in hopes of reorganizing and digging themselves out of debt. For a while there, I actually started to believe that Circuit City might make it out okay, but, well, I'll leave the rest of that story for another blog...