I went to an open call yesterday for a job at a new hotel that is about to open up, or I tried to. I had gotten dressed up cute, printed out my resume, and headed up to the location right after getting out of work. The line stretched two blocks long. The temperature was a little below the freezing mark. I waited about twenty minutes to see how quickly the line did or did not move. It did not move very quickly. I had progressed about ten feet during those twenty minutes, and realized it would be hours spent in the cold to attend this open call. I gave up, feeling bad not only for myself since I really wanted to work at this hotel, but even more so for the hundreds of people that were going to continue to wait in this line. I walked away angry at this hotel for overreaching and extending info about this open call to far too many people, that there was something sadistic about making potential employees do a test of endurance to even apply to work there and wait for hours in the freezing cold just to be seen. That so many people participated in this, endured this poor treatment because they needed a job, made me really sad and visually brought home the competitiveness of the job market and the difficulty in finding a job.
One of my resolutions for this new year is to get a new job and it is one that I am pretty serious about. There is the goal of getting out of the hotel industry, which is proving a bit difficult, and at the same time there is a desire to do something else in the hotel industry until that moment arrives at which a job in whatever field becomes available to me. I do worry though that the longer I continue to do hotel work, the more difficult it is ever going to be hired in another industry, say the world of publishing. This afternoon, I interviewed for another position at the hotel I work with, a position which I really hope I get because it would be normal office hours and would also be a job that would help me get a future job elsewhere. It's weird to think of a job in this way, as a chess move, that you have to pretend you really want a certain job, but only really want it because it will help you get another job elsewhere. Before my interview today, I spoke with the HR lady at my company for a bit, who was really helpful and friendly and gave me quality advice that I had never thought of. It was a bit like reading a story for a workshop or a class and receiving good feedback afterwards that allow you to see how the thing is actually received. The HR woman asked me all of the types of questions that I was going to be asked later by the person interviewing me and then evaluated my answers, told me not to say certain things and told me why, told me what answers make you sound better for the job. And it was an "Oh, Duh" moment, wherein I realized that I had been doing the same errors in every cover letter I have been sending out to jobs lately, that this was probably why I wasn't ever hearing back from any jobs I applied to.
From her position, she explained to me what it is employers want to hear and things that are red flags to them, that while one can mention a desire to change jobs, it should not be the main thing mentioned, that instead one needs to emphasize why one wants a particular job. It's pretty obvious but I wasn't aware of how I had been presenting myself and how I needed to be until this constructive feedback from the HR woman. I then went into my actual interview fairly confident, followed the advice of this woman, and it went pretty smashingly.
I came home and took a nap since I got so little sleep last night, instead hung out at Wreck Room with Erica talking about life and work and boys - you know, I lived my life.
There is a new episode of Jersey Shore available for the viewing online and Jacob is on his way home from work and we have a date with Snooki and our bong. I have a lock on my window now, it only taking two months of harassing my landlord. Aaliyah is still awesome to listen to. Birds are dropping from the sky. It's 2011.
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