Day One and Two

Well, since my blog was FLAGGED as a potential "spam blog" (apparently if you do work on the coding they'll flag you and not allow you to post for a day, sheesh), I was unable to post yesterday. But it's now Day 3, so time to recap the last few days of unemployment.

I woke up on Day One (we'll call it D1, and go from there...) at around 8am extremely refreshed and a little giddy knowing that my ex co-workers had been toiling away for the last 30 minutes while I slept. Good feeling. After ambling around the apartment and catching up with the roommate, who works retail, I decided it was time to start THE JOB HUNT.

Searching Craigslist can be daunting. You never know what you'll find. I've already decided that I didn't go to college to be a phone jockey and sit in a cube all day calling strangers trying to sell them something or do lead generation. That's just not my style. Recruiting is too stressful. I want something thats more creative, something that I can actually DO and feel accomplished at the end of the day, instead of just "blah". So I peruse the PR/Marketing lists, as well as the Arts/Design list, even though I have no background in either. Hey, it's fun to look, right?

Soon my patience wains, and the evils of Gchat distract me from my hunt. My friend Adam sends me some links to some jobs with various start-ups that look interesting, but all are based in New York City. I'm not sure if he knew this or he was just hinting at something...

I'm gonna go with "just didn't notice the location". That works.

After about an hour, I feel satisfied with my efforts. It's D1, I'm allowed a little freedom. It's 85 degrees outside, and it's just plain wrong to sit at a computer. So I leave. I go and get my hair done then decide to spend the night at my parents house for some home cooked meals and a hug. Although the feeling of being free with no immediate responsibilities is great, as I went to bed that night I could feel the anxiousness slowly creep up on me. What if I don't find a job soon? What if I have to go on unemployment? What if I have to cancel my Vegas trip in June?! GASP! That will never happen. But what if. The two worst words I can think of at the moment are just that. What if. I was surprised I could even fall asleep with all those "what ifs" floating around in my head.

The next morning (D2) I woke up and prepared for the day. I knew my Dad was getting home and he would want to see some results, or at the very least, a game plan. So this is what my Mom and I came up with: I sit around catching up on The Office while she cruises Craigslist finding job postings and reading them aloud to me. No joke. We did this for about an hour, then decided it was too nice to be indoors.

My car is very shiny right now thanks to my "job searching" efforts.

I also played the "who do you know" game, where I ask my Mom and neighbors if they know anyone hiring, any advice, things that really get you very little but it feels like you're putting in major effort. This also didn't take that long.

I left my parents house after a fun chat with my Dad about jobs to go pick up my other unemployed friend Dave from an interview he just finished. He's been out of work for a little longer than I have, but his circumstances are a bit different. He had a job, quit it, then went back to school to finish up. Upon graduation, he took the "summer" he deserved, and is now also on the job hunt. So we chatted it up about how his interview went, various tips on how to make yourself look good (for example, always ask if there is room to grow or move up in the company; employers love to see some initiative), and made it back into San Francisco with time to spare before our kickball game.

I did manage to get some work done on my resume before the game. I really don't like working on resumes. I don't like the idea that my entire adult life's accomplishments are confined to a single piece of paper and scrutinized by people that I don't know, and then the fate of my bank account rests on how well they perceive that piece of paper. The stress of creating a resume to impress is almost crushing for me, and it takes a while to actually nail down the right adjectives and verbs that may (or may not) fit your previous job descriptions.

I think to write a good resume you have to be a creative writing major or something.

But that was about it for the first two days. Just a lot of fluff, some hollow work, and more of relaxing and taking time to think about what's next. And of course, all those "what ifs".

Oh, there was some sunning too.