Sincerely yours, Kathryn

Today was my interview at PSP. It’s a promotions agency downtown (across from Rock n Roll McDonalds) in a really nice building. The agency has a lot of cool clients, Burger King being their biggest. They conceptualize, produce, and package all of the toys for Burger King around the world. Even though they deal with toys, they’re still really professional….despite having rows and rows of toys on the wall, which I loved!

I interviewed with 5 people, which took 2 hours. I definitely think it was my best interview so far. The interviewers were really receptive and actually showed emotion in their faces when I talked (unlike @ Deltak) and I got a good vibe from them. They kept emphasizing how much of a family they were and said that everyone looks out for each other and works together whenever possible. There are 5 departments in the company: Client Services (I would go here), Creative, Engineering, Production, and Safety. My job would be Client Services Account Coordinator, meaning that I would be responsible for keeping communication between the departments, organizing documents, learning lingo, and essentially preparing to be an Account Supervisor. Something that’s cool about the job is that they partner really closely with Burger King so they send someone from Client Services to Miami for meetings once a month. So after working there for a while, maybe I could travel too!

Anyway, I’m totally getting ahead of myself. One of the interviewers said that PSP is going to be interviewing some more people this upcoming week and they hope to get back to everyone in early December. If I get a call, I’ll go into the office to meet with someone named Walter, who would be my direct supervisor. After that, they’ll decide whether or not they want to hire me. If I got hired, I’d probably start in January.

Long story short, I had an interview today and it went well! Whether or not I get the job, my interview skills are definitely improving so that’s good.

Randomly, the reason why I keep abbreviating jobs (SG&F, PSP) is because I am worried that the full names will come up in google searches.

Tomorrow I am working at SG&F from 9-5. Have I mentioned that the office is in the same building as a million different food places, including Cosi? Cosi is SO expensive – $11 for lunch – but it’s so good. I’m going to spend all my money on food before I have the chance to use it productively! Like on those Easy Tone Reebok shoes…mmm…

So after writing up a fancy Japanese profile on Cure, I received a bunch of messages from Japanese cosplayers. I was excited to get messages but I couldn’t read any of them so I had to go back and edit my profile to say, “I studied Japanese but I don’t know it very well, sorry!”

Anyway, in job news, I’m going to be working at Al’s dad’s place after all. Apparently there was a miscommunication and he never wanted to hire me as his assistant. He is going to replace his assistant though and needs some help setting up for a new assistant, which is where I come in. I’m still unsure of the specifics of the job but we’re going to go over that tomorrow. Waking up at 7:30 isn’t going to be fun!

Last night was INSANE. My nights don’t usually qualify as insane (they barely count as interesting) but last night was ridiculous.

Right now I’m just sitting around, drinking tea, and lusting over an amazing pair of boots. I’ve been looking for boots for months and I love these so much! They’re $70 after shipping and taxes though. UGH! Can I have a high-paying job now please?

No luck with the job search today…or yesterday for that matter. I have at least one interview lined up (next Wednesday!) so I don’t feel too bad but it does put a damper on my plan to apply for one job a day. Small glimmers of hope really help throw off my motivation. If the Student Services or the Account Coordinator jobs don’t work out, I might have to start getting more creative in my job search…

Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that Al’s dad offered me a job as his assistant. His company has grown substantially in the past year and his current assistant isn’t able to keep up with the work. While I appreciate the offer, I can’t accept it. I think working for him full-time would alter our relationship. I worked for him for a couple of weeks to help him set up a filing system but even in that short amount of time, I felt something change. I like being his son’s girlfriend and I don’t want to change anything. What if I were to  screw up something important? What if I found a better job? What if Al and I broke up?  I just don’t want to take any risks. Still though, it was really nice of him to ask.

Anyway, I signed up for a Japanese cosplay website today and had to write an introduction in Japanese. I wrote this:

はじめまして！

私の名前はリンです。アメリカから来ました。友達とコスプレが好きですね。アニメを見ます。鋼の錬金術師やベックが好きです。

どうぞよろしく！

It made me feel oddly proud that I still know a bit of Japanese. I wish I knew enough for it to be useful but something is better than nothing?

Man, it’s so easy to waste a day…

Last July, I interviewed with an online university for a Student Service position. Essentially, it would be very similar to my job at DePaul’s nursing department but with a salary, benefits, and copious room for growth.  However, after 2 phone interviews and 1 in-person interview, I found out that I didn’t get the job. Not only did I not get the job, but I was never TOLD that I didn’t get the job, despite emailing one of the coordinators consistently for several weeks.  After about a month, I finally got an email basically stating, “Oh yeah, we filled the position.” Maybe I’m being naive  but you would think that after THREE interviews, they would have the courtesy to tell me I wasn’t hired. Live and learn, I got over it.

Today, the same company called to tell me that I was being considered for the position once again. What? The person calling seemed confused that I had already had 3 interviews and clearly didn’t have her facts straight. She asked if I wanted to continue interviewing for the position and I said yes. While I’m 10% relieved that they are still considering me, I’m 90% turned off by the job, only because of the way they treated the hiring process last time. Am I wrong in taking it personally? Does it really say something about their organization or am I just being bitter?

This job was once extremely appealing to me but since July, I have found many jobs which I consider to  be a better fit. (The job at the promotions agency, for example.) This job is located in the suburbs, meaning I would need a car which is something I don’t really want right now. It’s also not in my field of study and is more of an administrative job than anything else. However, it IS a job and it is experience, which is why I’m continuing with the interview process.

I wish I could be more picky in my job search but it just doesn’t seem like an option right now… Hopefully the promotions agency likes me!

Last week, I put a pause on my job search to prepare for Youmacon. Now, I’m back to stalking CraigsList.

CraigsList is my preferred job-finding tool because I feel like it’s less crowded than sites like Monster or CareerBuilder. When I search using Monster, I always feel overwhelmed and like most of the jobs don’t apply to me. CraigsList has a lot of BS Sales jobs or ads looking for “Entry-level rockstars that like having fun!!” but I feel like, for the most part, ads on CraigsList are more personalized and give me a good idea of what the company is looking for. If an employer takes their time to write a detailed ad, it shows that they are genuinely interested in finding a good candidate.  I don’t think I will ever respond to an ad that’s less than 2 paragraphs long.

Anyway, my goal has been to send out at least one resume per day. I’m usually able to find one or two ads that I’m vaguely interested in so it’s not incredibly difficult but some days are better than others. Today, unfortunately is one of the not-so-great days and I only responded to one ad.

However, I HAVE AN INTERVIEW!  Well, I think I do. A woman from a Chicago-based promotions agency called me today and, after asking some basic questions about my internships, said that she would call me next week to come in for an interview. I really hope she does because it’s for a Client Service Account Coordinator position, which is the type of job I’m interested in right now. After interviewing at RMP, I discovered that working on the account side of advertising/promotions is something I could do really well. An Account Coordinator essentially serves as the liaison between all of the departments and does a lot of data entry, scheduling, written communication, and some creative work here and there. It sounds like a generic entry-level job (without sales!) but it would give me a great feel for the company and I’d get a better understanding of the inner workings of each department.

On the same subject, I’ve been considering getting a new interview suit. My generic interview outfit consists of a black fitted jacket, back pants, chunky shoes without a heel, and a shiny magenta under shirt. Maybe I should buy something that looks less trendy business-y and more approachable? I probably don’t come across as particularly professional during interviews  so it’d be nice to have something to match my personality. Then again, it’s hard to consider spending $200 on a new outfit when  you’re unemployed.

Anyway, here’s hoping I get a call sometime next week! EARLY next week, preferably, so I’m not on pins and needles the entire week, praying for my phone to ring like last time…

PS: Al asked me yesterday why I made a new blog and I told him it would just be a place to release some of the unimportant blabber clogging my mind. I think this entry is a perfectly example of that.