Any Takers?

Today's quote: There is no such thing as coincidence, just the illusion of coincidence.

I've hit the beginning stages of desperation. Therefore, I visited the bookstore and perused the career aisle looking for tips. I skimmed What Color is Your Parachute, 250 Interview Questions, Finding the Career For Your Personality, and a few others. More information shouldn't hurt, right? The only problem is, now I feel overwhelmed, especially when some of the sources contradict each other as to what to do or how to do something.

One thing I read was that the average time it takes to find a new job is 19 weeks. Eeeeek!!!! In the meanwhile, I've hit rock bottom, and do not have any money after having paid rent for April to that evil, godforsaken complex called Seville. I hope that place burns down.

I wish I could be a writer for a living.

Priceless

Today's quote: You mean to say that you are a daughter of Eve?

I visited Business Careers last week...only to have them tell me that my skills, education, and overall background are only worth 27k-30k/yr. There you have it folks, my pricetag comes at 27-30k. And from the interview I went to on Friday, more towards the low end of that spectrum apparently.

I've been here in WA for almost two months now, and I still haven't found a job that I will be happy with. What with school loans and rent back in IA still riding my ass, I think I need to making a little more than 27k/yr. During this entire time, it has been difficult not to let my sense of self-worth diminish every day. But that's a rather difficult order when you get no calls for interviews, and then when you visit staffing agencies they tell you that you're not qualified for anything (despite an undergrad degree in math from Berkeley).

So what exactly is the problem? Of course, nothing is ever really black and white and that simple. I'm sure that it's a combination of factors. But a lot of times, there is usually just one or two major factors that everything else is sort of tied into or overridden by. So what can I be doing better? I have a not too bad gpa from undergrad, and also not too bad from the first year at law school either. I'm prepared to make the argument that my degree in math shows that I'm tenacious and disciplined, and that I'm not exactly the run-of-the-mill ditz. But I can only really make that argument if I get an interview so that there is someone to spout off all my prepared reasonings to. So, is it a question of not what I know, but who I know? Or, is it because I don't have a typical degree in cs or business that's just so cookie-cutter for certain industries? Curses on the math department advisor at Berkeley! She told me that I would never have a problem getting a job with my degree. However, a few months after graduation I went to the website for the Bureau of Labor & Statistics and it reported that the average annual income for those with my degree was $19k/yr. I am not sure how it's changed since, but that wasn't the news I'd exactly been jumping for joy to hear.

Everyday I wake up and apply to as many jobs as I am even remotely qualified for on monster.com, seattlepi.com, and then I start browsing the websites for each company specifically that I would like to work for. Some of the biggest companies at the top of my list are Amazon, Microsoft, Weyerhaueser, Nintendo and T-Mobile. Is it a pipe-dream to want to work at one of these companies?

I Hate Coffee (cont)

What have I learned from my stint at Barnes & Noble?

• I hate coffee. I truly do. It smells great, but I really don't want to drink it.
  
• Everything at the B&N cafe is way exorbitant. I thought it was still expensive even for me, and I got 50% off all the drinks and food.
• The B&N Membership is so not worth getting. You pay $25.00 a year for the membership, but you only save 10% off all future purchases. This means that unless you spend more than $250 a year at B&N, you will not even recoup the amount of the membership.
• Don't let the people at the cafe upsell you to a bigger size coffee or talk you into getting some crazily overpriced food to go with your already overpriced drink.
• There are so many ways to hurt yourself working in the cafe. I have splattered milk at 160 degrees all over myself, knocked over drinks I was making, splattered dishwater in my eye, burned myself on the coffee shotglasses, burned myself with the hot water coming out of the San Marcos, burned myself on the drip coffee, and cut my finger while trying to slice open a sandwich for a customer.
• B&N cafe has a policy of getting the customer's order in their hand within two minutes from their entry into the line. How realistic is that when there are like 10 people lined up?
• Coffee is a whole different language. When I first started I couldn't even understand what people were saying. How many different variations could there be? Let's see: decaf or regular; whole, nonfat, 1%, 2%, or soy milk; how many shots can you get; what flavored syrup and how many pumps can you get; how much foam do you want; whipped cream or not; layered or mixed; etc. I think I'll be happy to stick to tea.

It's funny how right after I was hired several other applications came in, and they all had like 5 years experience at Starbucks and/or B&N. Looks like I had barely beat the rush.

It was kind of cool seeing the regulars who always came in. There was the one woman who came in twice a day every day, and has been doing so for 7 years. Each time she spends about $3, which means she spends almost $6 a day on coffee. The amount it comes out to per year is mindboggling. Then there were all these old people who came in as couples and hung out together reading and just being cute together. I hope I can be like that if I get to that age.

I Hate Coffee

Today's quote: It's the devil.

Ok, so I've been out of action on here for a long time. Let's see, where to start. I'm going to need a job while I stay here for a while to establish residency because there is no way I'm going to suffer yet another year of non-resident tuition for law school. It's not that worth it. So I'd been sending out resumes like mad for quite a while now... basically for about a month. No word. So I decided that it would be good to have a part-time job in the meanwhile to help allay some of my living expenses. I had always wanted to try working in Barnes & Noble, so I put in an application there. Lo and behold, I was hired in less than a week from submitting my application. But did I get to work in the bookside so that I could browse all the lovely new books and magazines? No, alas, it was not meant to be. I was hired on as a cafe server. This means basically making all the same coffee that the people in Starbucks do.

I couldn't believe that I was living out Jin's nightmare. She used to joke that she would be working in Starbucks making coffee after graduation. Well apparently, I'm one up, since I'm doing it even before I've graduated.