I'm going to try this again--mainly due to the lack of cable in my room.
Life update:
I am working at Sears Pool Management right now full time and at Anthropologie a few nights a week for extra spending money. I moved out of my parents house (YAY!) and live in a townhouse in West Atlanta/Midtown/Howell Mill area-ish. It feels nice to be out of east cobb and having more responsibility in terms of bills and all that. The jobs are going pretty well but 13 hour days get tiring and many days my energy is spent even before making it to Anthro. Its probably a good thing that not many of my friends are home since I have little time to hang out anyways. I try to make time to spend just hanging out around my apartment but even on my days, nights, and someones only hours off I can't get nearly enough done and the next full day seems to come so much quicker than the days off do. I am trying to get a hold of this real life concept though. I feel older now that I have moved out and am paying bills and rent. Some days I question if I made the right decision to leave my parents house which would of been only $200 in rent but I like to think that paying real rent is a better life lesson and practice in adulthood than at my parents. I am lucky to have minimal expenses even with moving out--no car payments, no student loans, no credit cards so that has helped a lot. So this is where I am at now. Some place between living at home and making it on my own.
I am reading a book right now that calls this first year out of college your freshman year of life. And I kept thinking after reading this how true it really is. Freshman year of college, and high school for that matter, were times of change and challenge. They are the time years that really seem to test patience, friendships, and ability to accept change. I'm not sure they have ever been my best years, but they have been great learning years and have set the later years up for great success. So this really is my freshman year of life. The year that I have to figure out what its like to be a grown up and make it on my own. The year I learn what I want to start doing for the rest of my life (or at least the next 5 years). Its the year I test myself to see what I can achieve and what is better left for others to explore. I hope that this year turns out to be as successful as my previous freshman years, but we will just have to wait and see.
Hopefully the rest of the summer give me some time to figure out what I plan to do with the coming years and allow me some time to focus on my future. I hope that I can learn to pay bills and rent while still enjoying life and all that Atlanta has to offer.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Fail
Not only do I fail at keeping up with this blog, I also have been failing at finding a job. I guess I always figured after I graduated college everyone would be running towards me with job opportunities and my life would be so easy. Not the case. At all. Not only is it incredibly annoying filling in applications on a day to day basis, no one ever even calls me back. Talk about fail. What have I learned? Graduating means nothing at this point. These jobs I am applying for are ones that I am over qualified for, both in years of school and past job history, but yet I still don't even get to interview for them. This process is slowly taking my patience. I've been trying to remind myself that everyone is in the same boat and no one is hiring, but its not helping. I really just didn't think it would be this hard. Warning for those of you that are just starting the search: expect it to suck. The okay news is that I do have a job till July as of now. The pool company I worked for last summer (and actually every summer since I was 15) wants me back. Not that this is maybe my ideal choice, but its a job and I love the people there. I just feel like I've failed going back to a job I had pre-diploma. But if they are the company that wants me, then I guess I'll take what I can get!
Today has just been a downer day. I should be happy that I will be getting paid and getting out of my house starting in 2 weeks, but I just thought at this point in my life I would have so much more. I would be living on my own, going to a big-girl job, and wearing suits. But maybe my time will come soon enough, I've got a little bit of maturing to do before heading out to the real world anyways. I still see myself as a 16 year old (even 5 years later) so I guess in some ways I can't imagine myself being completely grown up. Hopefully after this summer I can really nail down what exactly I want to do and then find it. The guy I talked to at a recruiting place told me the best advice he could give me is to stay where I am now (part time at Anthro) and figure out what exactly I am looking for. If you don't know 100% then you won't ever land a job because companies can tell the difference between something you could do and something you want to do. So I guess my next goal is to really start to research jobs and what I am cut out for.
So for now, I am back to working at Sears Pool full time and Anthropologie part time. The good news I guess is that I can wear tshirts to the first job and the 40% discount at the other never gets old. For anyone else in the job market search, good luck. And don't worry, you aren't alone!
Today has just been a downer day. I should be happy that I will be getting paid and getting out of my house starting in 2 weeks, but I just thought at this point in my life I would have so much more. I would be living on my own, going to a big-girl job, and wearing suits. But maybe my time will come soon enough, I've got a little bit of maturing to do before heading out to the real world anyways. I still see myself as a 16 year old (even 5 years later) so I guess in some ways I can't imagine myself being completely grown up. Hopefully after this summer I can really nail down what exactly I want to do and then find it. The guy I talked to at a recruiting place told me the best advice he could give me is to stay where I am now (part time at Anthro) and figure out what exactly I am looking for. If you don't know 100% then you won't ever land a job because companies can tell the difference between something you could do and something you want to do. So I guess my next goal is to really start to research jobs and what I am cut out for.
So for now, I am back to working at Sears Pool full time and Anthropologie part time. The good news I guess is that I can wear tshirts to the first job and the 40% discount at the other never gets old. For anyone else in the job market search, good luck. And don't worry, you aren't alone!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Day 2
So I couldn't decide if I should number the days by how many actual days since I started or by the day number by which I have actually done something productive. I am going with days actually doing something job related since it will be easier to keep track.
After my last attempt to look for a job, I took a little break and focused on working at my current part time job. Getting 5 to 8 hours a week at Anthropologie is helping with gas money until a real offer comes along, but this past weekend it was taking up a bit more time than I would of liked. I had planned a weekend trip to St. Simon's with some friends after thinking that my only shift was Saturday. I figured a 4 hour shift wouldn't be too hard to pawn off on someone so I was excited to leave my house for a few days and forget about the looming idea of a job. Of course when Tuesday came around I stopped by to look up my hours for the upcoming week and low and behold I was schedule not just Saturday, but also Sunday and Monday. This put a huge dent in my MLK weekend plans and I ended up having to stay in town and forgo the trip out of Atlanta. I ended up salvaging a little bit of the weekend by making a trip up to Clemson Friday night to visit some of my college friends and tourture myself by reminding myself that I am out of college. It was fun to be back but staying for a night was enough and I don't miss classes or homework at all. I'll just have to keep up the weekend trips up there to help remind myself that I could still be in college.
As far as the actual job hunt is going--ehhh not off to a great start. I'm not even looking for a super great job at this point. I figure I have no idea what I want to do anyways so if I get into something and realize it isn't the job for me I can always change. No need to limit myself since I'm not sure what I'm 100% interested in anyways. All I know after my numerous areas of previous job experience is that I like office work. So I guess I can start at that. I've look at a few administrative jobs but I feel like I could do better than getting someones coffee and making copies after graduating college. I've also looked at the HR route since I had seen how that worked this summer. There are still more options than that in an office and I have come across and sent my resume into some that sound interesting. Hopefully I can get a few more leads tomorrow and submit some more resumes. I'm hoping that I can meet people who know people in a business hiring but so far all my people aren't looking to hire anyone. So it looks like more internet research is to come. If anyone knows of any office positions let me know!
After my last attempt to look for a job, I took a little break and focused on working at my current part time job. Getting 5 to 8 hours a week at Anthropologie is helping with gas money until a real offer comes along, but this past weekend it was taking up a bit more time than I would of liked. I had planned a weekend trip to St. Simon's with some friends after thinking that my only shift was Saturday. I figured a 4 hour shift wouldn't be too hard to pawn off on someone so I was excited to leave my house for a few days and forget about the looming idea of a job. Of course when Tuesday came around I stopped by to look up my hours for the upcoming week and low and behold I was schedule not just Saturday, but also Sunday and Monday. This put a huge dent in my MLK weekend plans and I ended up having to stay in town and forgo the trip out of Atlanta. I ended up salvaging a little bit of the weekend by making a trip up to Clemson Friday night to visit some of my college friends and tourture myself by reminding myself that I am out of college. It was fun to be back but staying for a night was enough and I don't miss classes or homework at all. I'll just have to keep up the weekend trips up there to help remind myself that I could still be in college.
As far as the actual job hunt is going--ehhh not off to a great start. I'm not even looking for a super great job at this point. I figure I have no idea what I want to do anyways so if I get into something and realize it isn't the job for me I can always change. No need to limit myself since I'm not sure what I'm 100% interested in anyways. All I know after my numerous areas of previous job experience is that I like office work. So I guess I can start at that. I've look at a few administrative jobs but I feel like I could do better than getting someones coffee and making copies after graduating college. I've also looked at the HR route since I had seen how that worked this summer. There are still more options than that in an office and I have come across and sent my resume into some that sound interesting. Hopefully I can get a few more leads tomorrow and submit some more resumes. I'm hoping that I can meet people who know people in a business hiring but so far all my people aren't looking to hire anyone. So it looks like more internet research is to come. If anyone knows of any office positions let me know!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Day 1
To start off, here's the situation:
Since this entry is called day one, today is the first day of my job search. I have just finished up my resume and after some review from my parents and other close adults I am ready to face the job market. So real world--here I come!
- Graduated a semester early from Clemson University on December 17, 2009.
- Got my Bachelor of Science in Political Science with a concentration in global politics and a minor in Sociology.
- Picked the wrong time to graduate due to the economy and lack of jobs out there
- Moved back home with my parents while trying to find a job in my hometown of Atlanta
Since this entry is called day one, today is the first day of my job search. I have just finished up my resume and after some review from my parents and other close adults I am ready to face the job market. So real world--here I come!
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