I recently moved to Chicago, on quiet a spur of the moment decision to get things together for myself & to stop relying on my future with my boyfriend down in Nashville. My sister & beautiful niece live here, so it was a pretty easy & comfortable decision. Being able to see my so cute, smart & funny 18 month old niece on a daily basis surely helps dealing with being so far away from the one person I can say I ever truly loved. But this all in itself is a whole other blog! What I am writing about right now is the job hunt process. I have been extremely lucky in all of my life when it has come to jobs. It seems that the graces have always been shining down on me, and the whole "right place at the right time" situation fit with pretty well every job I have ever had.

When I had moved to Vegas during High School my hair dresser fell in love with my family and asked me to babysit her son. Five years later, and many free hair cuts & colors later I had a pretty successful occasional job for a high school student who didn't want to work. I had tried to get a "real" job only once during that 5 year period. I applied to Target, where my mother had worked at the time, and went on my very first interview. I bombed. I was 16 or 17 years old, without a clue on what I was supposed to say to those ridiculous questions. I didn't get the job. I then learned my lesson, applied to Kohl's for seasonal help & worked there for a brief period of time.

Then when I had attended college, I was really into school spirit & just loved being around creative people (I attended the Art Institute) so getting a job at the school was a perfect fit. There wasn't this crazy hiring process. I was interested, went on one interview which was pretty laid back. It was my college & I didn't feel that I had to really impress some big fancy manager, just be honest & myself. Let my work speak for itself, after all this was a student position I was going for. I worked there for pretty much the remainder of my college experience.

Right before I was going to graduate, a girl from one of my classes had mentioned that her job was looking to hire someone for part time help as a graphic designer. I said, "I am interested" & that was that.

Throughout all these times, I never really went on a job hunt. It wasn't a career I was looking for, just work & money. The only time I ever went on a job hunt was once. After college when I decided I didn't want to be a designer. I wanted a more laid back environment. So me & my boyfriend went to every major restaurant on Long Island filling out applications, after a day of filling out applications my grandma had told us, "God told me to take you to Dave & Buster's". To Dave & Buster's we went. Filled out an application and within an hour, we had interviews & days later we were in orientation starting work. I had this job for about 4 years, the best part about it was when I decided to move down to Nashville with my boyfriend they transferred me! So I had a job when I got there.

I never understood why people complained about getting or finding a job, until now. I have been here a little over a week & have applied to over 20 places, made an awesome resume, yet still have not gotten one phone call. Anyone in the Chicago area want to hire me? I am running out of money! I guess I have been spoiled, I thought this would be easier. I am not even at the interview process yet, I just want a phone call.

Labels: applications, call me, lucky, new job