The job hunt is looking up!

The story of 3 interviews.

Interview 1. Non-profit, downtown office, helping low income peoples.

Usually non-profits have small offices in bad neighborhoods. During the interview I was told their 2nd office is in Lawndale. Oh, the ghetto makes me feel better. Speaking from a very social worky POV, you don’t make the crazies navigate their way downtown, you go to them. Treat and release. Like a wildlife preserve. The interviewer spent a good amount of time convincing me I would be safe in the neighborhood until I told him that i worked in Austin and Englewood, which are much worse than Lawndale. I’m hardcore, yo.

Interview 2. BigCo, huge, intimidating for-profit downtown.

It was one of those buildings where you get off the elevator and are greeted by huge wooden doors bearing the name of the company in gold letters. Counseling happens here? In an unusual way, yes. I would work in a cube, 9-5 and never actually see, touch or smell a client. It’s the sterile version of social work my mom would like.

I was interviewed by 2 HR people, one seemed greatly disinterested in interviewing me. I waited 15 minutes between the time I took some stupid personnel quiz and the time I saw the HR people. One kept yawning and I couldn’t stop looking at her fatness peeking from her a slit in her shirt. During the tour, the other more interested HR candidate took me around the department. It was filled with people but so quiet. People barely looked up as we passed by. I found myself lowering my voice to a library whisper. I didn’t want to disturb the drones.

Obviously, I’m having issues with this whole corporate America thing. I’m not sure I can be a happy cube dweller.

3rd interview,SmallCo, just a phone interview so far.

I get a call from a 2nd company, same field as BigCo, similar location. During the phone interview, the HR woman tells me a little about the company. It’s small, she can tell me about the person I am replacing and why she left. The HR person puts me on hold during the interview. She has to set up a conference call for Mr. X. Mr. X as in “X & Y” company. So I have an interview with them next week and maybe this smaller, not so faceless company will be nicer.

I took a cardio kickboxing class today at the gym. I almost quit halfway through it. It was insanely fast paced and focused so little on technique. I told the instructor it was my first time taking the class and she gave me the “go at your own pace, don’t die.” speech and said she does “basic drills that are easy to follow.” Then she launches into “right hook, jab, uppercut, roundhouse…” without explaining how to do any of those moves. It may be obvious to some people how to punch but I’m known for punching like a girl. A girl with long fingernails and no coordination. About halfway through class the instructor stopped to show the difference between a side and forward kick because some people were doing the wrong move.

The girl in front of me was no help. Her jab, block looked like she was dancing. And a friendly misogynist tried to give me words of encouragement. He said he only lasted halfway through his first class but then was determined not to let any girls show him up and kept going until he was “good as the girl instructor” (which he was not). I hope working out lets him forget about his 3 ex wives.
This makes me want to go to a real kickboxing class even more so I can learn some moves, how to throw controlled punches and how to kick without hurting my hips or knees. Letting a group of people flail for an hour and calling it a cardio workout seems like a good way to get injured and sweat a lot.

Next week, yoga.

Hahaha, I’m going to try to bend.

I had a phone interview this morning with BigCo. The job sounds similar to my work on a crisis hotline but the crisis line was housed with other counseling programs so I also saw clients in person. The position would be strictly phone based, the woman I interviewed with described the office to look like a call center. Working in a cube with a headset kind of makes me shudder.

It reminds me of my two least favorite jobs. I worked as a telemarketer during undergrad for a few months, convincing people that had a certain company’s auto insurance that they should also buy that company’s life insurance. I hated bugging people, following the script and I ended up getting fired because I talked so fast and stuttered so much no one could understand me. The best part was when my boss pulled me into his office and said “Have you ever been in speech therapy?”
The 2nd worst job was when I worked for a temp agency doing data entry. I had to battle rush hour traffic to get there by some awful early hour and type meaningless numbers all day until I wanted to cry. I lasted a week. I think i described the job as “soul sucking” to the temp agency person when I called to quit. I worked as a waitress after that. That place is a story for another day.
So I’m a bit nervous at the prospect of having a job that requires me to work a 9-5 in a call center environment. I have an in person interview later this week and I will wait until then to decide if this job will drive me to make paper hats that say “monkey push the button” and cry on my way to work.

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So cute, I love it!

Oh look, entries magically appeared!

I took entries from another blog that I was planning on keeping as my profession related blog and transferred them here. That is why so many entries have to do with social work.

My blog is empty but it is not alone.Maybe I should start a collection of empty sites.

An agency I worked for in undergrad posted a job that I want so badly I could cry. I loved this agency and the research projects they do. The study I worked on at this agency first got me interested in research when everyone else was cowering from it.

I hope they call me and save me from being stabbed with a sharpened comb when I try to take cigarette privileges away from a poorly medicated client!

The job process is slowly creeping along. I had an interview today for a case manager position at a nursing home for chronically mentally ill people. I would work with the residents that also had substance abuse issues. MISA love me.
The interviewer kept asking if I was still interested in the job throughout the interview like I didn’t know that a MISA job at a nursing home would be tough. He described the job, the neighborhood, clients and we toured the building. After each part he said “are you still interested?”
He looked at the schools I have attended and asked where I grew up. I told him the suburbs and he said “Remember when you came to the city with your family when you were younger and you would see the people on the streets talking to themselves? What did you think of them?” I was honest and told him that when I was younger I was scared of them because I believed the stereotype that severely mentally ill people are dangerous. I think a lot of people believe that stereotype even as adults. He asked when I stopped being afraid and I told him it was when I started to attend college and live in the city. “So you’ve gone from being afraid of mentally ill people to accepting and working with them in under 10 years?”
Well, yes. I don’t know if he was just pointing that out to me or looking at that as a weakness. Touring the facility, I did appear to be the youngest person there, as usual.
Where do all the young social workers work? Why don’t I ever see them when I’m interviewing? I’ve worked at one agency that employed social workers around my age but they were all in the process of finishing school or obtaining a license and when they were done they planned to leave the agency.
So I can do this job but it will be hard. The hours are awesome though. The agency appears to be going through a lot of change with a new director. The director said it’s always chaotic, which I thrive on. I will see if they call me back next week…