Before I moved to Oklahoma, I had a part time job (with full time hours)at Calvin Klein. Though I only worked there for about two months, it was definitely a retail crash course. I learned how to do everything from POS to sincere customer service (not just saying hi, but actually being helpful). My trials and tribulations at Calvin Klein proven to be extremely beneficial on my second day in Oklahoma as I began what will now be call 'The Great Job Adventure' (TGJA for short). The beginning of TGJA began with our friendly neighborhood companion Craigslist.
Craigslist has always been my immediate go to in any of my job hunts, and I had started searching this website before I even started packing to move here. The only problem with Craigslist is that if you don't click on one section and just click on Part Time (which of course I'm not getting a full time job just yet), it is super generalized. In St. Augustine, this was never that much of a problem, but OKC is the 8th largest city in land mass! That's about eighty thousand more jobs than I need. I narrowed it down slowly by townships, and eventually found a job fair posting for a new Saks Fifth Avenue-Off 5th store that's opening right in the heart of downtown. All I had to do was get pretty, program the gps so that I could amble up there, and drive.
When I got to the job fair, which was at a Hampton Inn close to downtown, I had this strange calmness when I walked in. The only other person that was currently there to be interviewed was wearing a t-shirt, cut offs bedazzled flip flops, and about thirty ounces too much of fake gold jewelry. This is my competition? To give you a nice comparison, I was fresh faces, wearing only a little mascara and some lip stain, hair styled just like my dear friend and owner of Push Push salon, William Keohane, had taught me, a partially sheer long sleeved floral blouse, gray skinny pants cuffed and belted, and my absolute favorite wing tip heels that I just so happened to buy from Saks Fifth Avenue. I may not have bee business casual, but I was 100% dressed for success in this scenario. I Introduced myself, clearly naming my intentions, and they asked my to fill out an online personal survey since I was having a serious problem retrieving my resume from my flash drive (because Window's Office isn't standard to my cousin apparently).
The first section was a ten minute math portion that I'm pretty sure I failed. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved math and I used to be able to do intense long division in my head, but an out of practice mathematician is an out of practice mathematician. I finished about three fourths of the quiz, taking way too long to answer most questions. After that, it was a standard q and a about my past experience, and then a work ethic survey.
I come back into the room and give them my name and other info, and they asked me to take a seat and wait to be interviewed. I sat next to the chick with blingin' flip flops, and excitedly waited. As I'm sitting there, I notice a large brown spider slowly crawling towards me on the floor. Immediately, I decide that I must kill it. I MUST kill it, but not with my shoes because I really like my shoes and what will they think of me if I psychotically go after a spider and ohh there are tissues on the table over there I could get one of those stoop down and SMASH THE SHIT OUT OF IT but not psychotically just enough to kill it of course..... So I quickly and directly RUN across the room, grab a tissue, RUN back, and the spider is gone. I quietly, and accidentally may I add, say, "DAMN IT! I was going to kill that spider!", the spider that only I had seen. They look at me like I just bit the head off of a chicken, and I explain that there was in fact a large brown spider that I would be soon fighting to death as soon as it resurfaced. I then took my place, calm and collected, in my chair and continued to look for that FUCKING spider.
A moment later, the interviewer came to obtain the One Whose Shoes Shine Like the Sun, but she returned less than two minutes later without her in tow (big surprise, right?). It was MY turn to outshine the sun! We walked to a far off corner of the lobby, and she asked me all of the standard questions. For the first time ever, I felt 110% comfortable with every single answer. Usually I stumble over my words at least a little bit and have to pause to think, but this time I had the answer as soon as she had the question. Her face and body language showed that she was impressed with my background, drive, and confidence in myself. She kept her head up, arms open, and a smile intact at all times. At the end of the interview, she told me that she'd like to have me talk to one of the other officials there at the job fair for a second interview, and when she learned that the woman was on the phone, she set up an interview on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m.!! I thanked her, wished her luck on her journey for the rest of her crew, and left with the biggest smile!!
I got home without too much difficulty, and greeted my aunt with a grand, "Honey!! I'm HOME!" and told her all about how much I love my life right now. Then, I made us salads as she made seriously delicious homemade split pea soup that makes you want to slap your mother. More specifically MY mother because she has an unreasonable bias against split pea soup and had been holding out on my for WAY too long. The rest of my day consisted of watching the news and learning about Abraham Lincoln and his insane wife. Fun ending, right? I fell asleep at twelve thirty just like the good lil' old lady I am.
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