Job Hunt Update

Things have been a little busy lately, so I thought I'd write a little update about what's been going on in the job hunt category.

Working!

• Temp Job #1: Reading surveys aloud to middle schoolers in Oakland. So far, 2 days worked, 2.5 hours per day, at $10.25 an hour. I should have 3 more days like this next week. It's not too bad; it's actually kind of fun stepping into the middle schoolers' classrooms for an hour or so. I had a great class - everyone wanted to take the survey (they could opt out), and for the most part they were well-behaved and respectful. We'll see how next week goes.
• Temp Job #1: Data Entry of sorts. I am working with 3 Excel spreadsheets to determine which people from the master list should be on the company's fundraising mailing list. Today was my first day, and I stared at Excel, 4 spreadsheets open at once, from 9-5. I was taken out to lunch by a dear friend who works near the office in Downtown Oakland. That was nice. The Excel stuff not so much...hard on the fingers, hard on the eyes. But a job is a job, and it paid a whole $11 an hour. Not much. But it'll have to do for now. We'll see once I get that unemployment check with my temp work wages taken out of it...but for now it's giving me something to do at least.

And now on to This Week (and last week) In Interviews...

• I had a (brief) meeting with the CEO of a Growth Capital Investment Place Of Some Sort. I'm still not entirely sure what they do, and I am pretty sure he just met with me because I'm a friend of a friend of a friend. After our 15 minute conversation, it was pretty clear that there was no job to be had. He said he wasn't looking to hire someone for another few months, and I could tell he wasn't really interested when I realized I have no experience in (or particular passion for) finance. Oh well.
• I sat in on half of a group interview for a position in a school's student resource center. After an hour-long slideshow about the school's mission statement, student body, general environment, etc. it was revealed that the hours for the job include weeknights and weekends. Too bad this was mentioned nowhere on the job description online. Or at any point in time before the end of an hour-long presentation. Oh, and by the end of the one-hour session, the "interview" part hadn't even started. OY. Too bad I had been in San Francisco for 2 hours prior to the "interview" waiting around in between the brief meeting with the CEO (above), so it felt like I had wasted 3 hours of my life, plus 4 hours travel time. I was not in a good mood last night.
• However, I had a great (I thought) interview with a cool media company, also in San Francisco. It's kind of far from BART, and it's only a temporary freelance gig, but it would be doing project coordination and I'd pick up some good skills while working with really cool people making some cool videos and websites and such. No word yet, but we shall see.
• I have a phone interview tomorrow with a company I would love to work for. They're in Berkeley, and they are an arts company, and I don't want to say more to jinx it or whatever...but I like the work they do, and even though it would just be an executive assistant/office manager position, it would be great to work there.
• I got a phone call from a real estate development consulting firm today, thanking me for applying for an executive assistant position that I honestly don't remember applying for. And I keep a spreadsheet with every position I apply for, including date, company, position, and status of application. So I would know. Anyway, the girl describing the position to me is the person who currently has the job and is leaving. She is one of those people who loves being an executive assistant (she told me so), and told me how it's hectic and crazy, he travels constantle. She prepares detailed itineraries and makes sure his presentations are ready when he gets to the other offices. She gets her boss coffee. She was honest, and said this is not the kind of assistant role that could transition into something else, as there isn't really anywhere to go in the company (it's small, and they have no marketing team, etc. and assistants don't become consultants or anything). This is just not the job for me. So I said my thank yous and declined to come in for future interviews.

And that's that so far. I'm tired, and I didn't eat dinner (and I'm only starting to get hungry at 10pm, ugh), and I'm kind of looking forward to a Thursday of grocery shopping and apartment cleaning. And a lovely Memorial Day weekend full of picnics and relaxation.

Wish me luck with the phone interview tomorrow!