I got many responses from many cities, then had to think if I actually wanted to live in such towns as Mason City or was I just applying to get the "Sorry, we don't want you"'s out of the way and find my way towards "We love ya, when can you start?"
The goofiest job interview was definitely in Springfield. It was for "promotions." The way it was described, I was going to be promoting child safety at big events in great locations, sometimes traveling to Chicago to give the presentations! It took three interviews to get this job, so I knew it had to be quite the big deal. It was the first interview where I was told about the events and that our main goal was to get the word out about child safety... and that if I was good enough, I could even be the manager of a new business in some awesome city (California, anyone?) within a year. This was sounding good and they called me back for the second interview.
I was all dressed up and ready to help give a presentation at the event. I was to job shadow someone, and then halfway through, start doing the presentation, myself. I was pretty confident. I gave thousands of presentations in college and if I caught on to what we were doing for the parents of these kids, I knew I could feel passionate about it. I was told that the event was about an hour away... and halfway there, I decided to ask exactly where we were going. A college hall? A hotel ballroom? Were they providing the computer for the slideshow? Did we have the free helmets and car seats and the information about how to use them properly?
Um.
The "event" was at the front door of Home Depot. Our "promotion" was to sell fairly unnecessary items (read- mugs and stickers) to anyone using whatever technique we could. Guilt, dancing, singing, flirting, it didn't matter. Worst of all, 80% of what we sold was the paycheck, but it looked like we were donating 100% of the money to a charity for children. It really felt like I was selling my soul to get people with hearts who really didn't want the items, but didn't know how to say "no" because they thought all of their money was going to help a charity, not just a small portion. It felt terrible. By the end of that "interview," the person I was shadowing was in love with me. She kept saying I did a great job (insult?) and that she wanted me to come back for a third interview. As much as I wanted a "real" job, I also wanted an honest job and told her that I couldn't see myself doing that. She truly didn't see what was wrong with it. She even thought she could retire in her 30s because she worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day... but when I calculated what she made in a year, she makes what the average person makes... there'll be no extra early retirement for that girl.
But a week after that, I got my dream call. A television station wanted me to work for them in the traffic department. I had no clue what that meant, but if a door was going to open at a TV station, I wanted to slip my foot in there. I'd wanted that since I was 10 or 12. I had an interview set up, and right as I was about to take off for it, I got a call from SHARON saying that a "family emergency had come up" and she couldn't meet with me. I suspect now that her baby was sick. We moved the interview to the following week and everything felt right straight from the beginning. I met with both of the traffic managers from Fox and CBS, because they are a family here in the Iowa City viewing area, and SHARON carried the interview. My favorite part is that they were going under new management, so the interviewing process was new to her. She was supposed to ask specific questions that were written down and she did precisely that with a pause after each word and then she'd look up at me proudly and expectantly. I felt relaxed in the presence of her and the other manager and felt like we hit it off from the moment we met. As soon as we left the interview, I got in the car where my husband and mother-in-law were waiting, because we were apartment shopping that day (Kevin had just learned that he had a job, so we were definitely moving, whether I got the TV job or not) and I shrugged and said, "I think I got the job."
Twenty minutes later, Sharon called and said, "The thing is... we like you and want to hire you." We worked out a few specifics and I was set to begin my first job in television. That was a year ago in March. By April, I worked in traffic, which, by the way, is basically making television run smoothly... assigning commercials to the client's specifications and preventing dead air... and I also worked as a production assistant for the noon news, which was my actual dream job. When 11:15 came around and it was time for me to prepare for that job, I couldn't have been more pleased. I thought I rocked the headset pretty well, the director and anchor were awesome and we were always dancing and singing in the studio. Those are memories I'll always keep.
By June, things got pretty rough. The flood hit and I was suddenly doing more production than traffic and before I knew what was happening, I was told that we were starting a morning show and I was the production assistant for it. We had no one else to be PA, so we had other people from other departments do the things that I couldn't do from the floor. With the flood closing the interstate, the director, a commercial producer and I drove crazy routes starting at 2 AM just to get to work and start a show at 5 AM and finish everything by 1 and get home by 2:30ish. When the Interstate opened up after the flood, we could leave closer to 3 and be home by 1:30...
... but my health was not happy. It wasn't very happy when I started working 40 hours, anyway, but I ignored it as much as possible by going to bed by 8 and hardly moving on the weekends. But when I had to be asleep at 6 PM, up around 2:30 and under more pressure for a show that we were doing on the fly without enough staff, my health couldn't take it. I didn't want to admit that it was too much, but I finally did and left my job. That was the hardest thing I had to do in 2008. What was harder is that it left me wondering what I really want to do with my life. I had a good experience there. I loved who I worked with, I did what I always dreamed I would do, but I didn't feel complete. I'm going through that thing I think a lot of 20-somethings go through where you try things and discover they aren't what you thought and need to try something more to discover more about yourself until you discover who it is you really are and what it is you truly love.
After a break in the summer to get my health back on track as much as possible, I took one of the most laidback jobs you can imagine. I'm tucked in a far back wall of the library and help people get study rooms, computers, and I keep the magazine area clean. When someone has a problem and they're stressing me out, it is my job to send them to someone else to take care of it. I work parttime with a great group of people and never feel stressed out there. I get plenty of rest. Everything my brain demands.
By fall, I discovered that this isn't the best that I can feel. There's a chance that I can feel better, and that chance is brain surgery. It rolls off the tongue now, but it used to be scary to say. I don't know, yet, if I'm a candidate, but in a couple of weeks I will begin undergoing tests to see if I am. Best case- I am a candidate, I'll have the surgery, I'll spend months in recovery and I'll be a new girl with new opportunities placed in front of her. Worst case, I'm not a candidate, but we can try treatments that I haven't been made aware of that could improve my life a little more and I will peruse opportunities that best fit the lifestyle that I have so I can feel like I'm living life to the fullest even if I'm not the typical 26 year old.
I had no clue I'd be doing this one year ago. I was just hoping to move out of my mom's house to a bigger city doing a careery job that I loved. I wonder what I'll be doing in January 2010?
1 comment:
Aw, shucks. And how cute are you in those pictures?
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