Wish me luck.

I have a job interview first thing tomorrow morning.  I realize I never blogged about the job that I took 2 months ago, but that's probably a good thing since I pretty much hate it to pieces.  I need out of there....like yesterday.  There is also another job that I threw my hat in the ring for, but I haven't heard from them yet.

Anyway, the job I'm interviewing for tomorrow is one that I applied for months ago via this company's career site.  I meet their qualifications so exactly that it is a bit freakish, so I was bummed that I never heard from them.  Last week (or was it the week before?) I realized that the job was still posted.  I thought that was strange and decided it was time for a new approach.  I looked up some specific people within the company that would likely be who I'd work directly for, and sent my resume and cover letter directly to them.  I heard back from them less than 24 hours later.

I felt pretty ballsy for doing that.  Now that I have an interview I am wondering where my balls went.

I guess we'll find out at 8 am.

Interviews

I was going to summarize all my interviews thus far, but first let me give a quick rundown/response to some comments to yesterday's post:

Melaina & AM - I was a student too, but I was also in a paid graduate assistant position. It was only a 2 year position, so I didn't quit, but I wasn't laid off either. It's just kind of...over. But, I was/am used to having an income from it that was (sadly) my livelihood, and I don't have it anymore.

Nic - Thank you. I've been reading your entries about how you've been feeling and I know that every time I've thought about how much I can relate. I'm sorry I haven't commented on it sooner.

Anyway...

So I've had multiple interviews with 3 different places so far.

Prospect 1:
The first is for an admin job at the VA hospital. It's the federal government, so things move really slow. I had one interview at the end of May that was with 5 people and it went really well. About 2 weeks later I had another interview with them - they called and wanted to know if I could come in THAT DAY. That wasn't very convenient since Corey and I were about to head to a Brewers game about 2 hours later.

I told them that if they didn't mind me coming in there dressed for a ball game, then I didn't mind being there in an hour. So I went...with only an hour's notice. That one went really well too. That time there were only 2 people there, one I had met already and one I had not. That one went REALLY well.

They really only had one concern and they were very blatant about it. They feel that I am WAY overqualified for the job and that it doesn't pay me anything near what I'm worth. Well...athletic training doesn't really translate over to anything but athletic training so really, what else can I do about it? It would be a career change - I can't expect to start high in it. Anyway...still waiting for a call on that either way. Should know soon...we are creeping up on a month. Added bonus with this job: I'd be able to retire at age 50 since I already have some federal time in service.

Prospect 2:
This job is an industrial/occupational athletic training job through one company for a department store supply/logistics warehouse (both shall remain nameless for the sake of the blog - email me if you are dying to know for some reason). I REALLY wanted this job. It is close to where I live, pays well (for athletic training), has normal workday hours (which I dream about), benefits, PTO, holidays, nights, and weekends off. You know...Things I Forgot Exist.

I applied on a Wednesday morning - RIGHT after it was first posted. On Friday, 2 days later, I had an email from the main recruiter guy wanting me to call him right away to discuss the position further. Ok! I called right away. Left a voicemail. No response. Then comes Monday. Tuesday. I send an email back to him with my info again blah blah blah. Wednesday. WTH? Finally on Thursday (after I was stupidly starting to take in personally) I get a phone call back - apparently they had a wicked power outage in Texas and everything was messed up and behind schedule and then the poor guy had to deal with taking his mom to eye surgery.

He pretty much phone-interviewed me on the spot. Then told me the regional manager for the position would contact me in a few days. She did, and also basically phone-interviewed me right then and there. We also scheduled an in-person interview at the warehouse site with 3 of the people in charge there for last Friday (the 26th).

Unfortunately by that day I had very little voice left. It was hoarse, but it was there. Anyway. That interview didn't go very well. For starters, they have very little knowledge on what exactly an athletic trainer is and does and is capable of. They have had an RN working there for the last 20 years so I guess I shouldn't really expect them to...except for the fact that they are switching to the AT model now but whatever. Then, it was pretty clear throughout the interview and the questions that they were asking me that I definitely do not have the experience they are looking for. Either that or their expectations are way off. Honestly I'm not sure which it is or if it is a little of both.

They basically want someone with a ton of prevention program developing and implementation experience (it was more specific than that - this is just the vague version of the story), and a lot of workers comp experience, among other things. Also, I saw the guy they interviewed before me while he was on his way out. Then, while we were in there, I was spying across the table and saw his name on a paper.

So...OBVIOUSLY I googled him when I got home. Obviously.

Yeah. I am SO not getting this job. Unless, of course, he turns it down. 1) He already works for the company that is staffing the postion.... 2) doing WORK COMP CLAIMS AND SERVICES. And, based on what I saw, he is much more likely to have experience with the prevention program than I am.

I do have a couple things in my favor, but I don't think it's enough. I am capable of spelling the words "bachelor", "licensed", "undergrad", and "procedure" (as opposed to batchler, liscenes, undergrade, and prucedure). AND I have a masters degree...he doesn't. Unfortunately I don't think that is as important to them as experience.

Prospect 3:
This is for a high school. It would be a much better and more supported position than the one I am in now, but otherwise it would be a whole lot more of the same. I'm not very excited about this position, but it wouldn't be bad. I already met with a recruiter for the health care company that is staffing the position, and then today I met with the people who would be my supervisor(s). I really liked them, but I'm just not so keen on dealing with more of the same stuff that has been driving me nuts all along, but with a snobbier, more spoiled, and more in-the-spotlight high school. Blah.

So yeah, that's that.

I have a little bit of voice back. My doctor wanted me to switch to an expectorant after a few days of the codeine (and save the codeine for night time) and I think that will help a lot with clearing all this crap out of me and give my vocal cords an unobstructed chance to move around again. We shall see.

Is it weird that in the last 2 days I've developed an irrational fear that my vocal chords are going to forget how to function?

About my (first so far) interview last week

It's that time.  Time to be stressed the hell out and hoping that someone, ANYONE, will want to interview me so I can wow them with my stunning personality (to make up for my lack of most skills unrelated to athletic training).

I'm not going to say where the interview was, or for what position, but you will probably get the general idea.  I'm pasting this from a post I wrote on a message board to some of my friends because I'm feeling generally down and lazy today.  Or most days.

So anyway.

It went...ok I guess. It was a performance based interview which was pretty much The Suck. I did ok. I had huge brain block on a couple questions and on the others I think my examples were pretty weak. I felt bad giving a bunch of examples from athletic training but that has been my life for so long that that is what I know. Of course, after the interview was over I thought of 8 million better answers to each question that would have highlighted my skills a little better. Oh well. C'est la vie.

It was a fairly laid-back interview at least, and I acted pretty natural and exuded some confidence (even though I had none) and drew a few laughs/smiles when called for.

I was only expecting one or two people interviewing me. No. There were FIVE.
3 Social Workers, 1 psychologist/suicide prevention program coordinator, and the admin support supervisor. They were all women, very nice, and not stuffy at all. It also took an hour. I'm very glad that the one thing I decided to focus on in my small amount of prep time for this was the questions for them at the end.

A few of the positive highlights:

* They looked VERY surprised when I said that yes, I did in fact have questions for them. My questions also inspired about a 15 or so minute discussion amongst/with the interviewers about what they find rewarding and fulfilling in their respective jobs and how they got into what they are doing now. As it was winding down, one of them said something like "Wow...that was almost a therapeutic discussion. Not sure that's ever happened in an interview before."

* The admin support lady walked me to the elevators and told me I answered well, which I found surprising. Not sure if she was listening to the same things coming out of my mouth and saying that to be nice or not but whatever. It was nice of her to say.

* Another one of the interviewers followed us out and said "Hold on! I want to give you something from the deleted health fair!" and ran to her office to give me a little package with a mug and a nice pen.

So...in the span of an hour I managed to initiate therapy (to therapists) and left with a gift.

Also, before I left the house, I found a broken belt loop in my new shirt, so I safety pinned it. But a few minutes later when I got to my car, I looked down and realized my left pant leg was halfway unhemmed, so I had to sacrifice the belt loop in order to safety pin the pants. I am a mess. At least the broken belt loop from the shirt was covered by my cute black cardigan that I stole from my mom.

It would be a good job.  Normal  hours, good benefits, holidays and weekends off.  I'd like it, I think.

For about 3 months.

Then I would miss the blood.  The injuries.  The people.  The sports.

But I don't really have a lot of choice in the matter.  And I would be stupid not to take it if offered.