Jen already took my best idea for this post... although I do have a short story to share with you along the same lines. When I was a LOT younger, I used to wonder how people could end up unemployed. I mean, if you don't have a job, just go get one, right? This belief was reinforced by the fact that I got the very first job I ever applied for. Granted, that job was manning the front register at a Burger King, but hey, a job's a job.
A couple of years later, my friends Melissa, Tina and I spent the summer after our Freshman year of college living together in Gainesville, FL. We had planned to rent an apartment, get part-time jobs, and spend the summer having fun. For the first month of the summer, we spent every day searching for jobs. I applied for office jobs, retail jobs, waitress jobs, fast food jobs... any jobs I could find. I'd worked office jobs and fast food jobs before, so I thought that surely I'd get picked up for something like that, but as the weeks went by and my bank account dwindled, I seriously began to worry. I applied to all sorts of low-level jobs and nobody wanted me. I even applied to work at Wal-Mart and was rejected!
Eventually, I was hired as a waitress for the graveyard shift at a brand-new Steak-n-Shake just off I-75. Tina got a job working the night shift at Waffle House. Melissa wasn't as lucky. She too had applied at both Waffle House and Steak-n-Shake, but was not hired. Eventually she did get a "job" - as a door-to-door vaccuum cleaner salesman! At first she was told that she'd be paid commission per-sale... then a short while later, she was told they'd give her a free vaccuum cleaner for every one she sold. Yep, they were going to pay her in vaccuum cleaners. And then she quit.
(Melissa, I hope you don't mind me sharing this story; it was either that or ex-boyfriend tales, and I figured this was better...)
6 comments:
I am getting ready for my first real foray into the job-getting world. I am prepared for rejection, but probably not as prepared as I should be. I have tried to find a decent job in Lake City before and it is impossible. I actually applied for a position at St. Leos (the "uni" on LCCC campus) that was THE SAME JOB I had at McGill for two years. I didn't get a call-back.
So now I am moving to Ontario. My biggest dream (my biggest fake dream: the dream I fall back on when I realize things I want to do aren't actually possible) is to work at one of two places: The Beer Store or the LCBO. Ontario sells beer ONLY at The Beer Store (or LCBO) and liquor and wine is at the LCBO. And a job at either of those places would make me a civil servant. It's really hard to think of a better job...
To Caitlin,
If you got your dream job at either the Beer Store or LCBO but, like Melissa, was paid with product, what kind of product would you choose?
Oh, my. That IS a good question. Naturally, there is a two-part answer:
Beer Store: I'd like to be on a wheat-beer rotation. (Hoegaarden one pay period, Erdinger another)
LCBO: I'd have to go seasonal. Cheap sangria in summer, fine wines in fall, some Asbach Uralt brandy for the holidays, and Bombay Sapphire for spring. Don't ask why gin is a springtime drink. It just is.
Getting paid in vacuum cleaners sounds so Soviet! I can't believe that happened in America. What did they think she was going to do with more than one vacuum cleaner?
I think the idea was that she could sell "her" vaccuum cleaners and keep the profits...
Hi. I've been in NY. I realize the moment has past, but I had to comment. They actually paid me one vacuum cleaner for every THREE I sold (which was none). Also -- they refused to call them vacuum cleaners and instead called them air filters. Imagine the surprise of the customer when you show up at their house to show them an "air filter" but then start vacuuming their floor and ask for $3500. Anytime I think of that job I hear the theme song we made up in my head "Filterqueen young and sweet only seventeen."
http://www.filterqueen.com/
Melissa
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