hello, i'd like a job.

beginning to write this post reminds me of one i wrote a couple of years ago in regards to finding a summer job at a camp.

with that job and a few more under my belt, i've been able to fill up the resume to be a little more presentable to prospective employers. i'm currently interning with a wonderful woman and helping her out with designing various spaces, picking out materials, filling out finish schedules...all the good things interns could want to do. sadly, i don't get paid.

but now is the time in life where i must find a job that pays. and not just one that gives me a little extra cash on top of my monthly allowance. that piggy bank hits the road when the wedding bells chime. well, actually the month before that when i ring the chapel bell on north campus for graduation. yes. i'm about to enter the big bad world of reality and that reality requires starting a career.

last semester, i spent hours working on developing my digital portfolio, refining it to present my best work. i worked on different layouts for my resume and generated a quality cover letter. i had high hopes to get the job search underway over christmas break. wedding planning kinda took over that. i reset the goal for the beginning of january. then school started and brought the business with it.

so february comes along and i begin to get stressed for my lack of diligence. i frantically begin critiquing my portfolio and resume, sure that it isn't good enough. after a few weeks of that, i finally had a great coordinated portfolio and it all written onto a cd and packaged complete with a ribbon. of course, this is a very expensive process, so i decided to give prospective candidates to receive my portfolio a call. i figured it would ensure that information i got online was up to date and give me a bit more of a feeling for what kind of company it is.

it was a brilliant idea. turns out, over half of the business phone numbers i had on my list had been disconnected. a good number of the others had moved locations and changed their number. and to my embarrassment, at least three of them had passed away. yes.

i had the pleasure of contacting my first deceased business owner and having a rather awkward conversation with a relative about it. i would always greet the person on the phone and tell them i am an interior design student searching for a job and that i would like to submit my portfolio. well, the poor man had to stop me in mid speal and inform me that ms. gibson had passed away about three years ago and, therefore, she is no longer in business. oh, i felt terrible. i apologized, he wished me luck, and i hung up the phone with the knowledge that my information is indeed quite out of date.

that was the only personal contact i had with anyone. but another company i called had their number disconnected. i found that a couple of other companies this occurred with had relocated and changed their number. so i searched the company name, which happened to have the person's name in it. i did not find another number. however, i did find the man's obituary dating back to 2001. it was then i really understood how old this information was.

but in the end, i got my resume out to about 20 businesses and i now sit on pins and needles as i await a phone call or e-mail from someone. hopefully before the end of the week.