Don't wait for answers, just take your chances / Don't ask me why
Jael told me to blog about my interview. So here I am, finally getting around to it. Sorry it took me a couple of days!! But a LOT of drama has been going on. 3/4 of which I will fill you in on now.
I interviewed for the Shoe Specialist position at Kohl's in Anderson on Tuesday. I was crazy, crazy nervous, but I kind of relaxed myself before going in by thinking about the following awesomeness:
The Interview, the homestarrunner.com short (Peppy will appreciate this ;)
Dwight's antics in getting ready to do something on The Office, such as sprinting across the parking lot or playing air guitar
Once I was ready to go, I went inside, used the facilities (it was a long drive!!!), and then told the lady at customer service who I was and why I came. I was surprisingly well-spoken. This isn't normal. I tend to get really mumbly when I'm nervous, and my words run together, and nobody can understand a word I say. But I just said what I had to say, and it all came out perfectly fine. If not better than my normal speech. I was happy with that.
So she had me sit at a little chair and wait for my interviewer to come back. She finally did, and I saw that she's near my age, so that eased my nerves a lot, too. Right away, I decided to kick it off with something to show that I'm familiar with the city. She asked me how my drive was (which I knew she would... she knew it was a 2 hour drive), and I told her it was good, and that "I see that Scatterfield is under construction, again." It would've gone along better had she actually come from that direction, too. But still, I'm sure it made me look like a native Anderson resident. Which I would say should help.
Then she took me back to the store manager's office (he was out of town, at some meeting that my store manager also went to) and asked me about myself. I tried to describe myself the best I could. Hadn't really thought about that, so I focused it more on what I do at Kohl's. I figured that's what she cares about anyway. She asked me other various questions, some of which I could answer well and some of which I hadn't thought about. But I think I did a fairly good job of responding.
She did ask me if I was looking to stay with Kohl's long-term. I fumbled there, and tried to be as honest as possible without locking myself in to staying there long-term. :) I think I said something like, if a position opens up that I'm qualified for, I would be OK with advancing in the company. It just depends on how things go.
I wasn't going to lie. I know a lot of people would've just said, "Yes. I want to stay here for a long time." But I really don't. I just want to move to the Indy area, and this is how I can do it. That doesn't mean I won't take the job seriously (if you think that, you don't know me very well), it just means after a while I figure I'll try to get out. Especially if I have a potential job within my field (music business).
Then she took me on a tour, introducing me to various people. A lot of laughter took place, and joking around. Especially with the LP peeps. Quite funny. A lot of nice people. And they showed me all of the shoe department areas, which were of course a mess. They asked me what I thought, and I said, "Well, I'd like to get my hands on it." The one lady that was walking around with us said, "Now THAT'S what we like to hear! Someone who's excited about getting things done!" So yeah, that was definitely a good thing to say. :) AND it's true. It does excite me. I like keeping busy and getting things done, and accomplishing things. It's fine where I work now, but we're SO clean and SO well-organized that it's just keeping things in order. There, I'd be kicking butt and taking names. I'd be able to completely re-do everything, and get it in working order. Super fun. :)
I'll continue this later, thought I'd have more time. I'm heading to my potential future apartment, to show it to my mom.
Alright, time to continue.
Where was I? Ah yes, taking the tour. After that, we went back to the office and kind of finished things up, and she walked me out. Very good interview, at least from my perspective.
Then I went off in search of the apartment complex I was interested in. Got lost, and tried calling family members and couldn't get ahold of anyone. Finally got ahold of my aunt, and she walked down to my brother's apartment and had him get online, and he directed me to where I needed to go.
AWESOME apartments, by the way. Affordable (more on that later), semi-small, but very cute. Very nice for the price I'd be paying. I'd say they're comparable to the Fishers apartments I looked at, but smaller, and much cheaper. I guess that's what happens when you go to a small town farther away from Indy. The rates drop.
Anyway, I took a tour, and then went back to the leasing office and signed all the paperwork. So I officially have a deposit down on this adorable 2nd floor, lake-view apartment, with a cathedral ceiling. My move-in date is July 8.
HOWEVER, I may not be moving in at all. They will refund everything but the $30 application fee, or so they say. That's why we went ahead and got it, since this job thing could get settled quickly and require me to move in as soon as possible. I had to wait until July 8, because the apartment won't open up until July 1, and they need a week to get it set up for me.
Let's see, what else. Oh, then I thought I would be late to meet Candace at the movies, but it only took me 15 minutes to get there from the apartments. I was amazed. I never imagined it'd be that short of a drive. So I actually got there a half hour EARLY, and waited for Candace to show up. She finally did, and we ate fruit snacks and enjoyed (well, kind of. alright, actually, not really.) The Happening.
Not a good movie, not a bad movie. Artsy, but a bit overboard with the gore. After [SPOILER ALERT] people started walking off of a building and splattering on the pavement, over and over, the never-ending death-fest, I was ready to call it quits. But it just got more and more bloody and gross as it went along. People throwing themselves under running lawnmowers, people feeding themselves to lions, people shooting themselves in the head, people blowing their face off, people shoving their head through windows, etc. Seriously? Overkill. (Literally.)
Zooey was awesome, though. I have nothing negative to say about her performance. And her clothes? Adorable! I want them all.
P.S. If you've heard people complain about the acting, they're totally right. Aside from Zooey and the little girl, everyone sucked.
One part I DID like, was the ending. I expected everyone to get killed off, but that wasn't the case. Well, it KIND of was. It was implied. But they didn't show Zooey dying. Or the little girl. They left off with them on a happy note, and I decided (and told Candace) that in my mind, what would be The Happening Part 2, written and directed by Allison, Mark Wahlberg uses his scientific genius to come up with a cure for whatever was happening, and saves the world. And everyone lives happily ever after.
And the scene in France was outstanding, in my opinion. I think that should've been the direction the whole movie took. They showed that something was about to happen, but left you hanging. You knew what was coming, but it wasn't SHOWN. There was no blood. No guts. Just the suspense, and the knowledge of what was to come. THAT is the type of horror movie I enjoy. And that's why I loved the ending.
After the movie, we walked around the mall trying to decide where we wanted to eat. We went into the mall only to realize that they were closing, so we went back outside and I took a picture of Candace with Adam Sandler's package (see: Facebook (the quote under the picture is what she said when we first walked past the poster, and thus the reason for the picture being taken)). And then we saw an Arby's in the distance! So we loaded up in my car and tried, eventually successfully, to get over there. And we ate and talked and laughed and made fun of Delilah (the radio host). Good times were had. And then I drove her back to her vehicular transport and I headed home.
SO the next job-related thing that I want to fill you in on, is from work last night. I forgot to mention, Laura (the chick who interviewed me) said that she'd let me know by Friday at the earliest, Tuesday at the latest, if I got the job. I got a call at work last night, which was paged for me by Jessica (one of my managers). She sounded quite cheerful, so I had a feeling that's what it was. I took the call, and sure enough it was Laura, offering me the job.
For $8.25/hr.
So all of the happiness that had just built up when hearing that she was offering me the position flew out the window.
I had worked on a budget the day before, and came to the conclusion that I would need $9/hr, at least, to make it. And I'd be scrimping, but I was OK with that. This was especially the case because the apartment ended up being $30 more a month than we had originally thought.
She asked me if I'd need time to think about it, and I said yes, because I didn't know if I could do it for that pay. (And I wanted to talk to my mom, and my managers, to see what they thought.) She said to give her a call the next day (today) to let her know my decision, and said that she may be able to work out something to get me higher pay, but she wasn't sure.
So we hung up, and I immediately went to the office to talk to Jessica. She could tell something was up, and then was like, "Oh! Was that them calling about the job?" So I told her what happened, and she stared at me as if I told her I had a son named Darkwing Duck. "Holy f***ing sh**! No. F*** no. I'm sorry, Allison, but sh**. That is ridiculous." Jessica typically tones her swearing down to replacements such as using the first letter, when at work. I've noticed this. So she was highly annoyed.
And of course I started explaining to her that I can't take it at that, and she was like, "No, you shouldn't! You can't. I totally understand." And then I started crying, because I've had a VERY emotional week and just couldn't take any more. She told me to go take an extra break for a few minutes, cool off, and she would call them and find out what was going on.
So I did, and she did, and I went back to work and she paged me to the office after a bit.
She seemed a bit more optimistic. She said that it wasn't Laura's, or even the store's, decision, but that they had to go through a system with corporate, and that the woman they were dealing with, in Jessica's words, is a real bitch that she's had to fight with before about getting my cousin Brandon a raise when he got promoted. She said that they REALLY want me for the job, and are going to try to fight to get the pay up to $9.25/hr. Then she said that she was 86% sure they'd be able to. So I felt better, and went back to work again.
Later I saw her in the break room and apologized for the drama. "No, no. No drama. I would've reacted exactly the same way. Don't worry about it."
So I felt a lot better.
Today, I went down to visit the apartment with my mom, to show it to her and so she could help with some paperwork we didn't have finished. She loved it, just like I did. We went back through Kohl's, so she could exchange something, and I had decided I'd talk to Laura again and see if anything had changed. So I found her and she took me in the office and explained kind of what is happening, and that she's trying to fight it but isn't sure if she'll get anywhere.
So I thanked her and we left, and we called our Kohl's to talk to our managers, and found that Jessica was off today, and Maria had left. But later we did get ahold of Crissie, while Maria was there, and she told me she'd talk to Maria and have her call me when she figured things out.
We didn't get a call.
So... I'm waiting it out. Laura said I didn't need to give an answer until we figure all of this out, and she's hoping to have a definitive answer for me by next week.
I'm going to try to talk seriously with Maria, our store manager (the one who got me this interview/job in the first place) to see if she can fight it, because I figure she'd have more pull with the bigwigs and more ability to get this done.
Because I can't take the job for that little pay. I just can't.
I need $9/hr, or I'm walking. And I don't want to walk. All of my ducks are in a row, and I just need this last one to get his little rear in place so we can get down to business.
::sigh::
So much drama.
Pray that it all works out.
But! In any case, I know that I'm wanted. And I'm in demand. I even got an invite to apply/interview for a job at the apartment complex, by the chick who was giving us the tour. So. Funny. Seriously! She asked me if I've ever thought of working in leasing, and I said I hadn't thought about it. She then told me that I could interview for a position, etc.
Craziness.
(No, I don't want to work for them. Thanks for asking. hehe)
So like I said, I'm in demand! I feel like Julie Andrews in Thoroughly Modern Millie, where she can get a job anywhere but holds out for one where she can marry her boss.
Except I don't want to marry my boss. I'm just in demand. ;)
I interviewed for the Shoe Specialist position at Kohl's in Anderson on Tuesday. I was crazy, crazy nervous, but I kind of relaxed myself before going in by thinking about the following awesomeness:
The Interview, the homestarrunner.com short (Peppy will appreciate this ;)
Dwight's antics in getting ready to do something on The Office, such as sprinting across the parking lot or playing air guitar
Once I was ready to go, I went inside, used the facilities (it was a long drive!!!), and then told the lady at customer service who I was and why I came. I was surprisingly well-spoken. This isn't normal. I tend to get really mumbly when I'm nervous, and my words run together, and nobody can understand a word I say. But I just said what I had to say, and it all came out perfectly fine. If not better than my normal speech. I was happy with that.
So she had me sit at a little chair and wait for my interviewer to come back. She finally did, and I saw that she's near my age, so that eased my nerves a lot, too. Right away, I decided to kick it off with something to show that I'm familiar with the city. She asked me how my drive was (which I knew she would... she knew it was a 2 hour drive), and I told her it was good, and that "I see that Scatterfield is under construction, again." It would've gone along better had she actually come from that direction, too. But still, I'm sure it made me look like a native Anderson resident. Which I would say should help.
Then she took me back to the store manager's office (he was out of town, at some meeting that my store manager also went to) and asked me about myself. I tried to describe myself the best I could. Hadn't really thought about that, so I focused it more on what I do at Kohl's. I figured that's what she cares about anyway. She asked me other various questions, some of which I could answer well and some of which I hadn't thought about. But I think I did a fairly good job of responding.
She did ask me if I was looking to stay with Kohl's long-term. I fumbled there, and tried to be as honest as possible without locking myself in to staying there long-term. :) I think I said something like, if a position opens up that I'm qualified for, I would be OK with advancing in the company. It just depends on how things go.
I wasn't going to lie. I know a lot of people would've just said, "Yes. I want to stay here for a long time." But I really don't. I just want to move to the Indy area, and this is how I can do it. That doesn't mean I won't take the job seriously (if you think that, you don't know me very well), it just means after a while I figure I'll try to get out. Especially if I have a potential job within my field (music business).
Then she took me on a tour, introducing me to various people. A lot of laughter took place, and joking around. Especially with the LP peeps. Quite funny. A lot of nice people. And they showed me all of the shoe department areas, which were of course a mess. They asked me what I thought, and I said, "Well, I'd like to get my hands on it." The one lady that was walking around with us said, "Now THAT'S what we like to hear! Someone who's excited about getting things done!" So yeah, that was definitely a good thing to say. :) AND it's true. It does excite me. I like keeping busy and getting things done, and accomplishing things. It's fine where I work now, but we're SO clean and SO well-organized that it's just keeping things in order. There, I'd be kicking butt and taking names. I'd be able to completely re-do everything, and get it in working order. Super fun. :)
I'll continue this later, thought I'd have more time. I'm heading to my potential future apartment, to show it to my mom.
Alright, time to continue.
Where was I? Ah yes, taking the tour. After that, we went back to the office and kind of finished things up, and she walked me out. Very good interview, at least from my perspective.
Then I went off in search of the apartment complex I was interested in. Got lost, and tried calling family members and couldn't get ahold of anyone. Finally got ahold of my aunt, and she walked down to my brother's apartment and had him get online, and he directed me to where I needed to go.
AWESOME apartments, by the way. Affordable (more on that later), semi-small, but very cute. Very nice for the price I'd be paying. I'd say they're comparable to the Fishers apartments I looked at, but smaller, and much cheaper. I guess that's what happens when you go to a small town farther away from Indy. The rates drop.
Anyway, I took a tour, and then went back to the leasing office and signed all the paperwork. So I officially have a deposit down on this adorable 2nd floor, lake-view apartment, with a cathedral ceiling. My move-in date is July 8.
HOWEVER, I may not be moving in at all. They will refund everything but the $30 application fee, or so they say. That's why we went ahead and got it, since this job thing could get settled quickly and require me to move in as soon as possible. I had to wait until July 8, because the apartment won't open up until July 1, and they need a week to get it set up for me.
Let's see, what else. Oh, then I thought I would be late to meet Candace at the movies, but it only took me 15 minutes to get there from the apartments. I was amazed. I never imagined it'd be that short of a drive. So I actually got there a half hour EARLY, and waited for Candace to show up. She finally did, and we ate fruit snacks and enjoyed (well, kind of. alright, actually, not really.) The Happening.
Not a good movie, not a bad movie. Artsy, but a bit overboard with the gore. After [SPOILER ALERT] people started walking off of a building and splattering on the pavement, over and over, the never-ending death-fest, I was ready to call it quits. But it just got more and more bloody and gross as it went along. People throwing themselves under running lawnmowers, people feeding themselves to lions, people shooting themselves in the head, people blowing their face off, people shoving their head through windows, etc. Seriously? Overkill. (Literally.)
Zooey was awesome, though. I have nothing negative to say about her performance. And her clothes? Adorable! I want them all.
P.S. If you've heard people complain about the acting, they're totally right. Aside from Zooey and the little girl, everyone sucked.
One part I DID like, was the ending. I expected everyone to get killed off, but that wasn't the case. Well, it KIND of was. It was implied. But they didn't show Zooey dying. Or the little girl. They left off with them on a happy note, and I decided (and told Candace) that in my mind, what would be The Happening Part 2, written and directed by Allison, Mark Wahlberg uses his scientific genius to come up with a cure for whatever was happening, and saves the world. And everyone lives happily ever after.
And the scene in France was outstanding, in my opinion. I think that should've been the direction the whole movie took. They showed that something was about to happen, but left you hanging. You knew what was coming, but it wasn't SHOWN. There was no blood. No guts. Just the suspense, and the knowledge of what was to come. THAT is the type of horror movie I enjoy. And that's why I loved the ending.
After the movie, we walked around the mall trying to decide where we wanted to eat. We went into the mall only to realize that they were closing, so we went back outside and I took a picture of Candace with Adam Sandler's package (see: Facebook (the quote under the picture is what she said when we first walked past the poster, and thus the reason for the picture being taken)). And then we saw an Arby's in the distance! So we loaded up in my car and tried, eventually successfully, to get over there. And we ate and talked and laughed and made fun of Delilah (the radio host). Good times were had. And then I drove her back to her vehicular transport and I headed home.
SO the next job-related thing that I want to fill you in on, is from work last night. I forgot to mention, Laura (the chick who interviewed me) said that she'd let me know by Friday at the earliest, Tuesday at the latest, if I got the job. I got a call at work last night, which was paged for me by Jessica (one of my managers). She sounded quite cheerful, so I had a feeling that's what it was. I took the call, and sure enough it was Laura, offering me the job.
For $8.25/hr.
So all of the happiness that had just built up when hearing that she was offering me the position flew out the window.
I had worked on a budget the day before, and came to the conclusion that I would need $9/hr, at least, to make it. And I'd be scrimping, but I was OK with that. This was especially the case because the apartment ended up being $30 more a month than we had originally thought.
She asked me if I'd need time to think about it, and I said yes, because I didn't know if I could do it for that pay. (And I wanted to talk to my mom, and my managers, to see what they thought.) She said to give her a call the next day (today) to let her know my decision, and said that she may be able to work out something to get me higher pay, but she wasn't sure.
So we hung up, and I immediately went to the office to talk to Jessica. She could tell something was up, and then was like, "Oh! Was that them calling about the job?" So I told her what happened, and she stared at me as if I told her I had a son named Darkwing Duck. "Holy f***ing sh**! No. F*** no. I'm sorry, Allison, but sh**. That is ridiculous." Jessica typically tones her swearing down to replacements such as using the first letter, when at work. I've noticed this. So she was highly annoyed.
And of course I started explaining to her that I can't take it at that, and she was like, "No, you shouldn't! You can't. I totally understand." And then I started crying, because I've had a VERY emotional week and just couldn't take any more. She told me to go take an extra break for a few minutes, cool off, and she would call them and find out what was going on.
So I did, and she did, and I went back to work and she paged me to the office after a bit.
She seemed a bit more optimistic. She said that it wasn't Laura's, or even the store's, decision, but that they had to go through a system with corporate, and that the woman they were dealing with, in Jessica's words, is a real bitch that she's had to fight with before about getting my cousin Brandon a raise when he got promoted. She said that they REALLY want me for the job, and are going to try to fight to get the pay up to $9.25/hr. Then she said that she was 86% sure they'd be able to. So I felt better, and went back to work again.
Later I saw her in the break room and apologized for the drama. "No, no. No drama. I would've reacted exactly the same way. Don't worry about it."
So I felt a lot better.
Today, I went down to visit the apartment with my mom, to show it to her and so she could help with some paperwork we didn't have finished. She loved it, just like I did. We went back through Kohl's, so she could exchange something, and I had decided I'd talk to Laura again and see if anything had changed. So I found her and she took me in the office and explained kind of what is happening, and that she's trying to fight it but isn't sure if she'll get anywhere.
So I thanked her and we left, and we called our Kohl's to talk to our managers, and found that Jessica was off today, and Maria had left. But later we did get ahold of Crissie, while Maria was there, and she told me she'd talk to Maria and have her call me when she figured things out.
We didn't get a call.
So... I'm waiting it out. Laura said I didn't need to give an answer until we figure all of this out, and she's hoping to have a definitive answer for me by next week.
I'm going to try to talk seriously with Maria, our store manager (the one who got me this interview/job in the first place) to see if she can fight it, because I figure she'd have more pull with the bigwigs and more ability to get this done.
Because I can't take the job for that little pay. I just can't.
I need $9/hr, or I'm walking. And I don't want to walk. All of my ducks are in a row, and I just need this last one to get his little rear in place so we can get down to business.
::sigh::
So much drama.
Pray that it all works out.
But! In any case, I know that I'm wanted. And I'm in demand. I even got an invite to apply/interview for a job at the apartment complex, by the chick who was giving us the tour. So. Funny. Seriously! She asked me if I've ever thought of working in leasing, and I said I hadn't thought about it. She then told me that I could interview for a position, etc.
Craziness.
(No, I don't want to work for them. Thanks for asking. hehe)
So like I said, I'm in demand! I feel like Julie Andrews in Thoroughly Modern Millie, where she can get a job anywhere but holds out for one where she can marry her boss.
Except I don't want to marry my boss. I'm just in demand. ;)