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I've been trying not to get discouraged. The first interview that I had earlier last month was rough, as it was my first interview for a non-food service/retail position. It was an hour long and I was passed to multiple people, and I was very nervous. They never got back to me, despite my follow up email. I had an interview last week at a hotel that I thought went REALLY well, but they took the job listing off of their website and I haven't heard anything. I'm thinking about calling them, but I'm unsure. I just got off the phone today for another interview for a front desk at a vet clinic, which is next week. I was really awkward on the phone, it happens sometimes, my voice went too high in some parts and I felt the pacing of the conversation was weird. Not really the best first impression I could have made. I'm just on edge all the time, I'm watching my savings run out as a look for work and every interview is a mixture of me being hopeful and defeated. I always seem to find a way to make a mistake, whether it's being nervous or not being able to control the pitch of my voice for whatever reason like today. I've spent the last decade getting my jobs on the spot because they were food service jobs, and that's how those interviews worked, but now that I'm trying to get into different types of employment I find myself feeling like a fish out of water a lot of the time. Hopefully this interview will go well next week.
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Jul 2, 2013 16:32
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FrozenVent posted:a) Relax. I know it's hard, but you need to relax. I do better in person than I do over the phone, generally. Sometimes I'm great over the phone, but this morning I felt like the conversation was a mess. I mean, I got the interview, but still. Like I said, I thought the hotel interview went great. I didn't over think it before hand and get myself worked up, and that was a benefit. I agonized over my first interview I mentioned because it was a company/position that I really wanted and knew I was under qualified for, and it was the first interview I'd ever had for any kind of clerical work. So I can tell first hand that being a crazy nervous wreck before an interview didn't help at all, but it's still hard not to be a little on edge. I know a lot of unemployed people are in the same position, feeling like every job interview could be the one to keep you from starving. It's a lot of pressure, but yeah, gotta put it aside for the interview as hard as it can be sometimes.  The "time going slower" thing is something I should try and remember, too. Makes sense, but it's not something you really think about happening. Mondlicht fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Jul 2, 2013 |
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Jul 2, 2013 16:41
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Had another interview, again have no idea how I feel about it. I don't know if I can contain how awkward I am in a tiny room with 3 people slinging questions at me, I at least made them laugh a bit? I don't know. I thought a previous interview went super well, but I didn't get a job offer, so who knows.
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Jul 8, 2013 16:44
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I've been keeping myself up at night lately trying to think of ways to make my employment gap easier to swallow for the people that interview me. I am pretty sure it's what cost me my last interview, since even they admitted they were desperate to fill the position. Short story is that I quit my 3 year job where I was a star employee because it was a miserable place to work, and found a job at a new opening restaurant much closer to home. I was told the pay would be the same, because they had other restaurants that they opened and they are some of the most well liked in the city. They opened and business was not even remotely busy enough, and my hours were cut from full time down to 10 hours a week. They tried to put me in a hostess position, which I had never done before, on the really busy brunch shift. I couldn't keep up, and my managers were nice to me and seemed understanding, but when I came home they called and fired me. They told me it was performance related, but I know that in reality they just didn't have the room to keep me. The other two baristas (my position) were hired from their other restaurants, so it didn't surprise me that they preferred to keep them over me, who had no history with them. I got another job a month after this, that I had to walk out of because of the owner yelling in my face/taking money from me/not paying me overtime. Neither of these jobs are on my resume, and I pretend that the second job didn't exist. When places I apply to ask me why I left my steady job, I tell them that I left for a new opportunity at a restaurant that did not work out. They didn't get the business they were expecting and they over hired. I don't want to tell them the name of the restaurant, because they a) lied to all my coworkers and told them I quit, so I don't really trust them to be contacted and not tell people that I'm garbage, and b) they didn't pay me for my last 2 days of work. So far I've been honest that I've been fired, but I just tell them it was due to over hiring, which is the actual truth. The last interview I had, they really tried to get the name of the restaurant out of me. I tell them that I'm not trying to speak poorly of anyone, and I'd rather focus on my experience at the previous job I had for 3 years where all my relevant experience comes from. Is there something I should be doing differently? I've been told to lie and say I was "traveling" (not going to do that), lie and say that I quit, etc. I'm really mad at myself for taking a chance on a new restaurant, but I really wanted better for myself, and it bit me in the rear end. I've never been fired before and now I feel like it's this dark cloud over my otherwise fine resume and references, and now I'm 6 months unemployed and I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm feeling kind of desperate, and am starting to wonder if I should just grovel to the employer that fired me and say that I really need them to be a reference to me. Even though they wouldn't give me a separation letter so I could get food stamps.
Mondlicht fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 17:08
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Xandu posted:How long is this employment gap? I've currently been unemployed for 6 months. I'll admit that my performance as a hostess wasn't great, as it was something I'd never done before. That wasn't what I was hired to do, though, and the job I was hired to do I was good at. I've been doing it for 6 years, I don't have any doubts about my ability to make coffee. There just wasn't any coffee business, one of us had to go and I was the only one they had no history with. Maybe if I blew them away as a hostess I'd still be there, but I didn't have the experience to make that happen. I flat out told them I had never done it before, they knew. I feel like me not being able to handle it as a hostess gave them the performance excuse they really wanted. I wasn't the only employee culled. I've never been in this position before, so thanks for the advice. I honestly don't know how to handle it. I've had interviews where I've been vague in the way that you suggest, and it's gone fine. They don't spend any time on it and seem understanding, but this last interview kind of threw me for how much information they wanted from me. Hypation posted:I think you have played it 80% correct.... Thanks for this advice, as well. I really intend to leave the second job off of my resume and never mention it, it was a mess and they will be eventually shut down for illegal business practices, hopefully. It's a family owned business and they have no idea what they're doing. I think there are ways to handle it with it on my resume, it might make it easier for me. I don't really get how I'd put it on there without naming it, I think it would look really strange, but maybe people do that? It's hard to tell. Like I said, interviews vary wildly on how they react to the information I give them about it. Some don't care, some really really want to know, etc. I don't plan on bad mouthing my old employer to anyone regardless, so if I can spin it in a way that makes it sound like I'm super understanding/not bitter then maybe the fact that I was fired won't take me out of the game completely. Mondlicht fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 17:45
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