Tag Archives: job

Gaining Confidence (or How Spin And My New Job Are Going Along The Same Path)

Things are continuing to go well with the new job. I’m getting more and more work done each day and my work continues to get better. I’m getting more information from each lawyer that I’m speaking to and I’m getting more comfortable talking to them as well.

I’m super excited about this progress. I’m not where I need to be yet, but my boss is extremely happy about how much better I’m getting each day. On our phone call at the end of my shift yesterday, he even told me that I earned my first bonus. I get a bonus if a person I talk to meets the qualifications for the job I’m searching for. I have to get each piece of information to confirm that. And yesterday, I did it! This doesn’t mean the person is going to interview for the job opening. But I found a perfect candidate. In the future, my bonus might be something more like a percentage of the salary if we get someone in a new job. But since that can take up to a year, right now I just get a little bonus for each exact candidate I find. The amount of the bonus hasn’t been decided on yet (I don’t think my boss expected me to earn one already), but it will be something similar to an extra hour of pay.

While I’m making good progress at work, I’m also making good progress in spin class. You may remember that I just tried doing some of the standing on the bike work recently and discovered that I could do it for a portion of a song. I’m still building on that progress, but I took another big step this past weekend.

Not only did I stand on the bike during the hill portion (like I did the past time), I did it multiple times in class and was able to do several of the dance moves on the bike. Even the instructor, Heather, seemed to notice that I was doing more standing than I had before.

The best part about that particular class was in the morning, I didn’t feel like working out (I slept really badly and was dealing with weird hip pain). But since it was too late to cancel the class without being charged for it, I went anyway. And it ended up being such a great thing for me.

I also burned a lot of calories in 45 minutes.

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All this good stuff happening to me is really helping me stay more positive and keep looking forward to more progress in my life. The next step is to go back to my old work and work in the box office. That will be on the same days that I do my recruiting work. I’ll just do one in the morning and one in the afternoon/evening.

But that hustle will get me to a point where I’m making enough to pay all my bills again. And I need that because my taxes were just done and I owe a little bit!

Guess I’m back to the grind in more ways than one.

The New Gig (or Going From Vacation Mode To Work Mode)

After taking such a crazy trip, I’m super lucky that I didn’t have to start at my new day job the next day. In fact, the day after getting back from the trip was spent recovering from it.

I had some pretty crazy jet lag (taking a 5 hour nap when I finally got home really didn’t help) and for the first time ever, my feet and ankles swelled up like crazy after being on the plane. Maybe it’s because the guy in the middle seat was a big basketball player and I spent the flight squished in my seat (I balanced one foot on top of the other on the side of the plane because that’s the only room I had). So my Monday was spent with my feet up so the swelling would go down (which it did in about a day).

Tuesday was my first day at the new day job. I’m working as a recruiting assistant for lawyers. Basically, my boss tells me about a job opening that we need to fill and I cold call lawyers to see if any of them meet the requirements and if they do, try to get them to go for an interview. Basically, I’m a headhunter (or at least an assistant headhunter).

My first day was pretty much spent learning about the business and going over legal terms and how law firms work. It’s a lot of totally new information for me to learn about, and I’m still working on feeling confident using legal terms.

All my legal knowledge that I’ve had before has come from film and tv (like watching “Legally Blonde” and “Drop Dead Diva”). Fortunately, it turns out that legal shows are a bit more accurate than medical shows, so my film/tv legal knowledge was actually pretty useful.

My second day was similar to the first except I got to listen in to some phone calls and hear what I’m supposed to do. The company that I’m working for is a husband and wife team (and now me, I guess) so I’m learning from the boss. At the end of my shift that day, I made a few calls on my own.

The third day was all phone calls at their home office. I got more comfortable on the phone and started to get some good information out of people. I’m shocked how easily people will tell you how much they make on a first phone call.

Finally, on Friday this past week, I got to work from home. This is what I was told I would be doing once I was trained, and my new boss decided that we should test it out and see how it goes. While I was nervous to not have the support of the boss sitting right next to me, it was also nice to not have the pressure of having the boss right next to me as well.

Since pretty much my entire shift is spent on the phone, I got my iPhone headphones out and tried to make as many phone calls as I could in my four hour shift.

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I think it went really well. I checked in by phone with my boss after I was done, and he was very impressed with what I got done. I’m going to be working from home again this week. We aren’t sure when I will have to go in to work in their home office, but I know that if the search changes, I’ll have to go in to learn about the new search parameters.

I’ve worked from home a bit before, but for some reason this time it was different. I made an effort to make it seem as much like a workplace as possible. I did get dressed (no working in pjs for me) so that helped me feel less casual. Although I did skip shoes, doing my hair, or putting on makeup.

So far, I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made with the new job. I feel like it has the possibility to be a great day job, and my boss and his wife love the idea that I’m an actor.

It’s funny. For a while, even before I was laid off, I put it out in the universe that all I wanted was a job that worked from home, had very flexible hours, and had bosses that were excited that I was an actor not annoyed by it. While I did get exactly what I wanted, I probably should have specified that I wanted to only have to have 1 day job. I’m still going to also have to work part-time at my old workplace (working in the box office), but I think that between my 2 new jobs, I should be ok soon.

Lots Of Good (or Maybe Karma Is In My Favor)

Wednesday was already going to be an awesome day because of my stand-in job at WB. I knew waking up that day that is would be a good day (and would give me something positive to write about). But I had no idea how good my day was going to get.

After my lunch break, I was back on the set getting ready to do some stand-in work when my phone rang. It wasn’t a number a recognized, but since the number was a LA number, I guessed it was a call I should answer.

Turns out, it was the boss at the job I was waiting to hear back from. They wanted to hire me and have me start right after I get back from my NYC trip! I was so excited to get that news! It isn’t going to be full time to start, but it can lead to that. Plus, after being trained, it will be work from home! It’s exactly what I wanted!

I had a mini-celebration by myself on the set, but my focus had to stay on the job I was hired to do that day, so I didn’t really celebrate until I got back into my car after being done.

If that wasn’t good enough, I got a very interesting phone call while driving home. It was from my last job. The COO of the theater company called and asked me to come back to work with them! It won’t be the telesales job I had since they got rid of that department, but in the box office.

The work from home job is pretty much only during business hours and the box office job would be evenings and weekends, so I can do both (although I will make sure that I have at least 1 day off a week)!

I went from no jobs to 3 jobs (although 1 of those was only for that day) in 24 hours! How crazy is that?!?

It is also going to allow me to stop working the film recruiting job. I’m still not getting good results and I can’t survive on the minimum wage that they pay. But at least I have 2 new jobs to do to pay the bills!

And finally, some somewhat frivolous good news. There is a purse that I have been wanting to get for a while, but it’s not in my budget. I told myself that if I got the new job, I could use my final unemployment check to buy it (since I won’t have to use it for bills). Well, I was planning on buying the purse in NY (I figured it would be an amazing souvenir).

But I randomly went to Nordstroms Rack yesterday and the purse was there! And it was 50% off! I figured it was meant to be and I bought my dream purse! Now I’ll be super stylish when I start my new job!

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I’m so glad that the universe has decided to send a lot of good things my way. It is a reminder that as long as you can tough it out, eventually it will get better and things will turn out right.

A Little Good A Little Bad (or Maybe This Is Just How It Will Be For A While)

I feel like I’ve been pretty negative on here for a while. It’s tough when things seems to not be going your way.

I’m still fighting with the idea that I should not do the recruiting job anymore. The results from another screening I worked came in, and I’ve still never had anyone attend a screening. This isn’t good. The screenings that I worked on Sunday are this week and I should know toward the end of the week if anyone showed up. If nobody did, I’m going to take it as a clear sign that I should stop wasting my time (and the company’s since I’m clearly not a good employee). But I’m going to wait and see.

But yesterday, things took a nice turn for the positive. I still haven’t heard back from the job that told me to wait and not accept anything until they got back to me. But I’ve had other positive job related news.

I did a second interview for another job that seemed good and paid well. And they didn’t seem to have an issue with me being an actor. The only weird thing was the first interview was technically over email and the second was over the phone. I’ve never met them, but maybe this is just the way that they do things.

I also was accepted for a fun food survey. It doesn’t pay a lot, but it’s some extra cash that I’m going to get right before leaving for my trip. Every little bit helps!

And finally, I got a fun acting related gig for today! I’m going to be doing stand-in work for a promo for a network show. I’ve actually been a stand-in for this particular actor for the last set of promos that they did a few years ago. So it’s exciting that I get to do it again! It should be another fun and easy day, just like it was a few years ago.

It’s not exactly acting, but it’s closer to acting than almost anything else could be (except acting, of course). But it’s always nice to be in a room surrounded by creative types and having fun. And again, any extra money that I can get is super helpful.

Technically, my unemployment ended. I was still on an old claim of mine when I was laid off from my job. So I had to wait for that claim to end before starting a new one. I just filed my new claim today and I’m hoping that it will be accepted. But even if it does, I will not get as much in unemployment as I did before because in my second year of work I didn’t make quite as much as the first year. And your unemployment benefits are based on how much you made.

But with all the good news happening, maybe I won’t need my new unemployment claim! Maybe I’ll get a new job this week! But for now, I’m just excited that tomorrow is going to be a day spent on set and I get to be in the environment that I love!

Is Giving Up After A Week Ok? (or How I Lost Money Doing My New Job)

The film recruiting job hasn’t been going so great. While I’m making minimum wage, the majority of the income is supposed to come from people attending the screenings that I’m recruiting for. So far, of the 3 screenings I’ve worked, nobody has gone.

That’s tough. I also know that I don’t pass out as many passes as other recruiters do. But that’s because I don’t want to be a pest. I know that for the over 12 years that I’ve lived in LA, I’ve always been annoyed by the film recruiters bothering me when I’m rushing somewhere. There have been recruiters who have bothered me to the point that I think it could be considered harassment (including one recruiter I remember from years ago who put a pass inside my purse after I said “no thank you”).

I don’t want to be that person. And that’s probably the reason I’m not making money on people going to screenings.

I’ve also been told by people at the company that all the screenings I’m recruiting for are really tough ones, even for experienced recruiters. And if I had something easier that I might not feel this way. But then they continue to give me really tough screenings.

Since I haven’t made any money on people going, I’m not making that much at all. And when you add in driving time, driving costs, and parking costs I’m barely breaking even (if you don’t include yesterday, I averaged making $3 for the week). I do get some money for driving, but it doesn’t cover the time it takes me to get there.

I talked to my mom about this this past weekend. I’m really wondering if I should let them know that this 30 day trial showed me that this is not the job for me. I’m not enjoying it. And I don’t expect to love doing whatever I do as a day job, but I shouldn’t be regretting having to do it either.

I had a really great job interview last week where the employer basically told me to not accept any jobs until they got back to me. That is making me very hopefully that they will hire me. If they do, I won’t feel too guilty about giving up on the recruiting job.

If I don’t get a new job, at least I know that I have my NYC trip coming up in just over a week so I won’t have to work then.

I’m not sure what I should do, but at least writing it on here and sharing my thoughts is making me feel a little better.

Got A Closed Door And An Open Window (or Trying Not To Overthink It)

Yesterday was the callbacks for the Universal Studios tour guide position. I was very grateful to make it to callbacks. I think there were about 500 people who went to the open call, and there were fewer than 100 of us there at the callback.

For the first bit of the callbacks, they went over the training and expectations of this job. We learned about pay and schedules and a little bit of what the job would be like each day. Then we took a break and when we came back, we each had to get up in front of everyone and read a little bit of the script that the tour guides use every day.

The part I read was bit about one of the movies that has been filmed on the lot. It was about 2 sentences and I read it without tripping up over the words or sounding too shaky (I’m not the biggest fan of public speaking in front of a crowd like that).

After everyone read a bit of the script, they made a cut. And I didn’t make it.

I have no idea what I did wrong or why they didn’t like me. When I walked out, a few of the other applicants who had been cut told me that they were shocked that I was cut. I have no idea what they were looking for, but obviously it wasn’t me.

I was trying to not be too upset over not making the next cut while I walked back to my car. It’s hard to not get your hopes up about a job that is designed to work with actor’s schedules. But clearly it wasn’t meant to be for me yesterday.

But when I got back into the car, I noticed that I had an email from one of the many resumes that I had sent out earlier in the week. They wanted me to do a phone interview as soon as possible. I called them back immediately.

And one of the first things they had said to me was that the thing that made me stand out over all the other applicants was the fact that I used to be a tour guide at WB.

So just a few minutes after getting rejected as a Universal Studios tour guide, my past as a WB tour guide got me another job interview (and they want to hire an actor so that’s great!). I have that interview today.

Like I said yesterday, I’m really trying hard to stay positive. I’m getting a lot of interviews, so that’s a good sign. I know I’ll find something soon and I can’t let the rejection get me down. The only thing worrying me is having enough money for bills, but for right now, I’m ok and I should be ok through this month. In April I might have to worry.

But that’s not now and who knows what the near future has for me. And I’ll put it out here again, if anyone out there knows of any actor-friendly day jobs (either in LA or work from home), please let me know! Thanks!

Job Trials and Interviews (or Let’s Hope Something Comes Of All This)

There’s been some movement in the search for a new day job lately.

I still haven’t had any gigs with the on call assistant work, but I did check in with the owner and she said she just hasn’t had anything for me yet. So at least I haven’t been forgotten.

I had my first official shift doing the film recruitment job. It was tough. People don’t want to take flyers from a random person out at a shopping center. I don’t blame then. I always have ignored those people in the past. I also got my numbers back from my training shift. None of the people who took flyers went to the film, so I didn’t make money on that (I still got my hourly, but that’s barely minimum wage).

I’m still in a 30 day trial with them, and I’m glad that after that I can reevaluate if I want to be there. It’s a tough job and I know it’s not for everyone. Right now, I’m not sure if it’s right for me. I’m going to keep trying, but it’s hard.

And this week, I went for an open call for new tour guides at Universal Studios. I feel like I’m a great candidate for that job. Right after college graduation I was a tour guide at Warner Bros. The person at WB who trained me used to be a tour guide at Universal, so a lot of the training methods were the same.

And in 2007, 2008, and 2010 I was part of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. I worked at Terror Tram and actually my first year I played a dead tour guide.

I know it’s not the same as being a real tour guide there, but at least I’m familiar with Universal Studios. Everyone I worked with at HHN thinks I’m perfect for the job as well.

And today, I’m going to the callbacks for that job! So I made the first cut! There are still a few more cuts to go, but I’m trying to be optimistic. I know a few actors who are tour guides so at least I know it’s a flexible job.

Besides all that, I’m still spending 2 hours a day applying for jobs online. I know I’ll find something eventually, I just need that eventually to be soon. The only thing I have against me right now is that in 2 weeks I go on my trip to NYC. I know that doesn’t make me the most desirable candidate. But I figured by being up front about it I’m still making a good impression.

Staying positive is tough, but that’s what I have to do right now.

Training Day At A New Possible Job (or Next Time, I’ll Give Myself 3 Hours To Get There)

Yesterday was my training day for one of the new jobs I’ve been offered. This one is working with film screenings.

The training was going to take place in Woodland Hills. I go to that area a lot because I have friends there, so I know that it usually takes me between 30 and 45 minutes to get there. Since this was my first day at the new job and I wanted to make a good impression, I gave myself about 90 minutes to get there.

My drive started off rough. There was a huge line of cars trying to get onto the freeway. When I finally made it on, traffic was completely stopped. This was happening at 11am, so I couldn’t figure what was going on.

Finally, one of the traffic signs said that there was a major accident and all but 1 lane of the freeway was shut down. It said to expect over a 2 hour delay.

That wasn’t going to work for me. I rushed off the freeway, texted the trainer that I might be late, and worked on finding another way to get to Woodland Hills.

It ended up taking me almost 2 hours to get there, but I finally made it. And since this was such a huge accident on the freeway, the trainer knew I was telling the truth and he was very understanding.

The training went pretty well. The first hour was spent going over all the rules and how the job works. There isn’t a ton of structure with the hours, but there are lots of rules I need to follow.

After that, we headed out to do some work for the next few hours. I let the trainer take the lead at first, but then he encouraged me to try it out. I was able to talk with a few potential customers, but it was still a little intimidating for me.

After the shift was over, the trainer and I headed our separate ways, but he let me know that I did a pretty decent job for my first time.

I won’t know exactly how much I made for a few days, but hopefully it will be something decent. It’s kind of a commission based job just like my last one, however the hourly is a much lower rate (so I would have to depend on commissions a lot more).

I have no idea when my next shift will be, but hopefully it won’t be too long. I want to see how realistic of a day job this is. If I can’t make it worth my time, then I need to find something else.

I’m still applying for jobs everyday because I don’t want this job to fall through and then I have to start over again. It feels like I’m being negative about this new job, but honestly, I’m just trying to be realistic.

It’s just so tough out there and I really need something great to come through for me soon!

The Frustration Of Looking For A Day Job (or Why Is This So Difficult?)

I’ve hit a wall in my search for a new job. I’ve gotten the on call personal assistant job, but my paperwork is still being processed and there are no guarantees that I’ll get any work with them. The other job that I got as a recruiter for film screenings is also still processing my paperwork and again, no guaranteed hours. I have to go through a background check with both of those jobs and that takes time.

I also had a trial shift at another job, but after that trial I’ve realized that I’m not the right employee for them (they would need me to not go on auditions for about 2 months a year). They said that they would pay me for this trial, but they haven’t yet. I’m not sure if I’m going to bother bugging them for the money. It almost doesn’t seem worth my time.

I’m still applying for jobs for about 2 hours a day, and lately I haven’t been getting too many interviews.

I did have one interview this past week, but it really was a failure. I mention in my cover letter that I am an actor looking for a day job but that I’m not a flake, just looking for some understanding and flexibility. I’d rather be upfront with my situation so I don’t waste my time or someone else’s time. I know some actors who lie and when they have auditions they claim that they have a doctor’s appointment, but I can’t do that.

So my interview this past week was for a front desk position that was part-time. It started off great with me finding a parking meter right in front of the building. I took that as a good sign and headed inside. I guess there was some scheduling issues because even though I confirmed my interview time with the person interviewing me, they weren’t there when I showed up. Finally about 30 minutes later, the interviewer came in. She brought me back into her office and the interview got started.

It started off great. It was very similar work to what I did at my last day job and the interviewer and I got along really great. She hadn’t mentioned anything about the flexibility of the job, so I brought it up and reminded her that I’m an actress and occasionally go on auditions.

She seemed confused by that. She wanted to know how soon I would be quitting acting for the job.

I was pretty shocked about that. I’m not going to quit my career for a part-time job. I told the interviewer that again, I was looking for a day job and that I wasn’t quitting acting. At that point, she said that I was not the right candidate for the job and the interview was over.

The interview took about 10 minutes before it ended and when I left, it was the middle of rush hour. What should have taken me about 15 minutes to get home took me over 90 minutes.

It’s so hard to stay positive when something like that past interview happens. I know that eventually I will find another great day job for me, but I’m scared that it’s going to take longer than I have.

So if you all could please think some positive job hunting thoughts for me this week, I’d really appreciate it!

Exciting Weekend Plans (or Finally Meeting The Puppy!)

As you are reading this, I’m on my way to the Bay Area to see my parents and finally meet Tucker! I’m so excited! I’ve been seeing so many videos and pictures of Tucker that my parents send to me, but I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever (but in reality like 6 weeks) to meet him!

And Tucker is no longer a baby puppy. This week he graduated from puppy socialization school (although in the end he ended up being the only puppy to finish all the classes) and my dad texted me this picture yesterday morning.

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It’s hard to tell, but Tucker lost his first puppy tooth (right in the middle on top)! He’s officially becoming a grown up puppy now!

I’m also excited to see my parents. It will be my first visit with my mom since she finished chemo (and by the time I get to the house tomorrow she will be 1/3 of the way done with radiation). And I’m planning a fun trip to the gym with my dad (more on that when we get it done).

I’ll also be seeing my brother and sister-in-law on Saturday. My sister-in-law and I have a lot of planning to get done for our trip, which is coming up in a month, so we’ll be working on that this weekend.

Going home will also be a nice break from being in LA and feeling a little lost without a job. But I will say that after my 2 job trial offers I got this week, my 3rd interview resulted in me getting hired! I’ll be working as an on-call personal assistant. There’s no guarantee with hours and the pay is independent contractor (so I have so save a lot of the money I earn to pay my taxes), but it’s something. And my birthday twin, Joanna, is hired by this company as well so I know that it’s a good and flexible day job.

As I’ve said before, I’m hoping that this round of unemployment ends quickly. While I’m getting by with unemployment money, it’s not enough to pay all the bills (or pay down my credit card). I don’t want to be surviving on that money for too long.

But for now, I’m not focusing on my lack of work but my excitement about meeting Tucker (and seeing everyone else in my family!)! And seeing my family will make my Valentine’s Day a day filled with people I love. I hope that you all get to have the same!