Tag Archives: job

Another Almost Job (or It’s Feeling Like Groundhog Day)

Another day, another job interview. And another offer to do a trial at the job in the next week.

I’m still being very cautious about job offers. I’m still spending 2 hours every day applying for jobs. I have no clue if I’m going to like either of the jobs I’m trying out (or if they will like me).

But again, I’m feeling very optimistic because I am getting good responses to my resume and to me when I interview. This is a much better job search than the past few that I’ve gone through.

I don’t know if I’m getting a better response because I’m being pickier on what I’m applying for or if my skills doing sales (which I only got after my last job) are making me a more desirable employee. But either way, I ok with it.

I have another interview today for another part time job (it’s for an on-call assistant type of job) and I’m hoping that I’ll either get an offer for employment or another trial out of my interview. That way, I’ll have plenty of options and combinations of jobs (since I’ll have to have 2 jobs with any of these part time positions).

I’m also getting ready to get back into substitute teaching. I haven’t been available in forever, but now I have lots of availability again. And I while I need to renew my credential, I’m still current for another month and a half. So all I have to do is make myself available again on the online scheduling service and hopefully I’ll start getting sub offers.

I’m a little nervous going back to subbing. I haven’t done it in a long time so I know I’m out of practice. And I have had some very tough classes in the past (one high school class tried to throw a chair at me and security had to stay inside for the rest of the class period), but I have also had some great classes. Either way, it will be good for me to get back into it. I have fun and it’s decent money for a day’s work. Plus, it’s completely flexible and my agents understand how my schedule is when I’m working.

I’m so glad that I’m having a much more positive week this week. It’s making my unemployment a bit more like funemployment.

I Got A New Day Job, Sort Of (or Maybe I Won’t Be Unemployed For Long)

I’ve been busy applying for new jobs and getting a bunch of interviews. So far, I’ve gone to 2 interviews and I have 2 more this week. I’m really happy that my efforts in applying for jobs are paying off with interviews, and I’m being careful to only apply for jobs that I know will be flexible or that I’m confident will let me go for auditions.

I’m trying to find full time work, but I know that part time work is more likely to be flexible. Of the 2 interviews I’ve had so far, one was for part time only (no more than 29 hours a week) and the other was as many hours a week as I’d like (up to 40).

The as many hours a week as I’d like job pays a bit more, but I haven’t heard back from them yet. They mentioned that they had a bunch of people to interviews and I don’t know if there is more than one position open (it’s doing customer service work).

The other job is doing recruitment for film screenings. I had the interview for it yesterday, and they offered me a position on the spot. It’s not a lot of money hourly, but there’s potential to make more for doing a good job. I’m a little wary about the job because I know that there’s probably no way to have that as my only day job, but when they offered me the job, I said yes.

So I’m going to start a 30 day trial with them next week. After my 30 days, I will meet with the supervisor and we will discuss if we are both happy with the job match. I like knowing that if it isn’t the right job for me it will be easy to say “no thank you” and still be able to leave on good terms.

I still have 2 more interviews this week, one for full-time job and one for another part-time one. I’ll see what else comes up for me and maybe I can find 2 jobs that will work well if I do both of them.

I’m just happy that job hunting this time is going better for me than it has in the past. I was worried that I wouldn’t get an interview for forever, but by having 4 in my first few weeks of unemployment gives me hope that I can still be a bit choosy and find something that will work out perfectly for me and my acting career.

Interview Time! (or Maybe I Can Find Another Perfect Day Job)

I’m finally starting to get responses from all the jobs that I’ve been applying for. While some of them are scams from the start (asking me to pay for an interview, lying about pay, lying about a job opening), there have been a couple that are real jobs and they are really interested in hiring.

The first one ended up not being something good. I had a phone interview for a personal organizer (something that I enjoy and have done in the past). The phone interview went really well and they wanted to bring me in for a final interview. After they were done interviewing me, I asked a couple of questions. I found out that it was a commission only job (which it was not listed as online). I also had asked about the typical hours one would work in a week. The person on the phone seemed very insulted that I asked that question and answered me in a very patronizing voice. I let them know that I would have to get back to them about the second interview.

As soon as I got off the phone, I went to google the company. First warning sign: the name of the company that I was given doesn’t exist anymore. I then looked up the phrase “working for XXXXX company”. What came up were many many scam reports warning people about working for this company. They said that they were typically not paid and the way that the company got away with it is by changing their name all the time. While there were a few reviews saying that it was the best company to work for, those responses were almost all the same. And the negative ones were all different but all had similar complaints.

Needless to say I will not be contacting that company for the second interview.

The other interview I had was yesterday. It was for a very popular Los Angeles apartment rental company. It’s a customer service job and very actor-friendly. It’s exactly 2 blocks away from my last job, so it’s pretty close to my house. And I really liked the boss. He was very nice and very ok with me being an actor. And instead of being interviewed inside in his office, we went for a walk around the neighborhood and chatted.

That was nice (and I’m glad I wore comfortable shoes to the interview!). The only awkward thing was that we walked right by my old job and several of my old co-workers were outside. They saw me and some waved, but I think they could tell I was doing an interview because none of them seemed to mind when I couldn’t wave back at them.

That interview went really well (I think), and I’ve already decided that if I’m offered that job and nothing else has been offered to me first, I will take it without hesitation.

I’m still busy applying for more and more jobs. But I’m starting to have hope that there is another day job out there for me that is actor-friendly and something that I could enjoy doing (at least while waiting for my big break!).

Making Up A Schedule (or What To Do With My New Free Time)

Now that unemployment has officially hit me, I’ve been learning how to schedule my life again.  I’ve been so used to scheduling around a work schedule for so long, that it’s been nice to actually have more than a few hours a day to do all the things I need to do.

Some of my chores I’m going to keep on my usual schedule. There’s no need to screw with what day I do laundry, water plants, or do major house cleaning (as those are once a week things).

But now, I’m adding in a new type of meal planning (where I actually can make things for all 3 meals instead of 1). I’m also trying to schedule my free time. I don’t want to turn into someone who is lazy on the couch all the time. I did a lot of that last week when I still had a few shifts left. I watched all 3 seasons of “Veronica Mars”. But I can’t do that anymore.

I’m trying to build a schedule that allows me to have fun while I’m not working but also work hard on finding a new job. When the unemployment breaks were just temporary breaks, I’ll admit that I didn’t work that hard at finding a new job. I knew I had one to go back to so I could be picky. And I was probably way too picky.

I’m still going to be picky as far as finding a job that pays a certain amount or has flexibility, but I can’t just pick jobs that I would want to take. I have to look at the undesirable ones too.

In the past, I spent a majority of my day looking for work. That is a way to get burnt out quickly. So I’ve built a schedule where I spent 1 hour in the morning looking for work and another hour looking in the afternoon (just before the close of business for most jobs). That way, my time is structured but I’m also allowing for some fun free time.

So far, I haven’t found anything right. And the jobs that looked right for me turned out to not be what they said. For example, I applied for a job that was supposed to pay $15 an hour, but when they emailed me back to schedule an interview, they said it was actually an unpaid job but the value of what I would learn was worth $15 an hour. I need a job that pays money to pay the bills, not something that has perceived value.

If any of you blog readers know of any decently paying jobs that are flexible for actors (no MLMs please), please feel free to let me know in the comments. While I’m enjoying this time off for now, I know that the sooner I’m back at a job the better.

One Last Work Happy Hour (or I Guess I Really Am Unemployed Now)

To be perfectly honest, it didn’t hit me that I’m actually unemployed until yesterday. Before then, it just felt like one of our usual breaks from work. But it’s now sinking it that I don’t have a job to go back to in a few weeks.

It’s actually been a while since I was really unemployed. In 2011 I started working at a credit card dispute company. I worked there until I got my telesales job in May of 2012. I’ve had plenty of times that I’ve been out of work, but this time feels so different because I had been working pretty steadily for a while.

Part of the reason the unemployment is starting to sink in is because I only have one more show shift at work. I’m working tonight, and then after that, they might not have any people working a member table at shows anymore. If they do bring it back, it won’t be for a few months. I’m still trying to see if there is another position open for me at my old work, but it’s not looking too good.

Another reason this is all hitting me now is because yesterday was the goodbye happy hour for my boss. Everyone in telesales was invited as well, but I was the only one who could make it.

Everyone else at my work is still pretty much in shock that our entire department was let go. All through happy hour people kept asking me what I knew about the lay offs and what my plan was to do next. I wish I had a plan, but right now, I’m just trying to get my cover letters and resumes in order and start going crazy with applying for jobs.

Happy hour was fun, but it definitely had a somber vibe to it. I think that with so many people being let go at once, everyone is feeling a little insecure about their jobs.

After most of the people left happy hour, there were still a few of us who wanted to hang out and get some dinner. We had a great time just chatting about crazy things that have happened at work and random facts about our lives.

It’s a little sad that most of the people I worked with I didn’t know too well. The trailer that the telesales team was in was a little isolated, but I always tried to make an effort to get to know people. But I have to say that at the dinner part of the happy hour hangout, I got to know my co-workers better than I had in the entire time I worked there.

Eventually, we all had to head home. Everyone else had to be at work early the next morning and I just wanted to get home (it’s a bit drizzly out and my hip was killing me).

Tonight will probably be my final goodbye to my workplace. I know that I’m going to see some of my co-workers again (we are trying to organize a monthly get together even if we are all working in different places), but it does feel like I’m closing a chapter on my life. Hopefully the next chapter just gets better from here.

Take Two With Day One Of Unemployment (or Doing Some Fun Stuff, Finally!)

I’m going to share my second attempt at my first day of unemployment, but first, I want to do some updates.

First, an update on my job. It was officially announced yesterday that we are not coming back. They have decided to use an outside company to do telesales, which is what they did before I started working there. I’m hoping to see if there are any other opportunities for me at my current work, but I’m also working hard on finding something elsewhere.

Second, an update on my health. Thanks to everyone who tweeted, Facebooked, or messaged me that they hoped I was ok. I’m almost feeling 100% back to normal now. Those antibiotics really worked quickly!

So after my first day of unemployment was spent in pain or at urgent care, I wanted to try to make my next day be a lot better. I was calling it my do-over first day.

I spent a lot of my morning binge-watching “Veronica Mars” on Amazon Prime. I’m almost done with the second season and I know that I’ll be done with the third season before the movie comes out.

I met a friend of mine for lunch in downtown Culver City. She saw that I posted on Facebook that I was looking for some recommendations of places to go to in New York when I take my trip with my sister-in-law. She used to live in New York, so she had a ton of recommendations! She was going to email me a list, but since she and I are both unemployed right now, I said that we should meet for lunch so she could go over her list with me.

We met at Ugo and they have an awesome lunch menu where pretty much everything is under $7. I had a sandwich and she had some fries (sadly, I forgot to get a picture of the food but it was delicious!).

After eating, we went over the list that she made for me about New York. When she mentioned making me a list, I thought maybe it would be a couple of things in a few categories. No, this is an awesome list that had more suggestions than we’d have time for!

Photo on 1-28-14 at 9.28 PM #3

I know you can’t really read it in that picture, but just know that it’s a full-page list that is double-sided!

After lunch, I had some time to relax and then I went off to work to work a show shift. I personally didn’t think it would be awkward, but since everyone had just found out about us being let go, others thought it was. A couple of people who work there came up to me in shock that we weren’t coming back. I guess I’m not too shocked because I had a warning that this would probably happen about a week ago. I’ll be working 2 more show shifts this week and then I’m not too sure what will happen after that.

All in all, it was a pretty good 2nd try at my first day of unemployment (although can I still call it unemployment when I worked 2 hours at my old job?).

Day One Of Unemployment (or Trying To Not Stress Out)

I’m out of work again for the end of the season. This is now the third time we’ve had this break, but this time it’s different.

We aren’t sure when/if we are returning to work.

Nothing has been communicated with us officially, so I’m still waiting to see for sure what is happening. But just in case, I cleaned out my desk before I left after my last shift on Saturday.

I’m still working some show shifts (I did one after my last shift on Saturday and I have another one tomorrow), so I’m not completely out of work, but those show shifts aren’t enough to live on.

I’m going on unemployment again, but I’m looking hard for a new day job. I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m out of work for too long. And best case scenario, we do get asked to come back to work for the next season and all of this looking is unnecessary.

But this uncertainty has kind of screwed up my plans for this time off. I was planning on taking an improv class (finally). At UCB, they have an intensive class where you go every day for 2 weeks instead of 1 day a week for 8 weeks. But now I don’t want to take that because I don’t want to be unavailable if I get a new job.

And I have my trip in March with my sister-in-law to New York. No matter what, I’m still going on that trip, but I have to remember to mention that to any potential new jobs as a non-negotiable vacation.

I’m still planning on having fun, I just have to be more structured with my time. I’m hoping to make it to Disneyland this week (my pass expires soon and I want to make sure I get a few more visits in before then). And I’ve made plans to see friends who I feel like I haven’t had a chance to see in forever.

I know that I’ve been saying for forever that I want to get a new job. Now, I pretty much think I have to. I don’t have the crutch of my other job anymore to rely on. I am going to see if there is another job at my workplace for me, but I’m not sure there will be one with enough flexibility for me. But it can’t hurt to ask.

I’m really not trying to worry about things, but when everything is up in the air like this, it’s hard not to think of the worst.

Going With The Flow (or When Craziness Happens, Sometimes You Can’t Do Anything)

Tuesday was seriously just a crazy day. I don’t know how all the weird stuff seemed to happen in one day, but it did.

First of all, as a bunch of you probably noticed, the blog was going crazy. Posts that were very old kept getting tweeted or posted on Facebook without me doing anything. And whenever I tried to fix that, my blog went down and I couldn’t see any of my sharing settings. I’m sure some of you were annoyed by that, and I’m sorry. I’m working with my hosting service (BlueHost) to try to fix everything right now. Some of it has been fixed, but I’m not sure about the random posting of old posts. I appreciate your patience in all of this. Plus, if you are new to the blog, this is a perfect chance to catch up on some old posts!

Then there was the craziness at work. I hadn’t really been at work since Friday (working at the show on Sunday doesn’t count because I was only in my office to grab my name tag). I was starting to finally feel better (although still not completely able to breathe through my nose). And after being at work for about an hour, I started to feel sick and like my brain was foggy. It was really weird.

My boss was looking weird too. I asked him how he was feeling and he mentioned that he was feeling fine until getting to work. It’s really strange that both of us started to have symptoms again when we got into work. Neither of us have any idea what is causing this (and it doesn’t seem to be affected any of my other co-workers). I think maybe the cleaning people came in and used a lot of chemical cleaners by my desk and I was being bothered by fumes or something. It was really just weird and made my work day a bit difficult.

I did finally start to feel a bit better closer to the end of the shift, but by that time we had opened all the doors and windows just in case it was some sort of fumes that was making us feel sick.

Dealing with trying to fix my blog (from my iPhone at work) and feeling like I was coming down with my cold again really did make Tuesday a weird and crazy day. I hope that all the craziness was on one day so that the rest of my week goes easily.

We are winding down the season at work. My boss told us that there is a small chance that we are shutting down at the end of this week, but it’s still up in the air. More likely, we will work through the end of the month and then have our time off. I’m still trying to plan for that time off right now so I’m nice and busy, but since I’m still unsure about the start date of the time off, I can only really plan for the second half of my unemployment. But hopefully soon I’ll know what day is the last day and I can start booking my calendar with lots of fun stuff!

Enough With Being Sick (or Holy Moly I’m Craving Exercise)

I really spent most of last week being sick. I worked on Monday and stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday knowing that I was way too sick to work. I went in to work on Thursday but as soon as my boss saw me, he sent me home. I guess I looked pretty sick still. I finally returned to work on Friday but I still wasn’t completely better.

I’m not so good at sitting at home waiting to get better, but that’s what I had to do. For those few days I was sick, even walking down my driveway seemed to wear me out. And I didn’t feel too sick while I was sick, which bothered me a lot. I felt like I could do whatever but then when I tried it I was exhausted. But I did manage to make it out of my house each day while sick.

I’m writing this on Sunday and I’m still not completely better. I had to stop taking decongestants because you can only take them so many days in a row. But I’m still not able to breathe out of my nose all the time. It’s pretty annoying.

Midway through the week, I really wanted to go to SoulCycle. Obviously with a fever I couldn’t go. But I was so shocked that I craved working out. That’s a new thing for me. Normally I’m looking for ways to get out of a workout, not ways to tell myself that I’m healthy enough to go.

But I think I need to wait until I can breathe through my nose before doing a workout like spinning. So I’m still waiting to return. Hopefully in the next few days all my congestion will go away.

I’ve got a few weeks left at work before we are supposed to go on another break and I really want to make the most of my time there before not having any income (outside of unemployment). Being out this past week really didn’t help. But I’m taking extra shifts working at shows on the weekends. I did one tonight (Sunday) and I’m scheduled to do another one this upcoming Saturday night. Every little bit helps. And working is helping me to start feeling like I’m healthy again.

Even though being sick totally sucks, I’m still trying to look at the positives. I used to get sick a lot more often. Before my tonsils came out a few years ago, I seems to have strep throat or a cold every other month. Now, since I don’t have my tonsils anymore, I seem to only get sick twice a year. And I have to be very grateful that I got sick now and not at a time that I’m visiting my parents. My mom is still going through chemo (only 2 more left!!!) and she cannot get sick. I don’t know if it will be the same when she’s going through radiation, but I know that if I was home this past week, it could have been very very bad for my mom.

Hopefully this will be the last post about me being sick for a while.

A Weekend Catchup Post (or Maybe The Craziness Made Me Get Sick)

After 2 days of posts about me being sick, I’m sure you are all wanting to read something different. So this is about my crazy Saturday (which now looking back at it might have made my immune system a bit low and made me catch this cold).

Saturday is normally a short shift day for me. I work from 10-2 and have the rest of the day free. This past Saturday I had to open up because my boss was too sick to be there. Plus, I had previously volunteered to work at the show on Saturday night because I knew I would be asking for the upcoming Saturday off. So I knew that I had to be back at work at 6pm for the show shift.

I’ve done split shifts in the past. They aren’t my favorite thing, but they are a necessary evil at my job. Normally, I’d go home between the shifts to get some work done at home and get dressed (regular shifts are very casual but show shifts are dressy business). But since this past Saturday was SoulCycle’s anniversary, I decided to spend my time between the shifts in Santa Monica.

The first shift I worked was a little crazy. There were some projects that we had to work on and the phone kept ringing off the hook, preventing us from finishing the projects in a timely manner. Everything got done, but it was a little stressful. I had some free time between the shift and my spin class, so I hung out in my car and read a book.

Spin was awesome! It was Patrick’s class, which I always enjoy. It really helped get the stress from my shift out of my body and get me ready to go back to work again. I also almost broke a personal record for the most calories burned in spin class (I was 14 calories short of my all time best).

Then I quickly showered and got ready at SoulCycle to go back to work. I ate a quick dinner as soon as I got back in my office and then headed into the theater to work.

My show shift went pretty smoothly. I’ve done plenty of show shifts so I’m familiar with what needs to get done. And while the show was going on I get to read my book (which is awesome because technically during that time I’m getting paid to read!).

I was finally done with work and got everything cleaned up. By the time I left, it had been 12 hours since I arrived at work.

I’m wondering if all the craziness and stress from the day contributed to me getting sick. I was doing well with all of my co-workers being sick around me and then right after my shift is when I started to feel a bit off.

If this crazy day made me sick, that’s ok. It was worth it. I got a lot of work done and did an awesome spin class! I consider that a win even if getting sick is not.