Less than earth-shattering

Well, no news is good news currently. Job status remains unknown as I wait to hear back about the job. Just wanted to throw that out there before anything else.

On Sunday and Monday, I heard from two different recruiters/companies that I had contacted about employment. This reassured me greatly because it has lead me to believe that I am no longer sending my many, many cover letter/resume combos to a brick wall. I'd had this sinking feeling for a while now, wondering if career builder was really this elaborate cover to get personal information, professional qualifications (?) and the like for spammers, telemarketers, the army or whomever. So, anyway, I scheduled interviews on Wednesday and Thursday, and was asked back for a second on Friday after Thursday's interview.

Wednesday's job-in-question, I found out, was not the truest of employment situations. I was talking to a violin shop and they're willing to pay me for piece work, which means per piece, and they'll have me do scrolls, which is actually more interesting than bow rehairs and something that I've not done for a while, but they're not paying me hourly, nor would it be for any significant number of hours. I'm interested, but it won't pay the rent, only for the social life, or groceries, or for a trip to Cleveland each month. The rent is the issue.

Thursday's job-in-question is pretty darn ideal. The only catch would be that they seem to really want a commitment from me, which is hard to give, you know, seeing as I have no freaking clue of what our plans are for the next 8 years. They're not asking for a contract or anything, but it seems dishonest to imply that I'll be happily employed for at least 5 years when Mendon and I may want to take off in less. Ethics, blegh.

It was interesting, though, all around. I found that I am sort of (don't really want to admit this) tempted to give a less-than-honest answer to questions, if I can see the "right" answer and if I know the chasm of discrepancy between the two. This was particularly problematic when potential-boss, we'll call him R-, was asking about the breadth of my range of skills, with questions like "Do you do any networking?" "Accounting?" etc. I needed to respond negatively, because although I COULD do those things, I have not done them before, especially not in a professional setting, and it would be bad for the company to rely on my skills which are touch and go. It makes me think of The Squid and the Whale. The eldest son claims a Pink Floyd song as his own, is kicked out of the talent show, and his rationale for the whole thing is something like "yeah, but I could have written it, and that I wasn't the author just seemed like a small technicality." Hehehe. That would be me explaining myself when their accounting fell through the floor.

Regardless, the other important life lesson that I learned is that interviews exhaust me. Especially in the heat. Especially when I'm sleeping on an air mattress. Every day, I would come back to Andrew's flat (thank you, Andrew!), stare at Mendon for about 5 minutes, and the promptly fall over face first and pass out HARD.

Overall, the interviews were good. I'm waiting to hear back and I hope I do soon (some time this week is the time frame). Today is for more job applications, practicing, knitting, who knows. (I've started on a new sock, for myself, and I love it. I especially love it because we watched a lot of TeeVee shows while at Andrew's and it gave me lots of time to get through the leg of it. It's a top-down sock, which is a new technique for me, and I'm happy to be learning something). Anyways, updates when I get them and blog posts when I feel inspired.