Examiner.com

Me again. I warned you in the first post that I sometimes post multiple time a day.
Basically, I'm expecting this trend to continue until I have gainful employment.

That's right, this blogger is one of the masses living off of government cheese.

I've been in Seattle about 2 weeks and put in over 60 applications. These have ranged from retail and temp positions, to jobs that could be a stepping stone to my chosen career field, or biting the bullet and putting myself out there for something I'm not 100% qualified for, but that I would be great at.

Today, I had my first job interview in Seattle. I thought it went really well. I got along well with the interviewer, felt confident in my answers and am pretty enthusiastic about the company. It would be a great place to gain more experience in hospitality (and maybe even some event planning down the road) and the environment seems great. However, at the end of what I thought was a great interview, I got an odd parting shot from the interviewer.

As I'm leaving she said that if I'm chosen for a second interview, they'll be in touch shortly (ok, normal), but if not, it was great to meet me and good luck. I've NEVER had an interview end on such an odd note. It could be a standard send off, designed to impart that there is no implied second interview just in case I don't get chosen to continue the application process. Or it could be that she doesn't think I'll make the cut and have a nice life.

She was more than friendly and there was nothing about her delivery that made me think I was out of the running, so it may have just been a case of awkward phrasing. Who HASN'T been there?

Either way, I got through my first interview out here and look forward to finding a great job.

In the meantime, I'm getting situated and ready to begin my stint as the Seattle Interpersonal Relationships Examiner. That's a mouthful. Basically, I'll be examining interpersonal relationships, offering my take, communication tips, etc. I'm pretty excited. I love to talk (and write) and this is a site that I followed regularly when I lived in Missouri (I read the Kansas City Examiner all the time).

I've banked a handful of stories to get me started. Mostly topics that came right off the top of my head when I decided I'd like to try my hand at this. I'm also banking a few of these for weeks when I have a lot of job interviews or, once I start working full-time again, when my workweek is too busy to write as much as I'd like.

One of the things I'm doing to help promote my Examiner page is joining Twitter. I'm sure I've done it wrong because I don't get any updates on my phone. I only see Twitter stuff when I log in on my laptop. To be fair, I might be in my 20s, but sometimes I'm a little behind on social networking trends (though I did join Myspace and then subsequently Facebook before they had a million users). I just got my first smartphone this year and I'm in love with it. As someone who has had a cell phone since she was 15, when they first became mainstream for high school students, this surprises most people. It was my 18 year old niece who talked me into it.

So tomorrow, I will be investigating why my Twitter doesn't, well, Twitter. I also get to check in at a government approved employment agency to continue my eligibility for unemployment benefits. And then? You guessed it. Put in more applications for jobs.

On a personal note: the air mattress is getting old. As in, I've lived here for 2 weeks sleeping on an air mattress. My stuff left Missouri 3 weeks ago and looks as though it may not be here for 3-4 more days. If all of my stuff arrives intact, I can deal with it, but I won't lie: I miss my bed terribly.