quick rant on looking for a second job

[garmonbozia]

I've been looking for an evening job to supplement my 9-to-5 job.  I stopped by a few places this afternoon only to find that it's almost as much a pain in the ass as looking for a better primary job.  One place handed me an application but told me there wouldn't be any openings until at least May.  Everywhere else just said go to their websites and apply there.

Those places would be the big-box bookstores and a couple of the local Starbucks.  I stepped into a Radio Shack thinking I might apply there.  When I was growing up, Radio Shack was the kind of place you'd go if you needed a capacitor, some resistors, and some LEDs for a project.  Still is, but apparently that's not the number one kind of customer they now cater to.  I was looking at the flash media display waiting for a chance to talk to a manager, but changed my mind and walked out after noticing two customers in there with cell phone issues.  I don't think I can deal with morons and their overused cellphones.  ("Would you like me to get some Super Glue and permanently attach that thing to the side of your head?  Or, I know!  How 'bout this new downloadable voice recognition app that keeps track of the number of times you say 'Oh my god!' and 'What EVER!', and awards points redeemable for a lobotomy and hair treatment.")  Also checked out a computer store.

Ahh shit, this won't be easy.  Some of the places I checked with are in hiring freezes, no doubt due to the economy.  Others have been shuffling surplus employees around after closing some locations.  Next up, I'll see if there is anything at the local colleges and universities.  I have library experience from the job I had back in graduate school.  And, of course, that master's degree ought to count for something.  You'd think, anyway.

[vodz]

I applied to work at a RadioShack recently. I had an interview, which I felt went well, but never recieved a phone call afterwards.

I now work as a canvaser for a company which signs up members (i.e. people to make monthly donations) for charities such as Australian Conservation Foundation. Shit work, but hey, I have a job and am promoting saving the planet, man.

[Gluey]

Or, I know!  How 'bout this new downloadable voice recognition app that keeps track of the number of times you say 'Oh my god!' and 'What EVER!', and awards points redeemable for a lobotomy and hair treatment.")  Also checked out a computer store.

  Well said. Those noobs are a pain in the ass. Here in Canada Radio shack has been renamed "The Source" same shit same asshole.
I go in their and people have to ruin it when all I need is a certian cord they keep in the back.
I have to wait and wait and wait............where I live it's a big hippie community. People who don't know shit about electronics.
Sometimes  I feel like saying "Maybe your optical disc is not working because it's covered in organic cottage cheese and petuli oil?"


amyways i'm getting off topic. Finding a job is a bitch. It took me a year to find a steady job.

[Gluey]

[garmonbozia]

I now work as a canvaser for a company which signs up members (i.e. people to make monthly donations) for charities such as Australian Conservation Foundation. Shit work, but hey, I have a job and am promoting saving the planet, man.

Back in college (undergrad days), I applied for a summer canvassing job... and lasted one day.  It was the absolute worst day of my life.  This was with a college environmental group.  During the previous spring, they promoted these jobs as easy work with good pay, so I tried it out.  The person who interviewed me already knew me, and was full of assumptions.  (The first time I ever got handed a line about communication skills.)  I pushed to try it the next day, anyway.  (This was an unpaid training period, so they had nothing to lose.)  When I saw the true nature of the job (e.g. keep asking for money until they close the door, even if it's old ladies on Social Security), I didn't want it.  The interviewer/trainer was a complete and total bitch about it.  That little failure out of the way, I went on with my studies that summer.  I decided to break away from that group.  And then the fall term came around, and one of the members of that group called me up.  ("We miss you, we miss you, please come back", and all that.)  I said no, and that my studies were a priority.  Interestingly, this particular student group was founded by Ralph Nader, the same egotistical ass-clown who handed Bush the election back in 2000.   

I didn't sleep well last night, just thinking about what a pain in the ass it is just to get a little McJob to supplement a career job.  (Of course, if this government agency I work for would just FUCKING PAY EVERYONE A DECENT SALARY, I wouldn't have to do this shit.)  When I get one, there goes all my spare time.  Trying to get to work by 9 am and getting home around 11 pm.  That's gonna be fucking fun.  I will continue trying to find a better career job, recession or no recession, because with the number of years I spent busting my ass in college and grad school, I shouldn't have to deal with some of the shit I've been dealing with.

[Callaway]

That sumer canvassing job sounds like it was a nightmare.

Too bad none of the bookstores have any openings.

I agree, it's very hard to find any job at all right now because of the economy.

[garmonbozia]

There's this sandwich shop near my office.  Yesterday, I thought about stopping by to see if they might be hiring for evenings.  That would mean just a short drive from one job to the next around 5 pm.  Then I remembered, this particular sandwich shop often sends an employee to stand by the road holding up a sign and looking like a schmuck.  (A common form of advertising around here.)  Just the prospect of being asked to do that and possibly being seen by co-workers from my main job made me say fuck it and scratch that one off my list.

I just went straight home this afternoon and didn't bother to stop anywhere to see who's hiring.

[Gluey]

That sumer canvassing job sounds like it was a nightmare.

Too bad none of the bookstores have any openings.

I agree, it's very hard to find any job at all right now because of the economy.

  sounds terrible. What ever you do don't get a job involving insulation/fibre glass. It's a living hell.
I did it once and didn't want to ever do it again.

[garmonbozia]

This one hellhole where I worked as an engineer, before going back for a master's degree, used fiberglass insulation in the making of its products.  There were bits of it in the air inside the factory, along with other nasties.

I had lunch today at the aforementioned sandwich shop.  For the hell of it, I asked if they are hiring.  Not now, but even if they were, their evening shift starts too early.

I stopped for groceries on the way home from work.  I asked them, and they said not for another month.  They've closed a couple of locations and have some displaced workers to transfer around.

I discovered today that some of my co-workers refer to payday as "pass-through day", referring to how fast the money passes through your hands, as there is little left after you pay your bills.  Many of my co-workers moonlight at second jobs, and have been doing so for a long time.

[Parts]

I am setting up an ebay and paypal account to sell stuff online just got the bank account it will be tied to under one of my wife's businesses should be up within the month.  I know your all dieing to get some of my parts

[garmonbozia]

The other day, I checked out a few fast-food places.  I filled out an app at one of them.  As I filled it out, I couldn't help thinking how ridiculous it is I have to consider such a thing, even years after obtaining an advanced degree.  After talking to a couple of employees, it sounded like that particular place might have the evening hours I'm looking for.  I ultimately withheld the application instead of turning it in.  Two reasons:  It had my SSN on it.  I don't like leaving that goddamn number around, not knowing who might see it.  The other reason was one of the people I spoke with gave me the manager's first name, but didn't know the last name.  That first name just happened to be the same as Walter's real name.  (Remember my "Walter and Lulu" rants.)  If there's even the slightest chance it's Walter, fuck it to hell.

A few days before that, I called up a plasma bank to see what's involved in that.  I'm not afraid of needles and pain.  What I am concerned about is who the hell else gets hooked up to those machines and if they really do an adequate job of sanitizing them between uses.

I talked to my career consultant the other day to get some leads on an industry that should remain strong even with the economy all fucked up.  (Healthcare... people are still going to get sick and injured recession or no recession.  Hospitals and other healthcare entities need I.T. people just like anyone else.)  That's for the primary job.  If I pull that one off, I can forget about all this business about selling plasma or flipping burgers from dusk till midnight.

There was an all-staff meeting at my 9-to-5 job today.  There won't be any layoffs there in the near future, but they did make it clear nobody's getting a raise.

On my own time, I'm looking for ways to cut costs.  I've decided to limit my video purchases to one DVD (or HD, BD, whatever) per month.  I set the thermostat a bit higher than before on warm days and a bit lower than before on cool days.  Of the three air purifiers in my apartment, I'm considering shutting one down and just using the other two.  (They're all going to need filters soon, anyway.  That won't be cheap.  The two that would stay on are the two by the litterboxes.)  I'm making it a point to bring my lunch to work as many days as possible, instead of getting lunch at the restaurants near my office.  (That saves between $5 and $10 every time.  I just made a huge batch of soup, to freeze in food containers and later nuke in the break room... enough to last the next couple of weeks.)