Teetering on the Edge of Desperation

So after searching through many different outlets of job finding, I finally landed an interview… roughly a half hour I applied for the job… from something I found through Kijiji. Hmmm, not suspicious at all! The interview was with a company called Vector Marketing. Right away I knew it sounded kind of shady but as indicated in my title… it’s been three weeks and I’ll take almost anything. The thing that made me most concerned is that I wasn’t even sure what position I was being interviewed for. I felt like that if I was to be hired I would be  selling my soul for $16 an hour (and you know, the higher the advertised pay, the worse the job is).

I go to the interview. There’s a whole bunch of other people there. There’s a VERY quick interview with each of us individually, which pretty much consisted of a brief introduction of the interviewer and interviewee and to let us know that they sell kitchen cutlery, basically. After we’re all through with the quick interview we’re sent back out in the room to wait for, wait for it… a one hour presentation!

After the presentation we were all given another quick interview just to let us know that we got the job, because obviously we did. I went home thinking, “Well no one else is calling me back, what other choice do I have?” But by the time I left even the street I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do this. I decided to look further into the company. Hmmm. Strange. Enough to put me off. (By the way, I don’t actually believe it is a scam, but I don’t think it’s as simple as they made it out to be.)

If that’s not enough, I then got a call from someone from Rogers Communications for a job opportunity. Right away I jumped on that. It was only after the phone call that I realized, not only did I not remember applying for a job with Rogers, but they called me on my cell where I’ve been giving every potential employer the home number to my Mom’s (since it’s I am staying for the summer). Supposedly they contact current customers for some “customer service” job.

So I head all the way downtown for this information session where these two guys end up talking to a bunch of us outside (and it’s VERY hot) about how great this job is and you can make so much money, and all I could think of was, “and what exactly is the job?” At least at Vector they explained exactly what they wanted us to do and exactly how everything worked. The Rogers information session pretty much went like this:

“This is a great job! You’ll make so much money. This is the time to back out now if you’re not interested.”

Silence.

“You’ll make a lot of money. And you can travel. Leave now if you’re not interested.”

Silence.

“Everyone here believe they are comfortable working with customers?”

Chorus of yes’s.

“Because there will be angry customers, so back out now if you’re not interested.”

It wasn’t until they started giving out paper work and I started reading the contract where it said door-to-door, and something about energy, commodity or something confusing of the like. That’s it, I’m backing out now because I am not interested.

I have to find something though because the heat is stifling and I’m getting super bored. Also, I need to eat. I’m even considering applying to Opinion Search, where I worked as a “Market Research Interviewer” (aka I call people during dinner and ask them if they’d like to do a survey) many years ago and hated. But I have to keep telling myself, it’s only temporary, it’s only temporary, it’s ONLY temporary!!

This is going to be a long summer.

Getting Back on Track

I have been kind of depressed lately and I can’t really figure out why things are bothering me more now than they have before. I suppose it is something that goes up and down with me. Though I was happier (I think) living in Etobicoke with roommates for Semester 2 than I was lonely and going crazy in Aurora for Semester 1, I still found myself MUCH less motivated to get things (studying, assignments, etc) done. My grades for the second semester dropped quite a bit but at least I’m still in Honours status. Now that school is done for the summer, I’m still not feeling too motivated. It’s been a few weeks and to be honest, I haven’t done very much to find a job. It doesn’t help that I’m now living rent-free in my mother’s house for the summer (thanks Mom!!), so having to pay rent isn’t too much of a motivator. However I have really started to make changes. I joined the Y (good price, just around the corner) and I’m quite determined on improving my chin ups! Also (this is the more exciting bit) last weekend I start boxing again! I’ve missed boxing dearly, and I’ve come to realize that it is my main fitness motivator. I even started running again. It’s because I want to improve in my boxing that I do go to the gym and start running to improve my cardiorespiratory endurance. I don’t think I see myself competing and I have considered sparring in the future, but for some reason, I want to do really well in boxing specifically, just for me.

Not standing on anything I swear!

Paying for all this? Good question. I have dropped off a few resumes, yes, and I attended a job fair that ended up being useless, but no one is even calling for an interview, which makes me feel even more depressed and hopeless . Not only do I need to pay for all my fitness stuff, and prepping to go back to school (with probably much less OSAP money), but this summer, this is it…

I’m gonna do it finally. This summer I’m going to Europe! I better go damnit or my head will implode, and all the shards of my skull will sink into my brain and lobotomize me, and I shall be stuck in this metaphorical closet for life repeating reruns of Spaced in my head over and over and over….

Right so, my good (British) friend, Paula, has decided to visit home and I’m hitching a ride her (or rather, going with her for free accommodations) and we’ll also head to the Netherlands, where my family is from (for more free accommodations) and maybe some other country near by for fun. I am REALLY looking forward to this. I have never been outside the continent and get so greenly jealous whenever I see someone’s Facebook status update as, “some country other than Canada or the US in ## of days!!” Or worse, “I now live in this country other than Canada or the US, and this other country, and this other country….” and so on. I wish I knew their secret. Maybe someday I’ll get my chance as well, but for now I’ll have to live with a two week trip, which I am very very very excited about. Things have always managed to not work out in the past, mostly due to my laziness, but I’m working very hard on getting my passport which is now in my possession, and I have enough money (mostly) left over from OSAP (which I really don’t know how it happened) to pay for the flight, although it is not something I want to depend on. All I have to do is sit down with Paula and actually plan it!

And now that THAT is recorded, there’s no backing out!

On a last note, please check out As A Curiousity, Wear A Chameleon On Your Lapel, which is a blog from my wicked artist friend, Adam.

On a last last note, King is still awesome.