Today was the first day of classes at the English Factory™. I wasn’t there. I don’t work there anymore.
To celebrate this development a few colleagues and myself got together last weekend for a few drinks. Trust me, it didn’t get too wild at the American chain restaurant that shall remain unnamed. We sipped some adult beverages, swapped a few stories, shared a few appetizers and went our merry way. It was a small gathering of people whom I will genuinely miss. All the folks who were there I consider friends, I hope they feel the same way.
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- Me and fellow Factory™ worker Nadia
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- Factory™ friends from left Eddie, Alfredo, Diego, me, Kevin, Sergio, Mariella (She’s there. Click on the picture for a look)
With all this free time I’ve been back on the job hunt. I’ve applied for three jobs over the past two days. Two of which, I feel I’ve got a legitimate chance to at least land an interview. Keep those virtual fingers crossed.
In the midst of applying for one of the above jobs, I got an e-mail from that particular company thanking me for applying. Thank you? Uh, I wasn’t finished. How can you thank me for something I haven’t done? Weird.
Searching for work is a bit more time consuming than one would think. When you find a job that seems worth applying for, the on-line application process takes about an hour. Every company seems to want different things with the application or has different forms to fill out.
This doesn’t even factor in the time it takes to find a job. That takes time. Job searching is like panning for gold. You have to sift through a lot of sand before reaching the nuggets. Communications is a broad area and the word is common in job listings. Hiring managers think retail clerks, military personnel, forklift drivers and IT specialists all need communication skills to do their jobs. Leaving me with piles of sand.
The countdown to the hometown is on. We are only 15 days away from our big return. Hopefully Lady Liberty can open her arms with a few job opportunities. The latest job loss numbers are encouraging, although the market is kind of getting battered by the now deadly European debt crisis.