The Backstory

After I unexpectedly lost my job – though, truth be told, I had been unhappy with the unfolding drama with my supervisor for at least a year (probably closer to a year and a half)….I was hurt, embarrassed, angry, and….sad.

The other stuff I could wrap my brain around pretty quickly, but the sadness surprised me. What was it, specifically, that made me sad? I think that I can say with some confidence it was that my supervisor, who had been past parts motivator, friend, goader, ambassador…..had given up on working through the issues that had come up of late. That is not to say that I wasn’t at least half responsible for it, also – because I was equal parts troublemaker, prodder, passive-aggressive jabber, and concerned friend.

The next day, I got up early (those of you who don’t know me, that means before noon) went online immediately and started signing up for job sites. It became apparent pretty quickly that I was going to have to write down emails/usernames/passwords. Rifling through my top desk drawer I found 3 x 5 lined notecards – remember those from school, anyone? – and wrote down the site name, username, and password. I’m looking at my cards now – why, I must have 35 of them! Just a smattering….Shands, EmployFlorida, Taleo, HCA, Job Diagnosis, People First, LinkedIn…..

I went into Word and printed my resume. Printed it; read it. Tore it up. Started over again. Rewrote entire job descriptions. Started over again. After 4 hours of this, I was finally satisfied. I began posting said resume to all those websites.

I was diligent about my job search; I logged on and searched every day, still feeling hopeful. 

After a week, I began to wonder why it was taking so long. Geez, couldn’t these people see I was well-qualified for the position?!

By two weeks, I had torn off all my acrylic nails and bitten my real nails down to the quick.

Finally, after 3 grueling endless weeks of unemployment, I had a bite. An employment agency in town had seen my LinkedIn profile and wanted to interview me. At first, I was suspicious. Who were these people? Did people really scour that free site where you could post an online resume? Was this for real?

So….I did a little checking. I checked them out online before I responded to the call. They were a reputable business, I found from an ordinary Google search. As I found the owner’s names, I googled them also and found testimony from former employees and clients.

Once I realized it was a legitimate business, I called back, set up the interview, and mentally got myself ready for the interview. I pulled out my business suit – the one I’d worn to the last interview I’d been on – my former employer. I stood in front of my bedroom mirror and rehearsed what I was going to say to all the hard questions. Part of me felt silly; part of me was excited and the rest was just plain nervous.

All my preparation paid off; the interview was a breeze. That is not to say that they didn’t ask hard questions – they did – but I knew how I was going to answer them, so it was easy in that respect. When I walked out the door, I knew I had the job. I just knew it.

Sure enough, an hour later, I got the call that they were going to send me on an interview with their client. I felt as if my aspirations had been realized; this whole nightmare was going to end.

I went to the interview the next day and met with Stephanie, a young woman whom I immediately felt at ease with. She seemed very down-to-earth, unpretentious, and spunky. I liked her. And she liked me, I could tell. There was just one more thing I had to do…..there was a test for me to take. She gave me the test and left me in the conference room. It was a nice conference room; the furniture was new, comfortable, and very ergonomic. After a time, she came back with a man, David. He was the owner of this company, a very funny, friendly, Southern gentleman. I liked him, too. He was hard to read, though; I couldn’t tell what he thought of me. I passed the test, they both told me with a smile. Then it was mostly jokes and filler conversation.

As I walked out the door, I called the employment agency and asked to speak to Jason, the person I had interviewed with. He was on another call, so I left a voicemail saying that I thought I had the job. Immediately, he called back. Yes, I had the job. Yes, they wanted me to start right away.

My first temp position was for a furniture showroom. I was the “sales administrator,” an administrative assistant who supported two full-time sales people, Mike and Buffy. When I say supported, they would bring me orders and I would input them into the [proprietary] software and price it for them. Said pricing depended upon whether the client was governmental or private-sector, what current campaigns were running, and a number of other equally-important factors. All this is to say that it was not, by any means, cut and dry.

Stephanie, my boss, had been with the company 6 years; my other co-worker, Cyndy, had been there 9 years. When you come into a job where there are “long-timers,” you expect some flexibility. 

This leads us into the last post..... (The Good The Bad and The Really Ugly)....