Next Steps.

As I find myself constantly clawing my way out of the cellar, it becomes difficult to chart progress; a donation helps, but I need more. Getting interviews are great, but they aren't job offers.  Decent paying jobs are great, but I still wouldn't make enough to pay on student loan debt and save for retirement.

Here lately, the victories have come in the form of strategic retreats; losing a battle to save resources to keep the larger war effort going.  My war is constant poverty.  Everyone started it. Crappy circumstances met against a stubborn will to find a job I wanted to wake up every morning for, and this was complicated by a recession, poor money management skills(though a lot of people would fail to save when they don't make enough to live), and an erratic job history.

This war has both humbled me and desensitized me to the ups and downs every person feels in life.  Everything about me has steeped in a dreary grey.  That's great for an English breakfast, but it makes it hard to recognize any crests along the way.

Since my last post, I haven't heard back on the technical writer job. The recruiter never even replied to my emails.  Honestly, I'm used to being treated this way.  My AEP job fell through. The placement agency thought I was a great candidate, but....  I emailed to ask why I was rejected, but they never replied.  They NEVER reply.  Part of me thinks that I have been rejected for discriminatory reasons, which make many employers unable to be honest. But I'm not going to cry discrimination as a white male who did far too much hero eating in his 20's to show off to friends.

That leaves the other Columbus opportunity, which is at a call center for Restoration Hardware, I suspected I had a good chance because the skills test I took went well and the interview I had went great.  At the end of the interview, I asked her if there was any reason why she wouldn't hire me, which resulted in her taking the next 5 minutes to compliment me.  She told me she would send a background check and we would go from there.  I filled the background check forms out online as soon as they were emailed to me and have been waiting anxiously to hear back.

Today, I got too impatient and emailed her for an update.  When she called me back she said my background check had not come back yet.... but she would like to extend an offer contingent on the results of the background check.

Hooray.

It's a criminal background check and I'm squeaky clean, so I'm going take a moment to celebrate.  The job training will start on September 18th, in West Jefferson, which is 10 miles west of Columbus.  I stay in Cincinnati, over 100 miles away.  So yes, I still need donations if anyone can spare them for gas and food money.  Even if this place pays weekly, it will be 2 weeks after September 18th before I get paid at the earliest.

So my next steps are to get enough money to actually make it to the new job, then save enough money couch surfing and working to move up to Columbus.  There's always the chance that I get mixed up with someone else and my background check has some sort of errors on it, but I'm going to try to be positive for a while and hope for the best.

Feel free to distribute the link to this blog if you are unable to donate, Maybe other people who follow you on Twitter or Facebook will be able to  share the link or donate.

Thank you in advance.

Sam.