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.

Fffffffffffffffffff.........

So frustrated right now...

Another seemingly solid job lead has dissolved, just as another promising job lead emerges. I should be happy to have a new opportunity, but this has been happening for months.

Last week, I was certain I would at least have 1 job offer this week, but this week, I ended up with none.  Next week I fully (perhaps, fooly) expect at least 1 job offer.

In June, as I was staring at an empty refrigerator and an empty wallet, I debated the offer to leave my apartment to stay with a friend because I was certain I was close to getting a position.

I wasn't.

People respond to my plight as if I'm lazy. I'm not.  I was raised hauling in firewood, and shoveling hog manure since I was in the 5th grade.

I'm not good at the easiest to get jobs. Perhaps the catalyst responsible for me starting Poor Blog was when I went to work at Amazon a couple years ago to get off of unemployment.  I knew it would be hard, but I had to do something.  I was so bad at the grueling warehouse work that after two days, I was laid up, unable to stand, other than to slowly and painfully shuffle my feet, for two days.  I wasn't lazy, I was terrible at that sort of work.

People keep suggesting things in the key of 'why don't you just...' and you can fill in the blanks with serving, cooking, and other restaurant work. What those people never believed or listened to was that I did apply for those types of jobs and never made it past the interview. I'm always amazed at people that can just go out and get one of those jobs in a couple days and start the next week.  If I got the dishwasher job or the chicken restaurant job, I probably wouldn't have done much better than I fared at Amazon.  I could suffer through hard, physical labor when I was younger, but now, I'm just too terrible at it and my back and feet are too weak.

So even if I were hired for one of those jobs(and I have applied for them), I probably wouldn't last very long.  Instead, I try to look for work that compliments my skill set.

I find good positions in chunks. Usually, there is a job I really want, but my skills may be a little low and my prospects aren't as high. Another job fits my skills well even though I wouldn't prefer that work as well as other types of work.  A third job is some customer service type job that I have done a version of in the past and that I'm a mortal lock for, I perceive as a fallback position if the other two fall through. Then, all three positions fall apart.

This has happened several times since January; it may be happening now.

I hope not.

I lost the Sam Adams position and the same temp agency that sent me to that interview, called me about the opportunity at Sugar Creek Packing.  I didn't know this at the time, but they already knew I wasn't getting the Sam Adams job when they called about the Sugar Creek job.  I only found out after my Sugar Creek interview, when I called Lab Support to follow up on the Sam Adams job. Today, Lab support called to talk about a lab tech position they thought I would be interested in. Suspicious, I asked about the Sugar Creek job, and sure enough, they already knew I wasn't getting it.  When did they plan to tell me?

I had a good interview for a call center job in Columbus yesterday and earlier this week I applied for another Columbus call center position.  The former could be viewed as the safety pick, the fallback choice.  I have an interview next week for a technical writer position here in Cincinnati as well as an open house in Columbus for that second call center job.

I would love to get the technical writer job, but even more than that, I would love to not have all my job leads fall apart.

I had a few big donations last week, but that is all going toward gas, food, car insurance and rent for my possessions sitting in Public Storage.  If anyone reading this hasn't donated and wants to, or knows of someone who can donate, please donate or pass along the link to this blog.  Even if I get hired next week, I'll still need money to get by until I get my first check.  Every little bit helps.

Thank you.

Drained.

It's been a draining week.

As annoyed as many probably were at my non-stop fundraising and E-panhandling, it took a bit out of me, to the point I feel completely drained, emotionally.  Asking for help feels inherently submissive to begin with, but asking for donations is just extra sad.

I did get a few donations. My sincerest thanks to those who donated.  I really am broke and I need gas and food to get my through until I get hired and receive my 1st paycheck.  I had an interview w/ Sam Adams here in Cincinnati a week and a half ago. I thought it went well, but it could be at least another week until I hear back from them. Last week, I drove all the way up to Columbus to take a skills test for a customer service position in a call center for a utilities company.  I should find out this week if I get invited back for an interview.  Tomorrow, I have an interview with Sugar Creek Packing Co. in Fairfield, on the northern end of Greater Cincinnati.  I figure I have a good shot at that job(QA) and then I have the call center job to fall back on if Sugar Creek doesn't hire me.  Of course, it's possible that nobody hires me.

The QA job would probably start the next week, which means I may get paid in as few as 3 weeks, but the call center job, if hired, doesn't even begin until Sept. 14th, so I won't even see a paycheck until October in that scenario... plus, I'll have to drive 100 miles and stay with family during each week until I have enough money to move.

I'll be happy if I get hired, but unfortunately, I may need a little bit more money to get by, even if I get hired.

Any donations appreciated, but I understand if you can't or won't.  I also found out that I am legally considered homeless.  I'm staying with a friend, but that is only meant to be temporary.  I guess it's just a label, but it really is a reality check that I have no place of my own.  Hopefully, I have good news this week.

Employment!

I can haz job!

I started a job today! I lost my last full-time job on June 13, 2013 and started this new job exactly 9 months later.

It's just like a pregnancy, except all I gave birth to was debt and sadness.  I applied everywhere and got turned down or straight up ignored by almost everyone.  Most recently, I applied for - and was turned down for -  a Team Leader position with the local General Mills plant. I still have a shot at a QC role in a local flavor company, so I'm still hopeful for that.

The job I got is a low wage job driving vans for a rail transportation company.  Basically, I will be driving rail workers from one rail yard to another.  I will make $8.67 per hour during training and while waiting at the rail yard for rail workers to show up. I'll make 20.5 cents a mile once I start driving, them; so as long as I average 55 mph, I'll make over $11 per hour.  We'll see how the pay shakes out.

If I get offered the QC, job, I'm taking it.

I'm still poor, but at least now I'll have an income. I can start treading water and stop drowning.