Time Flies

Has it already been 19 days since my last blog? Where has the time gone?

Where has the month gone? Another 10 days and June will be history.

Anyhow, I am SO glad that the warm weather is finally here. It's still not as warm as I would like it to be; but at least it's warm enough to sleep with the windows open.

Ever since I realized that I would not be able to get my business off the ground in the time frame that I was hoping for, I had been in a bit of a holding pattern.

Finally I realized ~ especially with our resources dwindling fast ~ that unless some major miracle manifests itself really soon, I have to put my plans of being my own boss on hold and start looking for a (gasp!) job.

Again.

Back to that grind of scouring thousands of job listings and sending off countless resumes in hopes that one of them will yield at least an interview, let alone a job offer.

So far, buying a lottery scratch ticket has been more fruitful in yielding results.

I did have an interview this past Monday, however. It was for an entry-level position as a marketing specialist at a company that deals with "direct media marketing" (which most people would call "junk mail") and business process outsourcing.

While I have had limited on-the-job marketing experience, I am confident that I have the smarts to pull off this job ~ not only to pull it off, but also be a smashing success at it.

One thing that seemed to be in my favor was my three years experience of having worked as a window/distribution clerk for the U.S. Postal Service. In fact one of the first questions my interviewers asked was how much mailing and postal experience I've had until ~ duh! ~ they noticed that it was right under their noses on my resume.

The interview was a short 15-minute deal ~ what one of the interviewers called a "meet and greet." They were going to be doing a series of these quickie "meet and greets" until Wednesday (yesterday) before they trim the list to a handful to invite back for a second interview. They said that I should hear from them by the end of the week.

15 minutes.

That's just about the number of minutes that experts say that it takes for an interviewer to decide if a specific candidate is appropriate for the job.

I hope I did well during my 15 minutes of fame.

It would be nice to have that job and be working for that company ~ especially since that company is growing fast and will have passed the $20,000,000 mark before the end of the year.

Hell! It would be nice to work ~ for a change ~ for a place that isn't struggling financially and doesn't have to cash in collected bottles and cans in order to replace a cordless phone that went flying off the company van after an employee carelessly left it there.

It certainly would be nice to not have to have to start all over again with a job search that yields nothing more than frustration.

It's not easy finding a job ~ a decent job that is.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, I should be earning a median wage of $52,660 as a college graduate. Yet, in my last job as business manager for a local animal shelter (the one that had to cash in those bottles and cans) I got paid less than a high school drop, whose median wage is $22,308.

In fact, the most that I had ever made ~ at the best-paying job I've ever had ~ still paid $42 a week less than what the average high school graduate gets.

What is wrong with this picture?

If I get this marketing specialist position, I would be getting paid what I should be for my educational level.

At least Ariana has a job. In fact she is the only one of us who has been able to get a job.

Last Friday Ariana started working at Jonathan Sprouts, a local sprout farm, as a packer. But even she, a recent high school graduate, still has a long way to go before she reaches the median wage for her level of education.