last five entries

host - email - older- newest - profile - notes

work life

2010-11-23 -

It�s ok to be a little crazy. A little is ok. I know I said I was looking for a job, so I got one recently, but then I quit it. I quit, they hired me back the next day, and then I quit again. It�s ok.

It was an LA Matchmaker I was going to be working for - doing Sales, recruiting and Events. She is very cool and actually cares about people. She interviewed me and hired me shortly after, and I was happy about it, but there was something missing, I found out soon after. It was my enthusiasm. I was to help match up rich Los Angeles women to their male counterparts. I simply didn�t care, and I think really I need to these days.

Considering I�ve been yearning to go join something like a disaster relief effort, this job seemed like the exact opposite of that. Interestingly, the same week I accepted the position, a sister hotel in the tropics to the one my husband works at here in LA had a major hurricane disaster and some of the company�s employees just disappeared when the entire hotel collapsed. He came home and told me about it and I felt so bad that I couldn�t just hop on a plane and go help them. It was a horrible feeling. I reported to work the following morning and the first client who came in for Matchmaking was an asian girl in her early 30s who was looking to be matched up with a Jewish man in his 60�s. She looked like a pretty prostitute. She signed over a $5000 check and I felt like crying. �These are not the people you need to be helping!� my conscience screamed.

The second client was a Middle Eastern girl, 6 foot tall not including her boot heels, who had defected from her native country and just narrowly escaped being killed. Her father wasn�t happy that she didn�t want an arranged marriage I guess, and wanted her dead as a result.

�Well what the hell do you think this company fucking does!?� I said to her in my mind.

The company was really nice to me. When I tried to quit, they hired me back at a higher rate. I trained some more, and then quit again. I could just hear the phone call they had after we hung up:

�Yeah, she quit again.�

�What do you mean she quit again? We just gave her a raise!�

�She said she can�t do it. Something about it�s empty and makes her stomach hurt.�

I started applying for non profits a few months ago. One of them called me a week ago for an interview, and I just came back from it. My husband warned me that the place was in the severe hood, but I didn�t take him seriously. I should have. Urine soaked sidewalks don�t scare me, but cars with bullet holes through the body and only half of them with tires on sure do. When I sat down for the interview, the guy said

�What made you come in? Most people that have an interview drive right by and keep on driving.�

�Well I guess I�m ahead of the game then.�

�Yeah. Well it�s ok, we�re going to be moving to East LA soon.�

�I thought this was East LA?�

He then took me into a room where they do their paperwork. He asked me every question he could think of.

When have you managed people?
What do you like about this agency?
When have you had an issue with a subordinate? How did you handle it?
What do you know about gov�t funded programs?
What would you do if someone was late?
What is your work style?

I answered all of them well I think, but at some point I just stopped caring, because I realized I didn�t want the job. He was talking and talking and talking�..

�We�have�.8 �no 9 facilities in the greater Los Angeles area. We pride ourselves on our ability to gain funding��

and then I heard

�CAW! CAW!� coming from the (barred) window across the room. And he totally ignored it!

��.which we get from the government provided we hit our numbers��

��CAW!!�

I had to.

�I�m sorry to interrupt you, but what was that?��

�Oh, that? I don�t know. So tell me what you think about your weak points and how you would deal with them here?�

�But�was that a bird or a man?�

�I don�t know.�

Correct answer: it was a homeless man. I know this because he was still yelling through the window when I left the building.

Another nonprofit that I was really interested in, I applied to a few months ago. I showed the website to my husband. They really seemed to be helping people, and the employees looked so happy. I wrote a heartfelt cover letter and sent it with my resume. And then I never heard back. Until a few days ago! They told me they had narrowed it down to 10 people out of 279 applications. I was pretty happy about that. So I did a phone interview and went back for the full interview this week. Now it�s down to 4 people. And I have one more interview in San Francisco next week to see if I�m the final contender. The first girl I met with asked me if I knew how many applicants they had for the position.

�Yes, 279.�

�No, it�s more like 310.�

�Really!�

�Yeah it�s important that we find someone who really has enthusiasm for this kind of work.�

I didn�t tell them how mutual the feeling was.

previous - next