spoiled chinese girl

Today’s interview was somewhat of a bust. My resume and application clearly stated I was looking for a customer service, production or estimating role within a printing company. He clearly knew he was looking for sales people and only sales people. Yet he still brought me into the company and still took time out of both our schedules to meet and chat.

It wasn’t a complete loss, I was complimented and therefore my day was brightened. He was able to confirm that my outgoing personality and confidence would be well suited to the roles that I had stated I was looking for (so I’m thankfully not searching for the wrong job) but spent a good portion of the time asking if I knew classmates who would fit his sales role.

In the end, I handed him my resume which he promised to pass onto the HR department, and I made suggestions to how he would be able to contact other graduates of the GCM program. And because I’m so nice, I sent his contact information to a friend who’s also looking for employment, and could do well as a sales person.

While I was driving there, I got a call (that I couldn’t answer) about another application. When I was driving back, I scored myself an interview.

(My own reference)
Today: Pickering
Tomorrow: Mississauga
Monday: Toronto

I’ll hold off on mailing out more applications until Monday. I think this “wave” still needs time to reply. And it’s too nice outside to sit inside and blast off e-mails to every printing company in Southern Ontario.

Yesterday I was able to succeed in a 33% reply rate of patrons I already met time and again previously. Which was stunning in and of itself but at the same time yielded no results.

Today, however, I was able to secure myself two job interviews, out of approximately 50 blind e-mails sent. Securing myself for the 4% victory as shown in the title.

**UPDATE** Researching my own material, it seems I sent less than 40 e-mails, therefore securing that I have in fact reached a 5% success rate, not 4% as previously mentioned.

I have an interview in Pickering on Thursday at 10:30am.
I have an interview in Mississauga on Friday at 11:00am.

Other than that, I was able to sit on the patio for two seperate one-hour sessions slathered in tanning oil while reading a book I hope will be able to teach me some new tricks. I have stocked my stores of Vitamin D, and also a healthy glow while still adhering to the SPF regulations. Tomorrow if still possible, I would like to attempt the backside.

When conventional steps to finding employment are no longer available, such as replying to job postings that are directly related to my field… I began to search a little more unconventionally. Searching and replying to job postings that are slightly out of my field, being that I’m either slightly underqualified, or slightly overqualified. At this point it was sink or swim, and the longer you wait, the less you feel like moving.

Alas…
There are those of us who only live inside The Box.
There are those of us who try to live outside The Box.
Then there are a few of us who stand on top of The Box, expose our selfs and shout:
HEY WORLD! I HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU ALL!

And the time has come. Last night I pooled together every business card related to the Print Industry I could find, and created myself a nice spreadsheet with everyone’s name, e-mail address and company as well as where I met them. After, I searched for every printing company within the Greater Toronto Area, and searched my heart out for contact e-mail addresses and company names, and hopefully a name to go with the address, into a seperate book of the same spreadsheet. Let the mass marketing begin!

Strangely enough, of the 30 or so contacts that I was able to contact through year-old business cards, 10 replied to me by the time I had finished lunch (within 2 hours) with good luck messages, informing me they’ve forwarded my message to the proper departments or even checked up on my status and passed along employment opportunities from other companies. Also, I received a record of 8 hits to my professional website, the majority from companies I had e-mailed. The response rate being this good, I’m definately uplifted in my spirits.

Tomorrow when I wake up, and it’s Hump Day, I will be tackling the people I don’t know, but that I have names and e-mail addresses for. That’s my plan. My goal to be employed by June 1st may become a distant memory, but I’ll push it ahead. Give myself some breathing room. Because I *will* become employed, and I *will* succeed.