New Job: Day One

Sometimes you go through life wandering from job to job never knowing what you want to do and suddenly, WHAM! you find yourself doing something you never seriously considered. That happened to me.

Okay, so I totally didn’t mean to blog about my job today as it is only a few days until Christmas and there needs to be some posts about recipes and ideas and such, but seriously, I have to. I’ve never worked somewhere that I felt immediately comfortable with my coworkers. Yeah, the quirky bunch I worked with at The-Store-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named was great, but it took a couple weeks for me to, well, be me. I actually think a lot of me came out last week during my working interview, and pretty much anything else yesterday on my first day of work.

Being a veterinary receptionist was not that high on my job search, mostly because the postings for such a job were far and few between. However, with that being said, I’m so thankful my pastor told me about the position because I can’t imagine a better work environment until I figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Of course, after doing the telemarketing thing, the retail thing, the hotel thing and the fast food thing, I definitely know what I don’t want to be!

Interviews

Today I have a second interview for a job I think might finally be a good fit, a veterinary receptionist with the possibility of becoming an office manager. Let’s hope I don’t screw it up.

So here’s the deal, in the past I was a hiring manager for a major retail store that sold mostly stuff made in a large country with major human rights violations and possible child labor law violations. The two are a perfect match. Anyway, let’s just say I got really good at interviewing people, but didn’t quite pick up on how to be interviewed. Let’s just say I wouldn’t try using any of the tactics employed by the people I interviewed… well, except for maybe a couple. But then again, I did hire those people.

One thing I’ve found that takes the nervousness out is to simply be myself, perhaps with a little toning down and much less profanity. For said major retail store I actually did tell the person interviewing me, after she asked me to name three qualities about myself, that I’m a kleptomaniac, a compulsive liar and have 192 personalities and I have a fourth one, I’m black. I was hired on the spot, not because of my answers but because of how I answered the question. She then told me I would be a good fit with her crew, all of whom were quirky and funny, allowing them to work well under stress and deadlines, a good thing to have in a 1-Hour Photo lab.

And today, here in just over an hour, I’m going to probably not use the same tactics, but I am going to be me. I won’t have to act or be nervous being myself. I won’t have to remember to turn on an inflection or ask one of my 192 personalities to take over. All I need to do is be me and show them I am the best fit for them. After all, if I do get hired on, I’m bound to pop out eventually.