Retail...

...not sure if it's for me. I mean I want to for many reasons but Karma is not working in my best interest. I'm holding off any professional positions so that I may find a position in retail or grocery for a couple of reasons. #1) being that they are shutting down a major freeway I live right off of and use to get into downtown Sacramento or the "mini" silicon valley up on 50. Traffic will be a nightmare! #2) I'm moving, I'm moving closer to my parents about 70 miles away and until we (me and my cousin, I'm waiting on him) are ready to do that, I kind of want something low key and a job that I can transfer when I go. That way, I have a job when we move and then I can look for something else. Well I applied at Target, it's close by...no freeway needed and uh, well it's not Wal-Mart. So I do the whole Kiosk thing (yes, no paper applications anymore!) and I sit there and answer like 60 questions of "if you found a 5 dollar bill on the store floor while you were on duty what would you do" type of questions. It was amazing, I mean come on it's Target!! I hope I don't offend anyone by that but really, I just want to like I... dunno stock shoes, make some money and move and start my life in the town my parents live in.
So they called me for an interview someone named Sonia (I swear she sounded 15 and giggled a lot). It was supposed to be today at 5pm. Ok it's Target, I'm not sure...do I throw on the Kenneth Cole shirt with the Calvin Klein tie? (don't you hate when people name drop like that! LOL but hey I'm a bad sloppy messy ghetto gay so it's all I have!) Well I called a couple friends and they all suggested khakis and a nice polo so that's what I did. Uh...I was sitting on a bench outside a small office in the back of the store and a guy comes out of the office and asks if I'm there for an interview. No, I'm looking for cotton balls that's why I'm sitting here on a bench in the area that says Employees Only. I knew I was doomed right there. So I sit and I sit and the guy comes out again and asks my name and says he'll be with me in a moment. Meanwhile he leaves the door to the office/room open and a boy (yes I'm sure he was like 17 or something) starts talking to me about the interview process. Can I just say he was wearing jeans and a button up? Telling me what type of questions they ask and how to answer etc...then...he asks if I ever had an interview before??!!! Um, part of me is like, cute..I look young and the other part of me is like...dude, you have no idea!! I have interviewed with CEO's and partners of consulting firms! It was so surreal! In any case, they lost my application and their "system" had no record of me at all. Even though Sonia called me for an interview...so uh yeah, I need to reapply. *sigh* We shall see. ;) peace

I'm a dinosaur and Madonna still rocks...

So it's been a minute since I last blogged and I apologize for that. Well this past Tuesday was my last day at Intel and now I feel kind of lost. It's their corporate culture and the way the position operated and it just kind of becomes a part of your everyday life...so I'm like going through withdrawals. :) The good kind though! So I've been down in Manteca visiting my parents and just relaxing and looking at houses down there with my cousin. Knowing that I'm moving in like 6 weeks I don't want to take on anything permanent or even anything where I have to work in an office. It was a lonely year at Intel, if you're a regular reader you know that my job was quite lonely because the team members I worked with were scattered globally so it was email and IM for me as far as interaction with people. Although I did get to see my manager every other week for 1:1, when she wasn't traveling that is.

Well now, I want to work with people and the public so I decided to get something maybe in retail or grocery. Just something so I have some money coming in and to keep busy while we look for a place and I can pack. Now it's been 20 years since I've done anything in the retail/blue collar world (except for my stint as a waiter two summers ago and that almost kicked my ass!)lol. So this morning I get up and put on a nice polo shirt and some dockers grab some printed resumes I had lying around and head to the local retail center down the street. I go into Wal-Mart first and...I'm sorry, I just can't do it. I don't know why but I just did not want to apply there. So I walk next door to PetSmart and thought..yeah, I like animals and this would be fun. I walk up to a young man who has a badge that says Team Lead under his name and I ask if they are accepting applications. He said yes and that I can go apply online. Online? Hmmm...okaaay. So I thanked him and walked next door to Staples, hey I know software and I definitely know office supplies since I've been sitting in some sort of office for the past 2 decades, I could do this! When I walked in this time there was a cute perky blonde female who asked me if she could help me find something. She couldn't have been more than 17 if not 16, what is the limit these days on kids working? In any case I asked for an application and she just kind of gave me this blank look and hesitated for a few seconds "um do you mean like a book of applications for your own business? Like a restaurant or something?" "No, as in I want to work here and I'm curious if you have an application I could fill out?"
"ooooohh, okay...no you have to apply online, staples.com and click the careers link"
Okay, I thanked her and thought well...weird, no one has applications anymore? Couldn't be! Well after Borders, Kohls, Raleys (they actually had an online Kiosk in the store) Bed Bath and Beyond and Safeway all told me the same thing, I gave up and came home and slipped into shorts and a wifebeater and began applying at all the stores above. It is so hot outside I wish I had known that the blue collar world has caught up with the white collar world and everything is done online now! Does that sound elitist? Wasn't meant to be, so here I am applying like crazy wondering if anyone will actually call me since I have no experience in any of the store categories mentioned above. I shall keep you posted and in the meantime check out this video I saw over at Boy Cultures site...you gotta love Madonna and watching this video brought back a lot of memories from the past two decades. It kind of was ironic when I was feeling a bit out of place and like a relic, I see this video only to confirm it. LOL
peace ;)