Big News!!!

I think I have mentioned once or twice on my blog that I have been unemployed for a while.  The frustrating thing about finishing a degree just in time for the recession is that I have a lot of education but no practical experience within my new field.  These days (and for several years now), you pretty much need to have five years of experience AND a job just to get a new one. 

I had an interview at (yet another) job placement service last week and I got grilled pretty heavily on my two year "gap" between 2008-2010.  They wanted to know what I had been doing during that time ("So, you just weren't working?") and how they were supposed to explain it to the companies they were hiring for ("I don't know...it's going to be tough to explain this away...").  I had to sit there and calmly explain to them that I had just finished an advanced degree in a very particular field, that I had also moved to a brand new city where I had no industry or personal contacts at a time when no one could get a job.  What I really wanted to do was scream at the woman to get a clue, and tell her to go shove her slightly-above-minimum-wage-job.  But...I needed to get into her system as a backup, in case my other interview of the day didn't pan out.

But it turns out I needn't have worried.  I interviewed at a company that same day, and got a job offer the very next evening.  The woman who interviewed me called me from her home to offer me the position.  I am so thrilled!  Sure, it means less knitting time, and I have to cut out my weekday shifts at the yarn shop so I'm back to Saturdays only, and now I can't continue taking my Tuesday morning sewing class, but...I got a job!  Honestly, it's just entry level and the pay is not that great, but it's in the industry I would like to work in and it's a foot in the door.  I start tomorrow so I'll let you know how it goes after I've been there for a week or so.

I still haven't heard back from little Ms. Holier-Than-Thou at the job placement service.  Her loss. ;-)