Frugality As Applied To My Job Search

Well, I'm still waiting to hear back about the interview I had with my orange-striped hair.  I guess there's not as much urgency to fill the position as I thought, since everyone involved with the hiring is on vacation until next week! 

I did manage to find a sale on the hair coloring I normally use, so on Monday I picked up a box, re-did my hair, and was elated when it came out the way I wanted it to ... back to my original color at last!  Some people would (and have) said that coloring my hair is an unnecessary expense when I'm trying to save money, but I see it as an investment in my job search ... the alternative would be to go to interviews looking as though I'm almost ready to retire, and nobody's going to hire someone who seems that old.

On Wednesday I was back at Mom's place.  I got all her books re-shelved, but when I offered to do the china cabinet she said no, she was too tired.  So that will get done some time this coming week.  I'm sure when it's finished, she'll think of something else she wants done; I don't think she'll ever admit that she's just lonely and wants company, because that would be admitting a "weakness".  It's too bad, really, because I do enjoy her company and would go and see her every few days even without being manipulated into it.

Thursday there was a big "Hiring Fair" over at the Rec Center.  I borrowed my daughter's transit pass, since she didn't have to be at work until 5:00 p.m., followed the website's instructions to take lots of resumes and dress professionally, and was there at 9:30 a.m. since the doors were to open at 10:00 a.m.  There were already hundreds of people in line ahead of me; I heard later that almost eight thousand people showed up!  I was surprised to see most of the crowd in jeans, shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops  -  yes, it was a hot, sunny day, but some of us (myself included) made the effort to look professional ... As it turned out, we probably needn't have bothered.  Of all the exhibitors, there were only three that were offering anything I'm even remotely suited to, or interested in, and none of them were taking resumes, only giving out the website addresses to apply on-line.  Still, I don't regret making the effort.

I got home to find a message to call a shipping company I'd applied to a couple of weeks ago.  I called them back and was offered an interview for Friday!  It was quite a pleasant surprise, since I'd pretty much resigned myself to not hearing from them.  So I freshened up my other suit, polished my shoes, did my nails and eyebrows, and lay awake half the night thinking of all the questions I might be asked and how best to answer them.

The interview itself was rather short  -  about twenty minutes  -  and they did say it would be "a week or two" before I heard back from them.  So I'll give it two weeks and then call.

After the interview, I walked a block up the street to see two former co-workers who've been kind enough to be references for me.  We had a really nice visit, and one of them offered to call a friend at another shipping company on Monday to see if they were still hiring for a documents position, and if they'd be interested in seeing me.  That was really heart-warming, and I told her so!

Friday night, as always, was movie night at Mom's, with my sister.  We watched an episode of "Rumpole Of The Bailey" and thoroughly enjoyed it, and then Sister helped me carry the books Mom was getting rid of down to my car, where they went into the trunk with the rest of the stuff I'll be dropping off at the local thrift/charity store tomorrow.

The weekend has been fairly lazy, for a change.  I finally got to dig into my latest acquired-with-gift-card Robin Hobb trilogy ... I think I may have to go back and re-read the trilogy that precedes this one, just to refresh my memory of everything that leads to the events in these new books.  Funny, I always thought that if I lost my job I'd at least have time to do all the reading I wanted to, but it hasn't worked out that way.  Between the daily job search, the housework, the much bigger vegetable garden, the things I've taken on to try bringing in a little more income, the changes I've implemented at home to save money, and the frugal expand-the-office-wardrobe tactics I've adopted, it often feels as though I have less "free" time now than I did when I was employed full-time!