Job Search: The Final Chapter

My job search, a saga that has dragged on for nearly 9 months, has finally come to an end.

After scrounging, researching, networking, and sending out damn near 150 resumes and cover letters, I got a job in Hershey.  Well, not in Hershey, in Harrisburg.  But it’s close to Hershey.  Everything out here is in a different town, but still close.  Towns here appear to be three to five blocks a piece.  Why is that?  It’s confusing, especially when trying to give or receive directions.

They DO know that not every neighborhood needs to be considered its own town, RIGHT?

But I digress.

My search started way back in November, when I applied for my first post-graduate school job.  I had stars in my eyes, a spring in my step, and (almost) a Master’s degree in my pocket.  Cut to April, after I had decided to move out of Pittsburgh but had not decided how I was going to pay to live and stuff, and my hopes had been effectively dashed.  I never once considered what I would do if I had no job prospects on the horizon by the time moving day arrived.  It loomed angrily over me as my days as a Pitt employee ticked down to zero.

Well, I thought, I’m going to job search and work out full time.  It’ll be fun!  I’ll just think of it as FUNemployment!

And the first few days were fun.  I unpacked boxes and did innumerable loads of laundry.  I arranged bookshelves and stocked up the kitchen.  I nested until I could nest no more.  The next day, I slept until 3:00 and ate ice cream as I stared wistfully out the window and longed for Pittsburgh’s distinctive skyline and comforting halo of smog.

Boyfriend (I know, I know…IT’S FIANCE NOW…but “boyfriend” has such a nice ring to it) would have none of that and began dragging me to work with him every day.  That meant I practiced kung fu for approximately 8 hours a day.  It was, indeed, funemployment.

Then the calls came.  Calls for interviews.  Interviews for jobs.  Jobs that would pay me cash money!  I had four in a two week span.  I primped and practiced smiling in the mirror, then I did my best to charm the pants off of each and every interviewer.  Calls slowly came in, and I heard back from three of them with good news.  But one remained.  Of course, it was the one that I could easily access through public transportation and offered the highest salary by far.  The others needed an answer within three days.  I called the Human Resources office at my last remaining option, only to hear an out-of-office reply crush my spirit by asking me to call back in a week.  What to do?!

You know how this story goes, right?  I take the huge chance and turn down the other jobs with the hope of getting the great one, only to be turned down and remain unemployed for all eternity?  Not quite!  You see, I DID turn down those other three.  I told them I had already been offered a higher paying job, thank you.  Confidence and positive energy for the win!

The next day, I was offered that job.  I would start in two weeks.  That gave me two weeks to lounge, to practice, to sleep, to eat ice cream, to visit my sister, and to spend quality time with boyfriend.  The job wasn’t perfect.  No writing, not exactly intellectually stimulating, but better pay than Pitt with great benefits, which is much appreciated while I try to figure out where to go with my writing from here.  Everything had worked out.

Until Pitt didn’t pay me for my accrued overtime and vacation hours in my final paycheck and never sent me a pay stub.  Maybe they’ll be sending me that in a later check?  I don’t know, HR won’t get back to me.  And with that, the universe is balanced once again.

The end.

For now.