My Career Past, Present, and Future

Currently, I am working at a grocery store. And let me tell you it is about as fun as it sounds. People are nasty when it comes to their groceries. I have a new respect for the employees where I buy my groceries. I have had weird requests like being told to knot some of a customer’s bags and getting yelled at about which bags to knot. I have had to go over each item in a woman's bill because she couldn't believe she spent $40 on groceries! I had one woman bring a large amount of items to the register and after making me scan them decided she only wanted half of them. I've worked retail jobs before and met my fair share of customers in a bad mood, but this job definitely takes the cake. It amazes me how some people treat workers. Sorry to be prejudice, but I'm looking at you old people. In my experience you are not a very understanding bunch. You are inpatient and feel you can say anything because you are close to meeting the grim reaper.

So yes readers this is what you would call a low point for me. If you had asked me how my life was going during my senior year of college or even this fall I would have answered that I was at a high point. I was excited about my future. I felt like I was making steps toward where I wanted to go. So how did I get here you may ask? Good question. Like all good stories, let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. (Yes I did just drop a Sound of Music reference. You got a problem with that?)

My early career endeavors consisted of me working as a hostess at a BBQ restaurant and a sales associate at Polo Ralph Lauren. Both jobs were OK. A good way to make money and learn the value of working. They were typical high school part-time jobs.

Every summer I returned home from college, I worked as a sales associate at a resort. This job was probably my favorite out of my part-time jobs. I liked the people I worked with and it was great to know every summer I could return.

During college, I decided that what I wanted to do with the rest of my life was work in Public Relations/ Marketing. I liked that PR and marketing had a creative element to it, unlike Finance and Accounting. I liked that the field is constantly changing thanks to social media. It's young and fresh with so many options for me to go professionally. My classes were interesting and I felt that I was good at it. My school had a PR club which I joined. During my senior year I held a leadership position on the club's eboard.

Senior year I knew I needed to set myself up in a good place when I graduated and get some professional experience. I am a big advocate for doing internships. It gives you something to put on your resume, you learn a lot, and it allows you to see if this is a something you would like to do for the rest of your life. My first internship was in the fall of my senior year. I worked as the marketing intern at a local non-profit theater. I loved it. I love theater, so this internship was a perfect match for me. It was a very small company. I worked directly with the executive producer. There was no marketing department. I created Facebook pages for the different productions at the theater and helped promote the theater to college students and veterans.

After this great experience, I knew I wanted to do another internship in marketing and continue working in the theater industry. This time I set my sights to NYC. In the spring of my senior year, I worked at an off-Broadway theater in the city. It was definitely a bigger theater than my last internship. Working with the marketing department, I learned a lot about HTML, social media and researching and planning events. I got to attend some pretty cool events like a benefit for the theater and an opening night party. Highlights were having my picture taken on the red carpet and seeing my name in a Playbill.

As the end of college drew near, I knew so did the end of my summer job at the resort. I wanted to get a job in my career field and put my degree to use.  After having no success in my job search, I decided to do another internship. During the fall after graduation, I worked as the marketing intern at the trade association for the Broadway industry. This was the biggest company I had worked for so far. It gave me a completely different look at the industry. I got to attend departmental meetings and occasionally present the different projects I was working on. They have a really great intern program. Every Friday all the interns would get together and have a seminar with a different department head. It was a great way to learn about all the different departments and get a feel of all aspects of the company. It also was a great way to get to know my fellow interns. While I worked there, I got a second job at Barnes & Noble as a seasonal sales associate. I love books so this job was a fun place to be when I wasn't working at my internship.

I loved all three of my internships and wouldn't trade the experience I got from them, but come January I was jobless with no idea what my next step was. During the fall I was so happy and confident! I was doing what I wanted to be doing and I could visualize my future. I loved dressing up in business attire and commuting into the city (yes that's how much I liked what I was doing). I liked going to work! How many people can say that?

And here we are back to today where I am working at a grocery store. Don't take this sad tone to be me giving up. Oh it's quite the opposite. I am avidly applying to jobs. The job search is something I do daily. And I have gotten plenty of interviews, yet nothing seems to come from it. On the bright side, I've gotten pretty good at interviews. I even got an email talking about it. And I quote "We must have met 25 candidates and you stood out to us as someone who was poised, mature, well-spoken, intelligent, curious, and diligent. While we have decided to hire a different candidate for this position right now, I wanted to wish you the best of you luck in your continued search." So I mean it was nice to hear that my interview style is good, but it still sucked to not get the job. A very bitter sweet email. And even though working at a grocery store isn't what I had in mind for myself I feel like I am getting something out of this time in my life. I will hopefully look back at this moment and laugh. I mean you're supposed to be struggling and terrified in your 20's right?! It's teaching me a lot about myself and if working part-time jobs for minimum wage doesn't give you an appreciation for people I don't know what will? This is all a part of my journey. (Sometimes I'm not this positive so enjoy this optimism while it lasts.)

So we covered the past, present, now on to the future! What are my plans for the future? Below I give you my goal list. This is definitely a long term list and is open to changes. I'm not expecting everything right away. So here it is. My Goal List (in no particular order):

- Live in a major city (Preferably New York City)   
-GET A FULL TIME JOB, UTILIZING MY DEGREE, WITH BENEFITS LIKE AN ADULT!!!! (Does the all caps show my desperation?)
-Work in the theater industry

That's it so far. The big three. Overall all I just want is to be happy. I want to like going to work every day. As long as I can find that I will be grateful. But until then, would you like your groceries double bagged?