More Fun With Craigslist

For real?

Volunteer/Intern Retail Specialist-Personal Assistant ((Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn))
Reply to: comm-fpr5g-1170351894@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-05-14, 5:46PM EDT


Wanted a self-starter able to complete tasks, with ambition. Must know how to use a Mac. Knowledge of QuickBooks a plus. Volunteer/Internship to salary possible for the right person. Is this you ???

* Location: (Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* it's OK to distribute this charitable volunteerism opportunity for inclusion in 3rd party web sites that have been approved by craigslist

This person is looking for an intern, maybe. Definitely free labor. But there is nothing in this posting even referring to a charity.

I know the economy sucks. And believe, I have a lot of familiarity with employers who wanted to get a lot for very little (like free), because they don't place any worth on their employees - only seeing the immediate profit. But ... really? To put that in the volunteer section? Lame.

Cupcake Cookoff Images and Links

As promised, here are some photos from Monday night's cookoff at Union Pool.

cupcakes near mine - the s'mores won honorable mention in the decoration part of the competition

more competition

my entry in the foreground

pre-competition in my kitchen

And a link from Not Eating Out In New York with her recipe and some photos of cakes she found appealing - the second one down is mine!

The winner's boyfriend donated $200 (bought 200 votes) to the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen - which, as stated previously is a really good cause! Good for him!



I would post the recipe if there was any interest, but perhaps I should keep it to myself and just keep wowing the crowds?

Full Time?

While baking cupcakes on Monday afternoon, for the cupcake competition (another blog to follow on that), I was listening to NPR and was interested in this segment on Tell Me More.

The gist is that one should treat job hunting as a full time job in itself. And there was a time that I believed that. A pre-internet, pre-Facebook, pre-laptops and cell phones time. When I was in high school, looking for a summer job, I looked in the papers. I printed out a resume on a dot matrix printer. I put a nice outfit on and I went in and out of nearly every store in the Fox Run Mall looking for a job. It took leg-work. It was a lot of work When I was in college and looking for an off campus job, I put on an OK outfit and went in and out of stores I might want to work at (read: I might want a discount at). It was a lot of work. When I had a job I was bored by and needed a more interesting one, circa 2001, I just sent my resume via the fax at the boring job, to stores I thought would be a better career move. I went home and stayed up late looking on Monster. It was work.

But it wasn't a lot of work. The simple addition of the internet in the search made it somehow a little less daunting.

And when I moved to NY, jobless and near broke in 2004, Craigslist was how I got every interview - before and after the actual move. It was work. And, as I had no income to speak of, it was furious and fast-paced work. But it wasn't a lot of work. It wasn't even full time work. There are only so many jobs posted a day. And you can only apply to so many of them. Especially when you are looking to build a career, not just have a job.

The economy sucks. It's in the freakin' toilet. Everyone knows that. And pretending that if you spend 8 hours a day looking online for a job you will get one any faster is just ridiculous. There are only so many jobs out there. There are only so many people looking to hire. Of course, the lay offs have slowed down, but those jobs aren't being filled. And with the amount of people who have been laid off from any given field, the competition is that much higher.

I'm not saying we should all sit around in our jammies watching reruns of 90210 on SoapNet all morning. No. Of course not. Wake up. Splash some water on your face. And sit down and look at those job boards. Look for something you want to do. But, if you are collecting unemployment, look for something you want to do long term. Don't get desperate until desperation sets in!!!

It's spring time, gentle readers. So. Go outside and sit under a tree to eat your lunch. Go for a bike ride. Take a walk. By all means, look for a job. Get on Facebook (and whatever other social networking tools you use) and remind your friends that you are looking - those long lost high school and college friends might have a lead for you! Hop on Craigslist and Monster and whatever other job boards are good for your industry and update your resume and send out those resumes. But, I'm not going to lie to you - in the current economy, if you spend eight hours a day doing that, you will just be spinning your wheels. And you will be frustrated. And you will feel bad about yourself.

And we all know that the laid off person already feels bad enough about themselves!

Cupcake Cookoff

After reading about the Brooklyn Kitchen sponsored Cupcake Cookoff on Greenpointers (and I think I saw it on Not Eating Out In New York as well) ... I decided to send an e-mail and see if they were still accepting entries ...and somehow signed myself up!




Um... Shit!
I guess I better get cooking! My cupcake recipe is top notch - really perfected. But I think I need to work on my frosting ... To frost? To ice? OH MY!

All the proceeds benefit the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen (where I am thinking of volunteering, at least for the summer, once my classes are complete) so come out for a good time and loads and loads of sugar!

Walkabout

West Street and ... Green, I think
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Kissing Frogs

This is a dating post.

In catching up, via email with an old friend yesterday afternoon, I told her that I was job hunting and man hunting. I'm not sure if the latter is the case, but I have definitely been kissing a lot of frogs of late.

When I was first laid off from my job, I was reading all these "You're unemployed, Now what?" blogs on the web. And while they all spoke of how to make good use of your time while on the dole, I was surprised to see how many of them talked of dating. Apparently, since dating is basically a full time job (and gee whiz, recent experiences prove that it is!) while you are unemployed is the best time to really concentrate on it. Here's the thing - you're unemployed. You're sitting at home all day - sure, maybe you are being productive in some way or another. You are caught up with what's happening in the world since you have so much time to read blogs/news/etc ... You are caught up on all the "water-cooler worthy" tv viewing, since you're not working. If you live in a city that has matinee pricing, you have seen all the new movies at these low priced matinees. You'd think you have a lot to talk about on a date. Maybe you do.

But you're not living in the world. You're whole day is leading up to this date. It encompasses your brain. You don't have deadlines or conference calls or meetings to think of. All you have to think of is which shoes to wear and what time to leave your house so you are there on time, but not too early. Just because you are desperate for human contact, doesn't mean you should be too eager on this date!

I went on a bunch of dates with a fellow unemployee a while back - he was trying to get published however, and put himself on a pretty strict schedule, almost like he was going to work. Of course, that simply meant that he plopped himself down in front of his computer the whole day long to write. And while, I was (am) interested in what he was writing about, it definitely gave us limited conversations. More recently, I went on a few dates with a gainfully employed fella - and our conversations revolved almost entirely around his work.

There must be some happy medium, no?

I am sick of kissing frogs.

Confessional

In this morning's job hunt, I have been thinking of the major differences in having a job and having a career. I went to a top, New England, liberal arts university. I studied art. I was involved in campus activities. I had a near-full time job to support this education. But it was just supposed to be a job. Four years after graduation, I was still working there - managing, sure - but still working at this job that was just supposed to be what I was doing to pay the rent and buy supplies during my senior and post-bacc years. It was never supposed to be a career. It's just something I fell into.

And, when that job ended, I found another retail job and another and another - always at nicer and nicer shops, as a manager and then an assistant manager with the move to New York. But it wasn't supposed to be a career. And, to be very honest, my gentle readers, I hated it. Especially once I got to New York - it's a different world, and everyone knows you have to know the right people to get the right job. In lots of other places in the world, a retail career is honorable. The people who do it are smart and talented and generally well-informed. And, while that is often the case in America, it's not the way you are treated while working in a retail shop - especially, in my opinion, in New York City. In New York City, the people who come into the shops, especially the high-end shops, are, in general condescending and rude. Of course, I had some amazing clients. I wouldn't want to lump everyone together. But, in general, the ladies that came in, black AmExes flashing, were not the most respectful people in the world. Though many of them were less educated than me, they had married well and somehow that made them better. Their career was shopping, looking pulled together and popping out good looking heirs to the black AmEx card ...

So, I had this retail career. I fell into it. I never imagined it. It was physically and mentally exhausting. It gave me a crazy schedule and seriously cut into my social life. And when things fell apart (a long story for a different time) at my last retail position, I was done. I took a deep, scary breath. I signed up with a temp agency. I re-wrote my resume to emphasize education and the office skills that being a manager in a boutique can give you. And I temped a little and I got a job - a job that I thought would be my new career, as Operations Manager of a start-up cosmetics company and photo studio. And, though the hours were crazy and there were many things to complain about, I truly loved that job. I felt like, finally, I had found what could be a career.

And then they laid everyone off.

So I am looking for a job. And when I open up my browser in the morning and find postings, that's all they are. They are jobs. There is nothing out there that could be a career. Not for me, not right now. And I know these are hard times. And I know a lot of the big companies have hiring freezes. But, in my mid-30s, should I just be looking for a job? No. I don't think so.

So what's a girl to do in these times? I'm not desperate, not yet. I am collecting unemployment, I am crafting, I am looking, daily, for a job that will at least fit for now. And I am about to finish my first college class in twelve years. And I have fingers crossed that the fall semester will bring me at least one more class. And then? Perhaps, in my mid-30s, I will have found a career?