anyway. i think most people get jobs through people they know, and that’s fine because to get that job, you’re competing with other people who might be there because of contacts they have, too. you still have to do the app, make a cv, do the interview, etc. etc.

but it’s really annoying to try to find a new job, but i also think it’s a time of immense hope. like picking out classes for a new semester, except those classes have to like you back. or something.

i got my job cuz my friend got a job at a church in austin and i moved to austin cuz it seemed cool and i was bored. then i started going to that church and that church met in the building of another church and somehow i met that pastor…

relationships are good. both ones that land you jobs and ones that land you love. unfortunately, on both ends, they are few and far between. but keep on keepin’ on cuz if you don’t get a job, it’s the relationships you have that will get you through it.

and eventually you’ll find an organization that knows an organization and the rest of that will be history too.

it was pretty weird and hilarious.

My best (most fun, anyway) job was at Magma books in Manchester. When I first moved there I was unemployed for TWO MONTHS, the only job I had was hanging out at the Chinese Arts Centre on Sundays. For twenty pounds sterling. I was living on twenty pounds sterling a week.

I just couldn’t get a break with the Chinese stuff. I looked online, I went in and talked directly to people whose job it is to find young professionals jobs, I walked into stores in Chinatown and made an eejit of myself speaking in Mandarin to teenagers who only spoke English and Cantonese.

When I walked into Magma I didn’t even know it was a bookshop but it looked cool… I had abandoned Chinese language work but hadn’t got to the stage where I would work in a Wetherspoons. I went in, handed in my CV, and had a nice chat with two people, one of whom turned out to be the co-owner. He was minutes away from putting up a help wanted sign when I walked in.

I still had to interview but I got the job. In fact, they offered me a higher position in London, which would have been awesome. So, there you go. It was a mix of luck and perseverance, but crucially, it took forever dude.

There. I wasn’t being completely self-indulgent I hope!

I got the Theatre & Dance job by utterly scouring the UT job search website and adjusting my cover letter and resume to apply for about 50 jobs. Most of which paid in the upper 30s, and the only one that interviewed and then hired me paid $24k. But I got to meet you, Sarah, and that’s worth its weight in reasonable compensation!

My job at the museum was a total fluke. I’d been in Houston a couple of weeks and decided to work some temp jobs while I did my “real” job searching. I told the temp agency I was interested in arts administration, they called me the day after I signed up with them to tell me there was an opening in the director’s office at the MFAH, I was here two days and they hired me in a permanent capacity. Kismet!

Things certainly have changed!

All of the jobs I’ve had (except for the month I worked at Old Navy) have basically been found through relationships. It’s certainly easier being able to head to an interview and know that there’s some sort of connection already there.

I guess I’d just say to work it as hard as you can. Find people that can tear your resume apart as much as they can and build it back up into a really amazing document. You could always start a separate blog that deals with what your masters is in and start trying to build up a community of people through that. Build something up big enough and gain enough notoriety and it certainly couldn’t hurt your career aspirations.

In the Poshdeluxe Bookclub category, I just got done listening to an audio book on my way back and forth from work called The Power of Nice. Might be worth grabbing from the library. There was some helpful business/job stuff in it.