Kevin's Watch

Congratulations) And, certainly, I wish you to find something much closer to ideal.

congrats to everyone who has found work. times is tough - we even have a hiring freeze at the prison. and that hasn't happened in awhile - but we are closing a unit and have to place those people in jobs.

Currently unemployed and job seeking, but not too quickly - I need to confirm I graduated in May, rather than December, of this year. (And if my college tries to put me in the latter group I need to destroy their pretensions of having followed my academic career with suitable scrutiny)

I don't think that 100% employment is really desirable, but I would like to move towards employment, and soon. In the meantime, I will enjoy wages higher than Warren Buffet's, paid in love, as quickly spent.

Nice work if you can get it, Holsety! While what you describe is not conducive to a materially elaborate lifestyle, it is certainly rich in other aspects...

Savor Dam wrote:Nice work if you can get it, Holsety! While what you describe is not conducive to a materially elaborate lifestyle, it is certainly rich in other aspects...

Agreed! That's why I'm hoping to talk to my friend, who volunteered in Haiti a few times, about possible international volunteer work. Just to put myself out there in a different place and challenge my stupid, narrow sensibilities.

very very possibly got a job today!! WOOT!!

home depot. partime cashier. not a great wage but hey, foot in the door, right?

best interview i ever had in my life.
i had 2 young people (kids in my book) interview me
and usually if the people interviewing me are younger
it makes me a little nervous. like they'd prefer someone
their own age to work with, that kinda thing.
these two younsters were the sweetest two people.

first i was told on the phone on tuesday by janelle who called
me for the interview to see a fella at the special services desk
named dave. and it's a ways down the peninsula so i thought i'd
better go check it out yesterday to see how long it'd take me to
get there. turns out the store is very close to the bart station
so thats cool. easy commute. yay!

so today i arrive 5 minutes before my interview time and speak
to dave at the special services desk. he's young and REALLY
friendly, very nice and welcoming and chatty and we had fun
just standing there chatting for a few minutes.

he directed me to the back of the store (which is the pro shop
where contractors buy rather than the larger home depot that
diy'ers go to - which is cool) to speak with janelle and mike.
i meet them and go to the interview room.
they ask me first why i'd applied there to home depot and about
some of my past experience, what i did at beren shoes, what i
liked about it, etc. so i got to hold forth in a monologue all about
my shoe experience etc. that was kinda fun. they joined in with me
discussing this or that aspect of troublshooting and customer server
and it was more like a conversation of like-minded people rather than
an interview. i could tell they were liking me. you know, you can read
that in the way people interact with you, right?
they asked what i do in my spare time, i guess just to get to know me, etc.
told them about reading, writing, the forums, and world of warcraft.
they were totally interested in that. turns out mike is a Call of Duty guy.
gamers. YAY! i explained to them that since playing wow i've really
learned a LOT about teamwork and working with a 10 man raiding group
is really teamwork and it's helped me learn how to deal with team members
and get along with a team and stuff like that. they were diggin it, bobbin
their heads and janelle said she thinks she might have to check out wow!
heh.
we'd been talkin for about half an hour when they said well we've got this
questionaire we would like to ask you questions and have you expand on
your answers as much as you can. they were like ASKING me to give detail!
heh. detail queen dream!
so first they asked me if a customer asked me a question that i didn't know
the answer to what would i do, and i said "uh...find the answer?" heh.
you know if it comes down to directing a customer to a section of the store
and i could leave the register, i'd take the customer myself, or if i couldn't
i'd call for somebody to take the customer, cause you know i hate it in the
store when you ask the employee where something is and first they look around like even
THEY have no clue (so encouraging, right?) then they say"oh over on isle 10"
and point and then go back to what they're doing and i
gotta go like search for aisle 10 etc. so i told janelle and mike that i hate that
kind of thing and i'd much rather have the employee walk me to whereever
i need to go to find what i'm looking for so that's what i'd do for the customer.
and guess what! home depot hates that kind of thing too so they purposely
took their aisle signs down so that the employees would have to actually
walk the customer to the section. much better customer service.
we all agreed we thought that was awesome and so they were alreach
giving each other these looks like, boy was THAT the right answer!
THEN they asked me about the cashier being the last person to see the
customer before they leave the store and how would i take care of the
customer since i'd be the last person to have contact with them.
and i said well, i'd ask them if they found everything they were looking for,
ask them what kind of project they were working on to make sure they had
the right stuff for whatever it was they're buying supplies for, stuff like that.
janelle and mike looked at each other and both of them threw their
questionaire papers in the air and janelle said "is there any reason to go on here?"
and i was all like "did i say something wrong?"
and they were laughing and saying no no you said everything RIGHT!
that they have this little like, acronym FIRST, which basically means
everything that i said in my answer and that they thought i was lively
and energetic and fun and as far as they were concerned i'd got the job.
and also that dave, the guy i'd had such fun chatting with when i came in
is the OPs manager of the store and he told them when they were getting
ready to interview me that he ALREADY liked me! WOOT!!!

so! long as i have no criminal background (which i don't) and i pass
the drug test (which i will!) I'VE GOT A NEW JOB!!!! YAY!!!

honestly, they were all dressed like me, casual, jeans, black home depot
aprons, the were cool, funny, cheerful, not the LEAST bit phoney or weird,
very genuinely nice people. also, tho it turns out i was right, janelle is 23
(just a kid to me) she is very mature and is the scheduling manager for
the whole store, very bright and sweet. but mike! who LOOKED like he
could be anywere from 19 to 25 was 39!!!!!!! and has two teenage
kids himself!! freaked me out cause he looks very young. just a cool guy.

i think i actually DID what i set out to do. i THINK i found a FUN job!!

we shall see! wish me luck!
should be 3-5 days before the background check
and pee test results are in. i go take the pee test
tomorrow.

Congratulations Lucimay, you deserve it.

Hope it's as great on the inside as it seems now

WOOT! I've got all my fingers crossed plus an extra set for luck, though it's probably best not to ask where I got them.

And to recruiting people into WoW in a job interview. Now help me with Ali; she isn't taking me seriously.

That's great, Lucimay. So far, so good.
Pee your very best tomorrow!

I, too, had a very positive interview today, probably the best one I have had since WaMu collapsed three years ago. The big name in online retail, based here in Seattle, just may be bringing me onboard. Seems like a good fit, both in terms of skills and culture.

Hopes are high. After working just 10 of the last 32 months, I am very ready to get back in a stable gig.

Well, good luck to you both. How come you're passing the drug test LuciMay? Quit toking?

(Personally, I hate it when people try to walk me to the item I'm looking for. I'm not an idiot (much), you've told me where it is, I can find it thank you.)

--A

Maybe (hopefully!) they don't test for that in NorCal?
I left there 35 years ago...and at that time, you could hardly breathe in public in many parts of San Francisco without being at risk for failing a urine test.

Ah, those were the days!

Good luck Lucimay, though it doesn't sound like you need it!

On a side note, it's weird hearing you guys talk about taking drug tests as part of an employment process. We only have them for our public transport workers and maybe some other emergency services. I couldn't imagine taking one for working in a depot store. Although I would pass (pardon the pun) with flying colours these days.

On a side side note, the only friend I know who does have to give regular supplies of his wee, works for State Rail. He used to be a massive potty (along with many of his co-workers) and he (along with many of his co-workers) turned to E instead!!! (Because MDMA tracings don't hang around so long as THC). Whilst I'd prefer the operators of my trains to be 100% sober, if they did feel the need to partake, I'd rather they were a bit pot-over than coming down off a pill!

But I digress, best of luck to both lucimay and Savor Dam. (Sorry, one last digression and an embarrassing one at that. It took me almost two months to realise that was Save or Damn! Now where's the idiot emoticon?)

What? I never noticed that.

(And yeah, doesn't get done here either as far as I know. Testing for jobs I mean.)

--A

Avatar wrote:What? I never noticed that. --A

Guess you better go find an idiot emoticon for both of us then! The banana could work as a back-up option, but I know you're capable of more.

Hahaha, if you think I'm going to go looking for an emoticon and then post it, you don't know me at all.

That's far too much effort. I'm about willing to go :idiot: and that's it.

--A

I was going to animate this but I thought it might get me in trouble...

{{{ }}}

Also I don't know how to animate things, apart from drawing movement ripples on either side... oh hang on....

And I know what you mean about effort, but I make the exception when it's effort done in the service of procrastination.

Avatar wrote:Well, good luck to you both. How come you're passing the drug test LuciMay? Quit toking?

(Personally, I hate it when people try to walk me to the item I'm looking for. I'm not an idiot (much), you've told me where it is, I can find it thank you.)

--A

yes while i'm looking for job i did. quit i mean. my intake is minimal anyways, just ever now and then.

but ger held the pipe out to me night before last and like a dork i hit it.

so now i gotta worry just a little bit. but i'm drinkin lots of water and hell, honestly, i don't really think they care about weed all that much.
when janelle told me i needed to go take the pee test tomorrow i said
"tomorrow?!" and i guess i mighta kinda had a deer in headlights sorta
look on my face.
and she said "yeah so go do whatever you gotta do, cranberry juice or
whatever" LOL!!! like it was a foregone conclusion in her mind that i
smoke weed!!

so i really don't think they're testing for weed per se. i think they're testing
for harder stuff which is not a problem.

we shall see.
i think even if i did test positive for weed they'll probably hire me anyways.
i could be wrong but we'll see.
keep all fingers crossed!

and thanks all for the good wishes and sorus for all your crossed fingers!

lucimay wrote:when janelle told me i needed to go take the pee test tomorrow i said
"tomorrow?!" and i guess i mighta kinda had a deer in headlights sorta
look on my face.
and she said "yeah so go do whatever you gotta do, cranberry juice or
whatever"

LOL! That right there is the sign of a good employment fit! Btw, never knew about the cranberry juice. I knew OJ was a pretty quick way to sober up (or ruin a pill ), but never knew it could mask things in a test. Kevin's Watch, the great educator.

Some folks at Home Depot run heavy equipment (forklifts, key cutters, the saw for cutting lumber), so that may be why they require a pee test. But yeah, lucimay, if they send you for the pee test, they mean to hire you. And I can't imagine one toke would mess up your test. Whoo hoodey!!!! (I'm saving the nanaparty for when they hire you for sure. )

And conditional congrats to SD on the same basis.

I've heard that Cranberry and Citrus juices are the worst thing you can do. They may mask the drugs (or they may not), but, they also will mask everything else that should be in your sample, so you are likely to be deemed as having cheated. There are very good Body cleanser products at head shops for cleaning all the Toxins from your body, that work very well (And replicate what's supposed to be in your sample) if directions are followed properly

It takes about 3 months for your body to be clean of THC if you are heavy pot smoker, obviously less time if you are a lighter smoker. A joint a week will not increase your THC count (Because your body is cleaning that much a week), so, a few tokes shouldn't make any difference. Also, you don't typically need to be 100% clean for THC for most Drug tests, they typically test for above 50 count (Or maybe it's above 200?) for a standard test. "Super Sensitive" tests are typically only for special cases, such as someone in Drug Diversion on their last chance or maybe Gov't jobs or something. Super Sensitive test are very rare in general.

And, conditional Congratulations to you to SD, I've got my talons crossed for you