First Day on the Job!

Ah look at us, bright and energetic and ready to start the first day yesterday!

One word to describe the first day of work- exhausting. Sure, we only did 2 activities which were packing boxes with paper to keep the items from moving during shipping and putting labels on the boxes. But when you do it for 7 hours and 20 minutes (we have 2 20-minute breaks, the second break which I use the entire 20 minutes to consume a huge dinner meal), it really wears you out. There's a lot of bending over for the labeling of the boxes located at the bottom of the pallet. Then there's the lifting and putting them on the conveyor belt.

Work is kinda like mowing the lawn. Everything is so repetitive that the work you're doing becomes automatic and your mind is 3,000 miles away from where you are. I think I had a song stuck in my head for a good 2 hours, another time I thought about the Celtics season opener (WHICH I WILL MISS TONIGHT!!!!!!!) but mostly thinking about the fact that I was actually a factory worker. You see this stuff in movies (8 Miles with Eminem) and you figure you'd never do that kind of work but there you are.

I'm going to another building today at 12:15 to receive my picture for my badge ID and then I start working at 2. We're also working 1 hour overtime tonight and tomorrow night so we're working 2-11 both days. Hey, it's extra money.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you're working at a menial job, get a friend to do it with you. That's what friends are for huh?

Hot Off the Press

I, Alexander B, likewise got a job with Yankee Candle today. As it turned out, the call back to United Personnel was not doomed as I thought it would be. The lady on the phone said that a position might be open for me and that she would call me back later in the day.

This afternoon after enjoying a nice lunch of ham and cheese, I got the call back. I was offered an order processing position for $9.75 per hour. I'll be working 40 hours a week plus overtime.

Two months of searching and I have this job! Not too shabby since I'll be working alongside Steve and will actually be contributing something to the world, even if it is packaging candles and Santa Clauses.

The website will continue to run, as Steve and I still have our eyes on the prize- a desk job where we can update this website at any moment in the day.

Thank you all for your support!

Breaking News

Today at 3:00pm ET, I got a job.

If you order anything from Yankee Candle for the holidays, chances are that I am the one that will be putting together your order.

That's right. Steven R: Yankee Candle Order Processor.

I think I took a class at Northeastern that will help me excel in this position, whew.

Please Hire Me

Thank you for applying with _____,

I wanted to get in touch with you regarding your recent application. We had the hiring manager review your resume and we have identified a few other candidates for the position that we feel are a closer match for what we are looking for at this point in time. If you are interested in exploring other current opportunities, please visit our website.

Everybody knows the story here. Man finds a job he loves. Job doesn't love him back. I am not the first, and I won't be the last person to receive rejection E-mails but lately they have been coming in bunches. Aren't I due for some good news?

My name is Steven Roth and I am a recent graduate of Northeastern University (Go Huskies!) with a BS in Economics. Yep, I see the humor in it too. People have been known to share a chuckle or two at my expense because I entered the job market with an Economics degree at almost the exact same time the U.S. Economy tripped and fell flat on its face. It wasn't my fault, I swear!

Some days I try to submit at least one application but more often then not I'm too discouraged to even do that. There have been days though where I sit in a trance at my computer and send applications and E-mails for hours on end. Some businesses and companies are very professional and prompt in their responses but most of the times I don't even hear anything back. Hello? Did you get my resume? Did the internet connection break down? What's so hard about saying "Mr. Roth, I want to thank you for your resume. We will call you very soon." I don't care if it's a false promise. I really don't. I just want to feel exhilarated once in a while. I want to sit back knowing I made some progress.

I recently found a job that suits me perfectly at ESPN, Inc. I spent nearly a week writing and touching up a cover letter before submitting an application online. Did I get a response back? Actually, I did but it was one of those automated responses. There's nothing personal about that. I followed up a few days later and have yet to hear anything back. Discouraging.

My most promising job lead occurred back in the beginning of August. I applied for a government job working with Social Security knowing that they had an agenda to hire people with disabilities. I had a hearing loss that allowed me to use a Schedule A in my application. Boom. I went from the back of the line to the front of the line for this job. I got a callback and set up an interview with the office in Roxbury, MA. I woke up at the crack of dawn and drove two hours for my morning appointment. It went as well as I thought it could have gone. The interview lasted over an hour and I don't recall having a hard time with any of the questions they asked me. My resume looked great for the position and left feeling confident. I was told I would hear back from them in four weeks and I went on my way. Looking back, that four weeks was a red flag. Four weeks? I should have known that "we'll call you in four weeks" was the equivalent of saying "okay how do we end this nicely?" The next four weeks I impatiently waited for a callback, a letter or an E-mail. Four weeks turned into five weeks then into six weeks. I don't know exactly when I gave up hope.

It's been five months and twenty-three days since I walked in a clustered group of fellow graduates, had a microphone shoved in my face, hastily grabbed my diploma and posed for a picture with a Northeastern faculty member that I had never met before. Thank you H1N1 for taking away the traditional method of receiving my diploma on stage. Anyway, I digress. I apologize. Almost six months now that I have been sitting in the unemployed section of life. Six months! Sure having no job over the summer wasn't such a bad thing. I often found myself out on the golf course and as someone that regularly shoots in the mid-90's, I used my free time to practice and brought my career low score down to 82. Now that it is too cold for golf, I have turned to bowling with Alex. Half a dozen trips later to the bowling alley I've gone from bowling scores of 100-130 to peaking at 190. While it's an accomplishment, it also means I have too much time on my hands.

I need a job. My name needs to get put out there. Filling in applications and using various employment websites isn't doing the trick. Hopefully someone will stumble across this blog and get me on the right track.

Things to do today:

- Call United Personnel and hopefully grab a seasonal job at Yankee Candle. I might be overqualified to put candles in a box but hey, it pays money.
- Carve a pumpkin.
- Watch my beloved Northeastern Huskies play hockey against New Hampshire at 7pm on NESN.

That's it for this week. Monday is a fresh start.

The Idea

It was conceived on a surprisingly warm evening of October 22, 2009 at 1:22 AM. Steve and I bowled all night long until midnight when the alley closed down. We were kicked out to the curb so we used the opportunity to catch up with each other and to vent about the recent close call we had with a job.

Yankee Candle, the famous candle making factory that we all enjoy (ahh, the Clean Sheets scent), were looking to hire seasonal workers to help with their increased production for the upcoming holidays. I found the job posting on Craigslist.com and I called immediately to inquire of the position. They were still looking for people to hire so I quickly set myself up with an interview. I e-mailed Steve the link to the ad. He called later in the day and got himself an interview the day after mine. Hopes were high. We had been looking for any kind of a job for 2 months.

I was to interview with United Personnel, a staffing consultant firm that does all the hiring for Yankee Candle. Since the job is rather blue collar, I showed up to the interview with blue jeans and a polo shirt. Brimming with confidence, I walked into a simple office with 4 desks and a lady stationed at each. I went up to the one on the far right and introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Alexander B. I have an interview this morning at 10:30." I was immediately handed a form to fill out. Name, address, driver's license number, job history, referrals, such and such. The form was rather interesting as it had me do several math problems. There were multiplication problems (82x35), division problems (3578/14) and word problems (Tom is interested in a $150 stereo system. It was on sale for 10% off and if sales tax was 6.5%, what is the amount Tom would pay?). No calculators were to be used. After it was done, the woman beckoned me out to the back of the room and handed me a cup for the drug test.

"What do I do with this after I'm done?"

"Leave it out on the file cabinet."

With that done, I finally got my interview. It was with a pleasant woman whose name I already forget. It went as well as it could have. She asked me about my job history and I said nothing of my previous engineering internships because why would you embarrass yourself when they call your previous employers of your credentials? For instance, I worked at a very prestigious civil engineering firm in Los Angeles for 6 months. I worked directly under my supervisor who is kind of a big deal in the region. I can't imagine if this conversation could ever take place.

My real reference: "Hello?"

Lady from UP: "Hello, is this Greg? My name is ________ and I am from United Personnel in Easthampton, Massachusetts. I'm calling to check if Alexander B would be a good fit with the Yankee Candle company."

My real reference: "Alex? Oh he's a great kid, we loved him here. He was a fine worker with us but I don't think I've ever heard of Yankee Candle. Is it some kind of an engineering company out east?"

Lady from UP: "No it's a company that makes candles. Alex is very interested in working here."

Look, I graduated from a 5 year college with a degree in environmental engineering. I worked at 3 different internships. I still have my dignity and I'm not going to dole out my references like candy. They're for my real jobs.

I talked to the lady of my experiences as a counselor at the summer camp and how I learned a lot about teamwork (no, really!). I mostly discussed my duties as a mailman at Northeastern University. She seemed to be satisfied with my answers. After a few more questions, she had me fill out additional paperwork except they were direct deposit information, agreements and my preferences for positions within the company. Did I get the job already? She even gave me a paper that listed the orientation start time and location.

Excited, I texted Steve and told him that we might be working together for the next 2 1/2 months. He went through the whole process the next day and ended up with the same orientation time and location.

We attended orientation at the Yankee Candle factory with 12 others and watched 2 safety videos. Jennifer from United Personnel gave each one of us a packet that described the company's policies and discussed the length of breaks and how long our lunch hours were going to be. WE GOT THE JOB RIGHT?? At the end of the session, she went around the room and asked us which shift and position we were interested in. Steve and I quietly collaborated together and decided to do order processing/stocking during the 2nd shift. It's a great way to pass the time working side by side right? We ended orientation with a tour of the facility we were to work at. At the end of it all, Jennifer said she would give us a call the following Monday or Tuesday to let us know of a start time.

You can guess where this is going now. We never got the call. I called them and they said all shifts currently closed and that they would call us when one opens up. Um, I peed in a cup!!!

Now back to the bowling alley scene last night. We talked about our job hunt as a whole and how miserable it is. We came to some conclusions.

1. The world doesn't really need us.
2. We need to market ourselves better.
3. Launch a website.

So this is the beginning. I am writing this from my own mother's basement and I am sure Steve is over in his mother's basement watching NESN and reading ESPN.com at the same time. Quite frankly, we need a life and that begins with a job. Journey with us as we step out of the darkness of the basement and into the daylight.

I'm not sure what we hope to get out of this blog. Maybe this would help you to realize how fortunate you are to be in a nice job situation you may be in right now. Maybe you'll laugh at us in our failings. Maybe you can drop some advice and tips. Maybe you can lead us to the right places. Maybe you are in a similar boat and want to vent your frustrations.

To do today:

-Call United Personnel and receive my doom
-Follow up on my engineering job inquiries
-Prepare resume for career fair in Washington DC on Nov. 13th