Wake up call or lost cause....not sure which.

Well, here I am, less than a month out of college. The sparkle of graduation is gone and the money that came in all those cards from relatives is starting to dwindle.

That's right, I'm looking for a real job now.

As far as firsts go, I think yesterday was a pretty interesting experience. The last couple of days have been in depth attempts to find jobs online, looking everywhere from craigslist, to monster, to www.onedayonejob.com (if you haven't heard of this, go look it up right now. I can't be selfish and keep it to myself). Anyway, imagine hours and hours spent with my laptop, searching for jobs, while simultaneously watching Lifetime movies...It's bound to make you a little desperate. So, in spite of having applied to several decent jobs close to where i live, I also applied for an entry level job as a catering administrative assistant at a Marriott Hotel almost an hour away. With how much it paid, I'd have to live in my car because I would only be able to afford gas and groceries, not rent. Nevertheless, I applied online, and got a message saying that open interviews were going to be held the following afternoon, and decided if nothing else, it would be good practice. So feeling pleased that I had my first real job interview, I laid out my shiny happy interview clothes, and went to bed.

The next day, I got in my car and drove an hour to the hotel. It was in an unfortunately hot part of town, and my shiny happy interview clothes were not quite as cute by the time I arrived. I walked into the hotel and was directed to a back room, where most hotel guests don't ever get to go. It should have been exciting but it wasn't.

Now, I'm not slacker by any means, but I got to the open interview about an hour and half before they were supposed to end. I figured I'd just waited out the early birds and the people who thought they'd come interview for this job during lunch time. So, I was a little shocked to see that there were 40 people lined up waiting to be interviewed.

I stood quietly in line for a sec, weighing my options. Finally I asked the guy next to me if there was a place to sign in somewhere. "Oh, you just need to give them your resume, but they stopped signing people in for interviews about an hour ago", he replied. "How long have you been here?" I asked curiously. "Since 11:30 this morning", he sighed boredly.

I knocked on the HR door, dropped off my interview and left. It's a good thing I didn't want that job too badly. Thirty-nine other people sure did.

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