Wednesday, October 4, 2017

House ?

House!

I am house hunting.

I also got a new job in July.

Every thing is a weird sort of crazy because I don't have the insane amount of stress from my old job. I am literally having to re-learn what it is like not being crushed with stress from a bad work space.

Later. :3

Monday, August 7, 2017

An Old Job and a New Job

I... left an old job for a new job.

this is a strange thing. I have been at that old job for almost six years. It feels so strange to know that I will never work there again. By choice. That manager is a lawsuit waiting to happen. I can't express how happy that I am now free.

But it's so weird. Six years of my life were spent there. There were plenty of good times. Sadly, the bad times won out in the end. I just don't know how I really feel about it.

The new job? Now that is a whole lot of new.

A new industry, job things, people... A whirlwind of an interview. Then I found out they pushed back the start date by two days.

My budget will be ok. I will be ok.

I have no idea what to do with the two days of time.

Of all the things that have happened in all of my job searches... This is all very new.

Hopefully it will also be very good.

Monday, July 3, 2017

Is a new job in a new city on a shoestring possible

This... This isn't possible. Not with out a job in the city you want to move to.

I will use New York City as my example city, with out already having a job there, because my sister moved there and had a ton of advice for me when I was thinking about moving out there also. That advice started with having $10,000 saved up because no one will rent an apartment to you if you don't have that much in your bank account.

I'm not joking. Most apartments are $1,800 and up. Mostly up. If you find something for less then that... there is probably a good reason that you will regret.

Location will also effect the price. As will size. Being able to reach the fridge from the toilet is not just a joke but a way of life. You will learn new meanings for the word tiny.

NYC has a whole different kind of renting system then what you will have locally.

Roommates makes sense but it also makes it harder to get a lease. There is a subletting thing were you can rent a room from a person that is renting an apartment... but this is extremely risky. Even if you know there person because you will have no true recourse if it goes bottoms up.

If you have friends or family that will put you up for a month or two then you will have a much better chance to not go broke right away. This is what my sister did until she and her two roommates found an apartment. But they still paid rent.

It can take about three months to find a job if you are in a lucky field of work that is constantly hiring. With the new minimum wage laws you can sort-of live off minimum wage if you share rent. But finding a job can be hard because there are tons of people also job hunting.

NYC has so many people also looking for jobs already there.

This also isn't taking into account that you have to eat and pay for utilities. food is more expensive there. Booze is ridiculously more expensive. Farmers markets are a great solution during the summer and fall seasons. But after that? You have to hunt for good deals. If you have family that visits you you can ask them to pick up staples for you. My mom would bring boxes of instant rice to my sister and other things. She did food shopping like this because a small box of instant rice cost her $6 while large one from home was $2.50.

New York City is a very, very big city. You can not go there thinking people will stop what they are doing to fawn over your new'ness.

A hiring agency will not work with you unless you live in the city.

How will they know? Because they need a current mailing address. This is why friends and family is good to have there because if they let you, you can lie and use their address. Your phone number won't tip them off too much because these days no one changes their cell number when they move to a new city.

I have tried. I even asked if the best way was to live there and was told yes. It's a harsh truth.

This all brings us back to money.

$10,000 is what my sister told me I would need at minimum. That could possibly cover three or four months rent, food and transport with a little for any small emergency. IF YOU HAD FAMILY THERE.

Assuming that you don't have family there... you would want $12,000 - $15,000 or more. Probably more.

This is not possible to do on a shoe string budget.

I hate to break it to you like this, but it took me several years to find out all the ins and outs. With out some kind of support network of good friends and family you can not pull of a huge move. If you had the job first? Then it is much, much easier.

My sister had a job that would allow her to switch to a store in the city. She had family she could stay with until she and her two roommates (one that was a cousin) could find an apartment. I think it took them almost 3 months to find a place and that was only because there were three of them. She was able to do this with less then $10,000 because my cousin HAD $10,000 in her account.

She got lucky.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Suit Shopping for an Interview

I do not recomend doing this two days before your interview. You just really do not want to do it.

But I did.

I started this 3-16-2011... Here I am now and I still have the same suit.

It was a bad suit. I look like a trope for a substitute teacher gone wrong or serial killer.

In the same six years I finally have comfortable interview shoes... I just need to find a better suit.

I think I will take a page out of Japans job hunting ideas and go with black slacks, coat and a white under shirt. I would love to get away with using my black scrub pants but I think they will stand out too much. I'm not saying I won't try it but I probably won't get any flying reviews from it.

Womens clothing is terribal if you are trying to not spend much.

I would rather find a nice suit coat at a second hand store and have it tailored to fit me. This will probably amount to the same over all cost, but the difference is that the coat will fit me perfectly.

If I tailored a new coat it would cost more but last longer.

No one has an assortment of interview outfits unless you are very, very rich or moving within the same dress code. If you are going from uniform to business casual then it is so very hard. I would say that the best bet is to have 2-3 different choices. Which is my ultimate goal.

I also just really don't like my current suit.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The workforce

A big thing that is wrong with the world is how people are taught to treat minimum wage workers as being lesser then everyone else.

I can;t tell you how many times I have had conversations with people, even young people, that don't think people should be paid a living wage. I walked away from one person that was complaining about not being able to live on her pay because when I mentioned then she should support raising the minimum wage... she said that if she could have it then they shouldn't be able to have it.

Yeah... I caught myself from saying anything besids that I didn't agree with her, but she seemed pretty offended that I didn't agree with her.

I have heard my bosses say the same thing. We are a company that if people don't have insurance they sure as hell arn't going to come to the office. Especialy if they have to choose living or living with a pain they have had for years.

This is just once of the toxic mindsets that is probably ruining the company I work for.

Minimum wage workforce still has the right to live. Minimum wage should be a living wage.

People have off days and it goes both ways. But living isn't something you can do with out.

Monday, May 8, 2017

The dream of making money online

I have written a few things about this phenomenon. Yes, phenomenon. It has turned into a cryptid of sorts over the last few years.

Blogging for money has reached a mythical level during this time.

But over all I think that not time, but corporate entities have killed it. I think the deck has always been stacked against blogging. It was a good thing and in some ways it is still a good thing.

It's just much, much harder to make money with it in a casual manner.

The Math post I did was based on other peoples experiences. Looking at it now I can't believe that people could get 100 new readers with each post. That is almost impossible not because of the advertising needed but because no one really looks for home bloggers anymore.

Which leads to the next problem, the evolutionary drift of peoples interests.

This blog has always been my ranting and job hunting release point. It is also a very casual thing for me. If i'm not pissed then I am probably not writing. Do I have posts started and not done? Yes. Do I have time to focus 100% of my attention on this? No.

Do I have a better idea of how the whole blogging this works? Yes, actually.

The big rush in the blogging world is over. The networking needed to restart it can be done. Personally I think webrings should make a comeback. They were seemingly easy bits of code you could stick on your site and be linked with other sites like yours. Blogger briefly had something like that but it seems to have dissapeard a few years ago.

I have a few other blogs that I update on a more regular schedule. They are less to make money and more for me to keep track of what I am doing. Eventually I would love for them to make money but it probably will not be with ads. It will be selling my own products.

This is how you make money blogging now.

I post update notifications on tumblr and twitter. I have an instagram. I have a set up that is mostly automatic but needs work. I have some posts backlogged because I will have good writing days.

All of this helps to get regular updates done.

All of this helps you to reach people.

How ever there is no autopilot. You have to wright and work and interact with people. Companies will make it harder and harder for you to make 'free' money because there is no free money.

But they can not truly stop you from selling things you own.

A popular craft selling site has new ToS that are trying to make as much money off you as possible, but I think when people go back to blogging and making websites like we did in the 90's... Then we will have more power again.

While a lot of the 90's internet was lost, I think there is still so much that wasn't. Personal experiences can never be taken away.

Here is to the new beginning.

Monday, April 24, 2017

An Interview and A Red Flag

So I had an... Interesting interview with a company.

They were a bit odd.

I had instructions to ask the reception worker to call them to let them know I was there and... they kinda gestured to a phone across the way and said to call. No instructions on how to use the phone system. I called the wrong extension twice but fortunately hung up before I reached anyone there. After an explanation the other reception worker called for me.

The agency I work with didn't mention that there would be three people doing the interview, but that happens.

The start was very basic with introductions and such. The odd feeling would come and go depending on questions. They asked in round robin style.

After the first question I knew that I didn't have the knowledge that they were looking for.

Near the middle of their question-asking I realized they hadn't asked me anything about my resume. I only realized because I have a time gap on it that has never been missed or skipped over. Ever.

When it cam time for me to ask them about the job, most of the position questions had been answered. So I asked my little short list of questions to see if I would be able to fit in with them.

They all but refused to answer three of my questions.

I asked about the culture there, how they will measure success in the position and the difference between a good & great employee in the position.

I have never had that type of reaction before. I can't fully explain it, it was just out there.

The culture one is usually answered with a customers first type of response that quickly launches into how they treat their employees. Or company holiday parties or something. I was met by silence then one said that customer centered environment. Another that it was a very racily diverse employment. The last they enjoyed their coworkers.

When I asked how they measure success in the position there was another pause before one gave the response that was simply 'with yearly preformace evaluations'. Which ended that.

Last I asked the difference between a good & great employee in the position. This is usually greeted with comments of the question itself before a response. This was again met with silence and nothing was actually said. More importantly, one of the interviewers was leafing the position and they didn't say any good things about them.

Fortunately the interview ended shortly after that.

The last question summed up things they didn't say to me that I am taking as this is a bad corporate environment. For each of the questions I got odd, almost angry looks. And who wouldn't take an opportunity to remind a soon to be former employee that you value all their work?

I think I will be very happy if I don't fit their bill. Should I be asked for a second interview I would agree, but I can tell I am not what they are looking for.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Can you afford your job?

An odd title, but an important question that I never thought much about.

So way, way back in 2011 I wrote about debt & controlling mothers... By the end of that summer we got into another argument and this time she said "fine! then you can do it!". I haven't grabbed anything so fast in my life. ((Small recap, my mom wanted to be, and was in total control of my finances because blah blah blah and I was lazy & trying to do too much at once.))

After all was said and done I know have savings. Mostly because I finished paying off my card. I would have more if I have done my credit card balance transfer a hell of a lot sooner.

I transferred two credit card balances into one credit card bill. I had two bills that my mom had insisted on paying more then the min on. $275 each was what she had been doing before I got control of it. After? I'm paying $200 because that is the amount that works and is slightly over my minimum.

Unfortunately I chose to do a little math and looked into what was the minimum I would have to make per hour if I wanted to get a new job. I'm using really bad math but it makes for a nice cushion when planning.

Example:
$11 hr x 40 hr = $440 x 52 wk = $22,880 - 40% = $13,738

I played with my pay check and found that 40% was pretty close to representing taxes and health and 401k crap.  I should have just gone with 50% and made my life a tad easier.

My old job? didn't pay anywhere near that. In fact, my bills were $3,000 over what I was making. Not counting the trips my mom encouraged me to go on and starting a jewelry thing. All the while saying I could afford it.

I was very lucky that I am so boring or it could have been much, much worse.

From a financial point, this was a very bad situation. Emotionally? Nah, I'm good. Yes we argue and such but it's a 'normal' thing. She has stopped asking if I want her help because I was mean and laughed evil.

Personaly I would be much better off if I could move out. But that is slowly in the works (p.s. the first time home buyers club is evil) but I don't know if I can scrounge up the closing costs. Closing costs are the devil.