Since Loki is now Pre-K, soon to be Kindergarten, and Halo is closing in on being 18 months old, I started really feeling the itch. The itch of "What am I going to do now?" I LOVE being a mom, and I love taking care of my family, but I love working. I MISS working. So I've been scanning democraticgain.org, the classifieds, craigslist...just looking for something that would interest me. I applied to a company for a copywriter position. A couple weeks later they mailed me a letter saying I didn't get the position. Oh well, life goes on, right?
A couple weeks later, I was driving the kids back from a beach trip when my phone rings. I clicked the blue tooth connection thing (I was still on base so I had to be hands free) and took the call. Turns out it was a rep from the company that turned me down for the copywriter position. They had looked over my resume and thought that I would be a great fit for a customer service position in a new office they were starting up nearby. Would I be interested in a interview? Well I needed some more information about the position, but I could always ask that during the interview. I agreed and scheduled the interview for a time when my husband would be home with the kids.
Two days later, I am putting on my lucky Calvin Klein suit (that I got on sale at TJ Maxx). I wore it on my first day at the DNC, I wore it to my job interview with the Nevada Assembly Democratic Caucus and it is my go to for important meetings because it is lucky. I am discussing this potential job with Kiel and going over my "bottom lines" that we agreed on; mainly that I would accept $10/ hr if it is a work from home position, and minimum of $15 if it's a desk/field job. Ideally, we wanted the compensation to be what it was from my previous job (which was a salaried job that came out to about $20/hr) and of course, if it wasn't something I was going to like, to get the hell out of there.
So I drive to the their office and walk in, smiling my brightest smile, having a slight strut and extending my hand ready to shake it and get down to business. But before I could even shake a hand, I was escorted into a conference room with three other people and given a generic job application form to fill out. Why the hell did they need me to fill out an application? These people have my resume, right? What position was I applying for? I put a big question mark and wrote "The one I was called about." The back of the application had a little test for me. Circle the incorrectly spelled words and write the correct spelling. A fucking spelling test. A. FUCKING. SPELLING. TEST. I swallowed my pride and did the test. After all, I have been on social media and people nowadays can't spell for shit.
I finished the application and went to hand it off. Eager to get to the actual interview. Oh no. Not yet. I needed to do a typing test. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?! Well it's been awhile since I had actually done a typing test, so let's see if I still got it.
100% accuracy and 81 wpm. BOOM.
A lady that was supervising a group of us during our test, wrote down my results and noted, "WOW. You did really good at this!"
"Yeah," I replied sheepishly, "I actually have a bachelors in English."
After that, the interview finally started. The woman was friendly, asked most of the generic interview questions ("Why do you want to work here?" "Are you a people person?" "What do you do if don't understand what your supervisor has asked you?"). Come to find out, they basically want me to make phone calls (which after working on campaigns, I am a whiz at), in order to increase customer retention for certain companies. So it's not my dream job, but it's a job I would kick ass at doing.
Would I be working from home? No. I'd be in a cubicle for nine hours a day.
Would I be interested in this job? "Well," I said, "to be honest, that depends on what you want to pay me."
The woman looks over my resume and my "test results."
"Well with your experience and education," she starts, "we could offer you....$8.50."
Eight. Fucking. Fifty. Less than half of what I was making before. To sit in a cubicle. To put my daughter in day care and my son in daycare for his summer. To call and talk to people that (for the most part) really don't want to be bothered. One dollar more than the minimum wage. Now I'm not trying to knock this job or sound snobby, but I don't think anyone that was doing the job they were asking me to do should be getting paid a measly $8.50, and I definitely wasn't going to work just to keep my kids in daycare when I could stay home with them and have fun. It just didn't make sense for me.
"No," I said.
"No?" she asked, as though she was shocked that I was turning down such a generous offer.
"No." I got up, shook her hand, thanked her for her time and left. To be perfectly honest, if I didn't have kids, I probably would've taken it because staying home doing nothing is boring. But I'm not going to give up snuggling Halo while she naps, picking up Loki from school, going on spontaneous day trips with the kids, greeting my husband as he walks in the door and all the other perks of being a SAHM for a job that doesn't challenge me, won't help me to accomplish any of my career goals and would be a huge step down in pay. I would be leaving behind too much and gaining too little.
Seriously though, they gave me a spelling test.
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