In a cavalcade of anger and fear...

[evilhippo]

Well, I found out this afternoon that Amity is "unable to offer me a position." Back to the drawing board.

In an act of spite, I guess, I came back from work and applied to a random publishing company in New York City. Soon, it will sink in that I'm stuck in Chicago for at least another six months, and that it's now going to be nearly impossible for me to work out a way to go abroad, and so I'll probably spend the weekend curled up in bed denying the existence of the rest of the world.

Goshdarnit.

Though, I mean, after the first interview I wasn't really sold on the whole thing anyway. Too corporate, too focused on looking "genki!" rather than actually teaching things. I mean, there wasn't a bit of talk about teaching methods or anything. I honestly still have no idea what they were looking for. And I knew in the second interview, by the end of the teaching demonstration, that I didn't stand a chance with the interviewer I had. I just figured maybe she was stoic, and that I wasn't reading her right. I should have bounced up and down, and cared less about content, I guess. But it is my curse to overthink things. Hopefully the (dying) publishing world will take me in.

Or maybe the museums will stop being dumb-butts and start looking for people other than Education Majors.

Sigh.

(Yes, I'm limiting myself severely here, but I still can't consign myself to being an office wench forever.)

Comments

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

Awww, boo! ;_; I'm so sorry!

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

I'm doing my best to take it in stride. There's bound to be something interesting out there, it's just a matter of finding it. Preferably before August, when I'm liable to give in and move back home to sulk and apply to grad school.

[windresistant.livejournal.com]

): Awww. I was going to live vicariously through you though!

Hopefully something will happen - at least you have a non-mcdonald's job to fall back on.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

And I was going to have fun, so people could live vicariously through me! Alas.

Yeah, true. But, I mean, I can't take much more of hearing people I've displaced from their homes telling their stories to the rest of the country on NPR and such.

[look-alive.livejournal.com]

Omg sweetie! That sucks, I'm so sorry! Though, from what you say with that whole "genkii" thing... ugh. Idk if it'd even have been worth it. What's the point in teaching if you aren't really supposed to be teaching for teaching's sake? ...And that's too many times using the word teaching in a sentence, isn't it? ...Yeahhhh...

Hey, I just remembered. Do you want me to burn you X-Men: Evolution? I don't know why that didn't occur to me before, since I remember talking about it.
And ALSO, if you get it in your head and heart to forcefully eject yourself from Chicago (and I speak for all of us when I say DO IT!!!), just remember that you have friends here. There's also cheap rent and a decent enough job market if you're willing not to be field-picky at first, and couches to crash on. Also, it's FRIGGEN' PORTLAND. /cough/decemberistsconcertinjuly/cough/

And I miss you.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

I'll live! (I think. I've been really grumpy the last few days, but hopefully my mandolin will come next week and it'll be all right. (-;)

Yeah, the whole "genkii" thing (see, I can't even spell it)... I dunno, it pretty much left me unenthusiastic about the whole thing after the first interview. The more I think about it, the more I'm seeing that the reason the second interview didn't go very well is because I went in prepared to talk about teaching and why I wanted to do it, and Japan and why I wanted to be there, and outside of the really generic questions, the interview was mostly questions probing to find out how much research I'd done on the company, and whether or not I'd be willing to sell their books (which, I admit, I should not have answered "Yes, as long as they're good." I probably should've answered "Yes! Fantastic awesome thumbsup! High-five!" and then done a dance). I mean, I expect those kinds of traps from most corporate-type jobs, but I mean... teaching. Geez.

Must. get. out. of. midwest...

[look-alive.livejournal.com]

Ugh! Okay that sounds so... um... brainwashy-creepy? So maybe it's a good thing it didn't happen. Give you a chance to look for other, better opportunities, yeah? Lol and you get major kudos for the "as long as they're good", that's amazing hahah wow. I'm trying to picture you doing the alternative you mentioned and it... just isn't working.

THEN GET OUT OF IT!XD Seriously. Me and Ange talk regularly about you needing to get out of there. And also how you can crash on our enormous squashy couch if you decide to move west. Just saying. (I know I know I'll stop with the hints)

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

It was! I kind of got the impression that the teacher got pretty free-reign with things once in place, though, which is why I didn't jump ship after the first interview. It's probably also why they were so hardcore about the brainwashing. Letting teachers go (especially when you mostly hire kids right out of college) on their own is pretty dangerous business. But man, I would've been good at it. I mean, I made a crying child in a stroller today smile, and stopped her from disturbing everyone's Saturday-morning bread browsing. Alas. (-;

I have almost enough saved up to move... but Portland is going to have to offer me some kind of job first, and unfortunately their ads look more useless to me than Chicago's. Are your museums and things any more likely to take people without a major in Education? And, I mean, surely there are some independent publishers out there, right? (The worst part about this is that the main reason I can't just up and leave for somewhere else is my stupid student loan payments. Stupid semi-permanent financial burden.)

[look-alive.livejournal.com]

Okay, I guess I understand that mentality for the company to have, but then again I'm sure there's got to be some sort of balance they could reach in hiring that didn't involve what they do now.

Awwwwwh that's so cute! Making the kid smile, I mean. We went to the zoo yesterday and they have an enclosure for lorikeets where you buy a cup of apple juice for a dollar and go in and they birds come and sit on you and drink it and get all cuddly and adorable. I had five on my hand at one time, it was awesome. There were all these little kids that came in and they were scared, so I ended up snagging a wayward lorikeet and holding it so a little girl could feed it out of her cup without holding it herself. It was very cute.

Hmmmmm well honestly, I plug Portland but I don't mean to sound super pressure-y about it or anything. I'm not trying to breath down your neck at all. However, that said, Lauren is very much on the boat for you moving here translating directly to AWESOME. As far as job offers go... Yes, we have independent and small publishers out the wazoo, and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of things like that around just given the nature of the area. I can do some checking with the museums, if you like. Lauren says they probably want teaching museums, but I'd say you should check, anyway. The job I have now wants a masters and we both know about how close I am to that, lol. Speaking of my job, we're basically always hiring. It isn't teaching, but it's with kids and actually... hm. There are teaching positions and classroom positions, since we have two schools on campus. Idk, it's not for everyone. Also, there's Powell's City Of Books, which isn't much more than retail, but it might be a starting point for contacts, since the store has a lot of ties to local and independent publishers, as well as it's just a REALLY HUGE AWESOME BOOKSTORE. ...So that's what I have.

[solitaryjane.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I'm sorry about that - I was planning to go to Japan to visit you when you get there - now what's my excuse to go to Japan? XD Okay, joking aside, there's always next year. (Right?) You can try try try try again!

As far as don't want to be in Chicago goes, I'm still here in Boston and I could use roommates some time! And I'm still lonely and need friends! XD And maybe you can use the now available time to write a novel? Or something? Or take the GRE and then get back in school? Or move to New York and live in a hole and work as a waitress until you either get in a publishing company or gain super powers and then save the world? And stuff.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you know... I think everyone but me and the interviewer expected me to get this job. There were several other people who were planning on coming to visit me too. Sigh.

I've decided that I don't mind Chicago in theory... it's just that the job market sucks completely, and there's nothing useful for me to do here. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything anywhere else. At this point, I'm basically checking ads in every city that sounds interesting and applying for jobs. I'm sure I won't get called back by anyone, since I'm clearly half the continent or more away from most of the places I'm applying to, but at least it makes me feel like I'm trying.

[jabberwockeyes.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about this. They don't know what they are missing. Have you tried Korea? I've had a bunch of friends in Loose Roots who did it for a while.