Thank you to my new recruiter who has placed me in a one week temporary position--at a great hourly rate! Starting tomorrow, I will be back in the FiDi (San Francisco Financial District) during the day. Around people. In an office, with tasks to do, a boss. Fun!
I've been worried of late about ever working again--the thoughts do creep in as resume after resume is emailed or uploaded with no calls, no response but the canned email weeks later that "we decided to pursue other candidates and will not be proceeding with you, but thanks for applying!" I want to be that "other candidate." And I know I will at some point. It just gets frustrating watching the days tick past. I don't want to move home, to give up my San Francisco dream. Yeah, I can last though February, but I'd rather not go through the panic of Christmas coming and still be looking, racing against the clock.
Add to that my feeling that I have been looking for a job forever...yes, a year ago, I had a good job. But I looked for a year before finding it. A year of sending out resumes, interviews. Now, here I am again, after having worked my tail off at that job, thinking it was a good fit, back to sending out resumes and hoping for a chance to wear a suit and answer questions and hope I did better than the other candidates.
I enjoy working as a temp--if the hours were more predictable, I'd gladly do it for awhile. A new company, new coworkers every week or month. A new commute, if only changed by a block or two. Though there are downsides--the desk isn't one's own, working with the permanent person's family photos staring at you, not having any desk drawers to call one's own, often having the more menial tasks sent to oneself...I admit at all my past jobs, I have smiled in relief when my boss said "oh, we'll leave that for the temp." No more.
Especially now that I have been the temp this year--removing staples from files for 7 hours straight. I can just imagine the conversation before I showed up. "Hey, George, the temp is coming tomorrow, we can get that staple project done!"
But work is work and in this economy, work is very good indeed, so I will gladly remove staples for hours, file, learn various telephone systems, and attempt to remember all the names that blur by in my day, week or month as the temp for that glorious weekly paycheck.
Yes, weekly...another perk of temping, a check every week. My bank account loves that.
So, up early tomorrow--goodbye, sleeping until 8! Onto wondering what color F Market Streetcar will take me to Market Street, debating whether I should stop at Peet's Coffee, wearing my adult clothes, making a good impression as this could lead to a more permanent situation. We'll see. It feels good to be back in the game, if only for a week for now. More will come.
