Hello friends! I'm still plodding along, doing my best, and of course, still on the job hunt.
Now several months ago, I caught a call on my phone from an unknown number. "Hello?" I answered, completely caught off guard and confused as who this mysterious person might be.
The caller turned out to be a woman calling from a temp agency who was interested in connecting me with a potential temporary job. I asked her how she got my information and it turned out to be from Career Builder, which I vaguely remember adding my resume to months ago. The job, she informed me, was for a magazine that was fairly well known. "You would know it if you heard it." She said, "but I can't tell you who it is until the interview."

I was a little wary but slightly intrigued so I agreed to meet with her. During the days leading up to the interview, I wondered and thought about who the job could be for. My best guess (and hope) was for a company like Oxford University Press or something similar. The morning of, I freaked out because I didn't have any business type-interview clothes. I enlisted my mother's help and even then, to me, nothing looked right. I finally threw something on and headed to my interview.

The office was in midtown Manhattan. It was clean, spacious and felt friendly. I told the woman at the desk who I was and who I was waiting for, then sat down. The woman I was interviewing with came out. Let's call her Mary. She was tall, with greying hair pulled into a bun, big wire rimmed glasses, dressed in a white shirt and brown slacks. I remembered that I was wearing these blue pants with green flowers and leaves all over them and Mary said, "Those are some wild pants!" I thanked her, nervously wondering if that was a good or a bad thing.

We walked into her office and sat down. She began by asking me to tell me about myself, so I told her about my school, internships since graduation, etc. She then prefaced her revelation of what the job would actually be, with an explanation that it would be part-time secretary work, as well as some editing. I nodded, waiting. "Well the job, is a little unusual. But...it's at a gun magazine." She said, looking (I think) for a reaction from me.

There was silence for a minute or so and then I just said, "Oh...Um...Well would it be a problem if my beliefs conflicted with theirs?"

"No not at all. You would just be editing some of their pieces."

Oh all the places. A gun magazine? Of course I would be the person to get that interview. I was a combination of stunned, frustrated, and amused. It took me about one minute to turn the job down. I'm not picky, but there was no way I was ever working there, part-time or otherwise. But Mary took my information down and promised to call me with other job offers she found.
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As I stepped into the elevator, my morning freakout, worries, and stress floated away from me. I had made a big deal out of nothing. I was also inwardly laughing and groaning. This could only happen to me. And that is how I had my first ever job interview since graduating college.

It's been a long time since I've last blogged, mostly because I've been so busy. Lots of things have been happening since then. I have so many new ideas to write about and I'm really excited about it.

I wrote about my internship a while back, so I just want to talk a little about that today. Working at Curbed was a mixed bag. I gained a lot of experience, but I didn't get a lot of responsibility since I started out knowing nothing.

Here's what I've learned about interning-be prepared to do any type of work! Some days I received really amazing projects, such as researching restaurants JFK and Jackie O dined at in Boston and other days I had to count the number of blog posts per page for the last week. It wasn't always be the most interesting-but I tried to perform every task I was assigned with enthusiasm and a smile. The best moment of my time there involved covering an event hosted by Glamour magazine, celebrating 10 amazing college women. The event included a panel of powerful women from Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America, Jessica Williams of The Daily Show, to Anna Chlumsky from Veep. My role involved asking some of the panelists and guests a questions relating to the event and take their picture. My question was, "What advice would you give your freshman self?"

I have never done anything like this before-so I was incredibly nervous. I stumbled and stammered when I spoke, I dropped my phone when I tried to take a picture of someone. It was a mess but I got through it fairly okay. When I finally left, I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. And I actually did. I was so petrified but so glad I did it.

Since then, I've interned at Curbed for about 5 months. But, as with most internships, I wasn't being paid very much, and as a college grad with students loans up the wazoo, I just couldn't afford the travel expense. I gave my notice at my internship, saying I couldn't afford to come anymore and I was wondering if there was a position available. And my supervisor said that there might be. I was expecting a full out no, so this was a pleasant surprise for me. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from her, Don't forget to follow up! People have jobs, they're busy, they can forget you unintentionally.
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In the mean time, I've picked up a few other jobs. I'll talk about these soon. Happy Thursday!

I have my down moments but lately, I've been feeling a lot better. I've started to get used to my situation more and for some reason, I just have a lot less self-pity these days. It might also have something to do with the fact that I've started taking a beginner yoga class and have stopped my tutoring job, which I was ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE at! I've even started a new internship that is actually paid! Shocking, I know.

As of this week, I am an official the Editorial Operations intern at Curbed.com! How did I find this internship? Funny you should ask. I was actually referred to the application through a colleague of one of my parent's who always seems to have a tip for someone. Seriously, she should write a book on advice about everything. But, to get to the point, I applied and then didn't hear anything for a few days. After having the importance of following up drilled into me, I went ahead and emailed the person I sent my application to and, to my great surprise, I actually got a response. This is pretty rare in the job applying world, if you weren't aware. About 70-80 percent of the time, you are not guaranteed any response. Zero. Zip.

The email was asking me to come in for an interview next week, so I quickly wrote back that yes I was free and would be glad to come in. The following Thursday, I arrived and did my first official job-type interview as a college-grad. It went surprisingly well, if I do say so myself. I'm not the best when it comes to selling myself or public speaking in general. I stammer, I stumble over words, I say the wrong thing, I get nervous and it all comes out so fast you would think I was competing in a speed-reading-out-loud contest.

But I tried to breath, speak slowly, and be as honest and positive as I could. I guess the woman liked me because at the end, she said that she probably wasn't going to interview anyone else since the others hadn't seemed like a good fit. I silently cheered in my head. Then...I sorted of mucked it up. I said that sounded great. I then asked how long the company had been around, as I had forgotten to look it up. AAA! Rewind, delete!! I thought to myself. Definitely a no no. Do your research about the place you are interviewing at beforehand. I know this and yet somehow I didn't do it. Pure laziness is my only excuse. Don't make my mistake.
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My first day was yesterday, Monday. I'm working Mondays and Wednesdays 11-5 for 25 dollars a day, which essentially pays for my train ticket, but hey-it's something. You have to start somewhere, right?

It's been about 6 months since I first complained about security blanket phrases. While I don't have a full time job, I do have an internship at Curbed.com, which is a real estate blog. Curbed also owns two other sites, Racked and Eater, about shopping and restaurants respectively.

So on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11 to 5 I go into the city now. It's not always what I imagined myself doing. Some days I travel all around town to pick up cupcakes, other days I get to research where JFK dined in Boston for a blog post on places where famous people ate. The highlight so far has been an event I was offered to cover last April at Barnard College. The Racked site does a themed post every now and then called Party Bites, in which they go to an event and ask all the attendees a question related to the event. My event was hosted by Glamour magazine and featured a panel of successful women talking about how they got to where they are today. The event was also celebrating 10 college women from all over the country who had done remarkable work. Talk about making me question what I'm doing with my life!

I was to ask all the guests what advice they would give their freshman self. The guests ranged from random people who were invited, the college honorees, and the panel guests, which included Jessica Williams from The Daily Show, Anna Chlumsky from Veep (and My Girl with Macaulay Culkin!) and the founder of Teach For America Wendy Kopp. Though I had a lot of fun, I was so nervous that when I tried to take a picture of one of the guests, I dropped the phone because my hand was shaking so badly. I got all of my interviews but I was so nervwracked about making sure I did it right that by the time I was finished, I wanted to laugh and burst into tears at the same time.

While I'm on the search for my dream job, I've also started working at a tea place, which is really wonderful. I met the owner through the local farmer's market near my house. She sells loose tea that she imports from India and this past winter, she decided to open her own tea shop. All of the wood inside is reclaimed and she only used organic materials. It's a small, cozy spot that's perfect for relaxing and disconnecting from the world for a bit.

I'm also working at a clothing store, which is a chain but a very nice one at that. Having never worked in retail, this was a completely new experience for me when I started last June. It's not a career I'm looking to go further in, but I make good money and enjoy all of the people I work with.  I do have to say that retail is extremely hard work-long hours, demanding of your time, and the need to be nice to everyone-and I mean EVERYONE! Sidenote, people will be rude to you, just put on a happy face. One time I was wrapping a woman's purchases and she asked me to redo it, saying, "If I wanted it to be ugly, I would have done it myself."
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I know it's going to be a long road and I'm still searching for jobs, but I have more hope than I did. My low days aren't so low and aren't so frequent. Worst comes to worst, I don't have a job focusing on what I studied. I could be a poetry teacher or a freelance writer or a dog walker! It's not the end of the world as long as I enjoy what I do.