Outlook. I think people’s outlook has an effect on where they get.  This statement may also come back to bite me some day.  I look at friends I have who have troubles finding a job and I look at myself.  The problems they have and that I have are not similar.  One of my friends cannot interview very well and in light of that has been unemployed for quite some time now. It bothers me.  I want to help them, but I have already went down that road in the past.  They did not want my help, so instead now they have surrounded themselves with people who tell them that everything will be OK.  That its the employer that needs to change what they are looking for, not the person being interviewed.  They give them this false reality that everyone is the bad guy, except them.  I don’t get it… I don’t understand it, but maybe that is why there are so many unemployed people right now. I took a temp job at MTI recently, but I did not like how I was treated.  I was treated the worst that I have been of any job I’ve had.  I know that I am a little spoiled due to LifeLock – but hey, I would at least know if things were on the up and up.  They weren’t.  I didn’t like going in to work with half of the time them not knowing what I could be working on.  The other half  they told me I was doing the wrong thing (when they explicitly told me to do that very same thing to being with).  Needless to say, I didn’t keep the job for long.  It was supposed to last for a while, a couple of weeks at the very least.  It took me 2 days to know this job wasn’t for me.  5 days total and I was out of a job.  The temp agency I worked with hasn’t contacted me again for any other jobs…. and  I’m alright with that.  After this experience I don’t really want to look for more temp jobs unless it is a great opportunity. I then had a couple interviews the week that I ended my job with MTI.  I applied and was given phone interviews with Walgreen’s and Wellsfargo.  Both of these jobs told me they wanted to have me come in for a better look at my skills.  Walgreen’s seemed like the better opportunity as I would have been a phone rep giving consults to people that had questions on medications.  On the other hand,  Wells Fargo seemed like something I did not want to get involved in.  Why?  When I received a call about the job they told me that a big part of the job would be sales and the other customer service.  Oh, and I’d be working nights and weekends. I never wanted to get involved with sales… on top of that I didn’t want to be on the phones (of all things…. not the phones!)  As with most phone jobs..  it seems to be just another dead end job.  Due to this, I focused more on the Walgreens job. A week later I find out that Walgreen’s has passed on me… and Wells Fargo extended a job offer.  I accepted the job offer as I need to get back into the work place and make some money again.  It would be nice to be making money again, even if it is going to be about 5 dollars less per hour than I have previously been making.  It’s an adjustment period… I am still adjusting.  I am still trying to wrap my head around being on the phone and what the sales aspect will really look like.  I’ve been told that you have to push hard on sales.. and I will tell you now that I won’t push anyone into something they don’t want.  How that will factor in to the job or how I am reviewed is still in the air. The job market is less than favorable, yet there are still jobs to be had if people are willing to work outside of their comfort zone.  Example being this Wells Fargo job. As a side note, over the Thanksgiving weekend I was able to meet up with Michael.  My family traveled to Yakima and we spent the day with my brother.  It was nice to be around him, even if now he smokes and has picked up chewing. Last little note, is that I’ve been feeling the Europe bug.  I had felt it for a while a few years ago but it is starting to heat up again.  I really want to visit the UK and the possibly live overseas for a period of time. So much going on.  I’ve gotten a cold this week… and this coming Monday I start the Wells Fargo job.  Blazers try to end a 5 game losing streak tonight against the wizards and the Cardinals look to end a 6 game losing streak (even though playoff hopes are now all but out of the picture). That’s all I’ve got. Until next time…

Listening to Mariah Carey – Breakdown
It brings back memories.  “Back in the day” kind of sentiments.

There really isn’t any way to segue into this next section so here goes.  This morning shortly after waking up I was informed that midnight had died.  Why?  It seems that we got a bad litter.  Poor guy, he was strong enough to survive for a while- but could not survive any longer.  It was/is rather sad.  He was stiff, like really stiff.  I went outside into the yard with Maryia and we buried him.  Good thing these people had a few acres worth of land.  Poor guy…

Afterwards I ran some errands.  Nothing too special.  I checked into T-Mobile’s deal that they have going on.  On a friends and family plan you can have up to 5 lines for the price of 2.  It’s a smokin deal… but I am still under contract with Verizon and I’m not so sure that it is worth paying the early termination fee.

Tonight I watched the Blazers game.  They won the season opener against the Suns last night and again tonight against the Clippers.

Applying for jobs is constant.  I’ve moved my area to include any area I can drive to within an hours time.  I applied a few new places (now that I have opened my options a little more).

I realize that many might not know the situation on everything.  In a nutshell – there was some important family things going down that I had to deal with and leave LifeLock abruptly.

I really miss working with those guys.  Especially my team (Amanda – of course, Joey and Emily).  I also tend to miss my daily emails with my other Emily.. haha.  I know that I will and do miss the job.  I now sometimes find myself not knowing what to do now that I am not going 110% all the time.  Yeah, and so on top of the family reasons it also made my relationship a bit easier (being engaged and having the relationship long distance is hard).

The engagement.  We had the date set for 12.29.10 however life happens and now the date is TBD.  I’m alright with that, because I would like to have a job and recoup some of the losses that I am having to take being out of work.

Last night I reviewed my main website www.jshox.com and removed some old pages.  Also linked up some current sites for future visits.  I am also making an attempt at blogging once again.

I’ll leave it at that.

This job market is tougher than it looks.

Now, I know that you probably are shocked to hear that I’m not working at LifeLock any longer.  It shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise to some of you.

The part that worries me is that nobody is getting back to me about a job.  I can take not getting a job due to too many interviews and people with degrees got the job instead of me – but to not even land an interview?

That is what I don’t like about the whole thing.  I’ve had 4 interviews so far.  I read something that says on average 17 interviews for every job offer.  It is frustrating.  On top of that I have a fiancee who wants to go on dates and go to friends houses and whatnot.  The problem with that – everything we do costs money.  Even if it is to go to a park to go watch the clouds roll by, we still have to pay for the gas to get to the park.

I don’t know what to do.

We are probably going to buy another bunny.  Midnight (our bunny) seems depressed and lonely.  I can’t say he has made a great impression on me.  He has pee’d on me 3 or 4 times now.  I don’t even hold him anymore because of it.  A pet you can’t even hold…. ugh.

So this post was about how hard it is to find a job.  I have applied at places like Public Storage to Sears (retail) to call center jobs to even some collection agencies.  Nothing….

My interviews I had were with: Netflix, First Tech Credit Union and I can’t remember the others.  I’ll get back to you.

I guess thats all I got… for now.