My first post about life in Canada was about finding somewhere to live, which I did with an incredibly fortuitous amount of ease, #blessed. So I just want to write about finding WERK.
It was tough for a few weeks. I hate being unemployed. I can entertain myself as well as the next person, but not having anyone to play with really loses its appeal after a week or so. Also living in a huge and unfamiliar house wasn't ideal. I found myself at one point creeping around the kitchen in a state of terror because of a very loud and persistent growling noise which was emitting from a mystery locaiton. I couldn't determine if it was a cougar (unlikely, admittedly) or a very angry owl/pigeon. I had no housemate to consult and the signal the growling was sending was that I would be best to get the fuck out, asap, which I did, dignity thrown to the wind. I subsequently found out it was actually the fridge making the noise.
This however encouraged me to leave the house and to relocate permanently to the Vancouver Public Library. There I spent hours pretending not to be watching "It's always sunny in Philadephia", whilst trying to subtly eat falafel without being told of by a roaming librarian. Fortunately my years at University have left me highly trained in terms of avoiding overly zealous librarians. In between watching it's Always sunny and eating falafel I would occasionally apply to a job on craigslist. Which was a mammoth waste of time and did the square root of fuck all in terms of making me feel an iota more confident that I was definitely employable and it was just a matter of time. Nothing is worse than replying to an ad, which is almost definitely a scam and may or may not require you to retire all morals, principles and ethics for which you are definitely overqualified for and yet still here nothing back from. Imagine doing that 10+ times a day and you can start to think, maybe it is me after all,
I was rescued from the very brink of despair however by the reassurance that I was not alone. Whilst looking in the job section of Craigslist I saw a post with the title "WHY CAN'T I GET A JOB". That looks like something I'd be good at I thought, lets investigate further. Alas, it was not a call for a position which solely required you to endlessly list your faults but a rant. I love a good rant and this one was particularly brilliant. Some woman had clearly just reached the end of her tether and was venting for all and sundry to see. It felt very encouraging to read that others were facing similar struggles. I evidently had been perhaps slightly over the top in my endless whinging about not finding work as anyone I shared it with assumed that I was the anonymous author.
I finally had a breakthrough (or so I thought), when I got a call from a recruiter to come and have an interview. Off I scurried, suit hastily uncrumpled from bottom of rucksack and hair tamed enough that it didn't block the sun, ready to try and impress...
Things didn't go great. The offices were on the ground floor, and were made entirely of glass. Which was obviuosly distracting - but more so for the bloke conducting the interview than for me. When it came to the end of the interview and I was asked if I had any questions I asked why he kept looking out the window. Needless to say I never heard from him again and I cursed myself for somehow managing to channel a version of Hugh Grant who very occasionally cuts right to the chase with no forethought to consequences.
Anyway, it all worked out in the end and I plan on writing soon about my attempts to make friends at work by waving. IT'S GOING TO BE GRIPPING.
