Progress

I sent Greg a message the other day, telling him how sad it was that I still hadn't heard back from Interac regarding my application, and that I was going to have to find work elsewhere. He wrote back saying he was surprised by that, and shot off an email to his man behind the scenes to see what he could stir up.

Well, that was a few days ago and I had kinda given up on it. I was looking through the gaijinpot.com job listings, as I've gotten into the habit of daily after work, when I got a call from Greg, and we got to talking about how his guy wrote him back saying he would do something or other that was pretty cryptic but sounded like track down my info and get on it.

Anyway, I went to my email program to read him the last message I had received, which also happened to be the only email I had received from them, that being their initial confirmation of my online application. But then, as I opened it up, I saw that I had a new message, and lo and behold it was from Interac, informing me that I had passed the initial screening stage and instructing me to pop on to their website to continue with my application, which, after reviewing, they would probably give me a call and set up an interview. Sweet tits.

So I'm going through the thing, copying and pasting my resume information onto it, and giving all the relevant details, when I come across the references section, and kind of hit a roadblock. Who on Earth was I going to give as a reference? I've been here for 2 years, and more than likely the people who would have been my reference from my previous job in Oregon either have quit or transferred or have no idea who I am anymore. So I was kind of in a jam, and didn't know what to do.

Then I realized, well, wait a tick, Alex, my manager and trainer just so happens to be on Facebook, and we just so happen to be friends on there now that we've pretty clearly established that he couldn't give a fuck about the company anymore now that it's indiscriminately screwed us all over. So I tossed him a message asking if I could use him as a reference, and like 10 minutes later he had responded saying that's fine, and gave me his information. Freaking awesome! So I filled out the rest of the application and sent it on its merry way.

There was a spot where I could give my personal webpage, which I thought was interesting, and just out of curiosity, I checked my actual webpage and gave it a onceover for sanitation. Now, for exactly this reason, a while back I went and removed all existing links to this blog, and removed my name from it in any traceable way. I also went and removed my name from the entries here in which it appeared, to make sure that a Google search of my name wouldn't give someone back door access to this, whose contents are somewhat privileged. Or at least, now they are since making it inaccessible. This enables me to, hmmm how should I say, be honest, more or less, even though I know that my dad at least at one point had the address for this, and who knows, probably has it bookmarked somewhere that mom can't find it, but still checks now and again. Anyway, what it also does is protect me from potential employers going up online as would be so easy to do nowadays and read up about me. One must be prudent with what comes up with your name on it these days, ya?

So the links and pics on there were sanitary enough, so I said sure, what the heck, I'll give them the address, cause really what harm could it do? I know, I know, famous last words, but, hopefully they see it as a vote of confidence rather than an opportunity to hack into my private(despite being on the internet) life.

Anyway, this is all to say, that's some damn good news. Hopefully what will happen from here is that I get an interview, they hire me, and happen to have a job waiting for me when I get there and can start right away. More realistically, however, is the possibility that there will not be immediate work, in which case either I wait it out for a couple months till something comes along or, as Greg pointed out, I could be a sub, where I just go in every day early and wait to see if someone calls in sick. I'd be essentially on call, and though people might not call in, I'd get paid nonetheless, albeit a great deal less. But hopefully enough to survive on until I get something full time. That wouldn't be so bad, cause at least then I'd have a little cash coming in to pay rent and stuff. It's not like being broke as hell is anything really new to me.