Aside from this month’s sidetrack I think it’s appropriate to hit the Streak Era once again.
I had already wrote about this opportunity which was with a now extinct retail chain Bed, Bath and Beyond. When I first wrote that post the company hadn’t yet went bust and liquidated. In fact I may have held the unlikely pretense that there was a possibility of employment in the future. Well now that all stores have since closed there is hardly any possibility of that.
So, if I may this was the third lead Anthony had given me and as happened during most of the streak era it was a bust. Remember what started the streak era, the mgmt position at a neighborhood cinema. The second lead was with Finer Foods where he was all over it and for my part I still didn’t get an interview. Instead he went off on me about not following up when the people he wanted me to speak with “renegged” and didn’t interview me.
This lead he wasn’t as all over. And once I knew about it, the timing was a matter of a few short hours. He texted me one morning about working at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I expressed interested, and then he asked me to come downtown immediately.
I don’t remember if it was an off day, but then it wasn’t like I had anything going on at that time of day. I got dressed to interview and went down to this store located somewhere on the near north side of town. I could take the train directly there.
Now, Anthony’s work history was murky. In May he was still trying to get me to work at his Finer Foods store. His narrative suggested that he actually worked there, but then again somehow he was working at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
So, in October 2013 he was working as a security guard after he left The Show. And then somehow he found his way to Finer’s, of course it seemed he had been trying to work for them for a while however when he tried to put me on that was when it seemed like he worked for them. And then after worrying me from February, March, April, and May he’s working for Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It’s amazing to look back after 10 years to see that his situation wasn’t particularly stable and he seemed to move around quickly.
I get there and he seemed to have finished his shift up there it was after 12 noon or so. He seemed to have had an early shift or perhaps he was basically overnight at this store. He had me fill out an application and made sure I had my resume with me. He held onto both for a while as I waited for a manager to interview with me. It seemed like a long wait.
Eventually Ant had to take off and handed my application back to me and left me waiting until a manager ushered me to a nearby desk on the sales floor. And he went over my application asking me about my availability which I clarified upon request. I asked one question about the job I would be doing and he never further allowed for any questions.
One piece of advice I would give for novice job seekers is that if you’re looking for a job at a retail store know something about what they offer. If you shop at a store even better, I sucked in my interview with Finer’s for example and when I had an earlier interview with Fresh Foods I sucked there too. What I did know about Fresh came from the attention that company had been getting. Other than that not much although that changed during the last five or so years.
Anyway, once the interview was over the mgr seemed very quick to move onto the next thing. I thanked him again before leaving that store and while I kept up my optimism, it was clear they weren’t going to hire me. Anthony would later send two texts and true to form they weren’t real updates.
One text was assuring me that I would be hearing from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It was more more no less than two or three weeks after my interview. However as time moved forward, I just heard nothing from them. So basically what was his basis for his assurance that yours truly would again hear from Bed, Bath & Beyond?
And then we headed into August. By then it had been about two months since interviewing with them. Ant sends me a random text asks me whether or not I heard from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and if I hadn’t call them. My only response was not yet, and never further elaborated. Thankfully he didn’t keep that going beyond that and as stated already he just wasn’t as all over this as he was with Finer’s.
He might’ve cared about this, but just not as much evidently as he still brought up Finer’s later on after this and still made it an issue two or three years later.
Also I may add years before Bed, Bath, and Beyond would liquidate their existing stores, this location that I interviewed with had closed. It was one of my favorite locations as it was most convenient and I had noticed shortly before they closed that they had become more of a outlet than a real store. So if that had worked out, it’s possible that soon I’d have to look for another job anyway.
Regardless, since I spoke with a manager about the possibility of getting hired it goes into the count. Zero for 10 for the Streak Era. Since February 2014 this had been my fourth interview with no job offers.
This was the third and final job lead Anthony had offered during the Streak Era. And a few months after this he asked me to call Finer’s again, however, I never seriously pursued that opportunity again. However, I still talked with him about my job search but he had very little to offer in this endeavor.
Believe me I was frustrated because while I was looking for something better nothing was dropping for me. And the job I did have at the time well it was a bit mellow, however, there were some frustrating situations going on back then.
Feeling No Love 