Something I never wrote about…

I have something that I didn’t tell you from over the past summer. No huge secret but for the first time since 2019 when I interviewed for associate buyer I had an interview. I consider it something of a retread, however, my interview was with the National Theater Chain.

Every once in a while I might file an application usually with those cinemas that are in downtown Chicago especially since the Climax of the Reign of Error. Of course there were two interviews with the NTC during that period neither resulted in job offers. And every now and again I get a nibble, and even got one before the economy shut down due to the bug in 2020. There has been a few other nibbles since then however, I took up this one with a theater which had just opened up earlier this year.

For the interview it started with an e-mail and while I didn’t immediately respond I just said the hell with it. So I replied told the mgr when I would be available, he said cool and then I just got ready for that day. What I hoped to do was schedule this interview on a day when hopefully my mother had nothing going on and turned out I was wrong. She had a medical appt on that day, so basically I drop her off at her appt, I drop the car off at the house and then took the train to where the cinemas were.

The cinema was actually a space used by another company which went bankrupt due to the pandemic. I had actually been there years before to check it out, spoke with an associate who couldn’t pronounce the name of the latest release at the time Spectre. I saw there was a gift shop right where the lobby was. Instead of a box office there was a series of kiosks for customers to buy tickets. The associate was standing around to help customers who were “challenged”. And then I walked back out of the building, never saw a movie though there were opportunities to go up and interview with them and never did.

The building is located on the north side of Chicago and in a commercial development full of stores which I hit up such as a sporting goods store and a Finer Foods was nearby also. I just browsed until it was time to get ready for the interview. Now remember the NTC took over the space from another picture exhibition company. So the set up from that other company was never fully changed for NTC’s purposes. There is no person in box office and there was no guest services desk and there was a bit of a crowd of young people up there on this day. It was no earlier than 12 noon to 1:00 PM on this day.

It took me a minute to figure out who to approach there was an older man doing maintenance work, I approached. I can easily identify a mgr/supervisor for NTC and he wasn’t one. His role seemed to be to fill all the sanitizer stations within the building. I simply told him that I had an interview and told him who had contacted me. He sat me down near the bar and said he’ll get someone out to speak to yours truly. Another guy who was dressed as a mgr/supervisor came by, asked if I had an interview and said someone would be right with me. Well he wasn’t the one who interviewed me. 😛

A much younger man who couldn’t have been much older than 21 sat me down at a table in the bar area and we had the interview. As per usual the questions were mostly situational and I would basically shoot from the hip with my answer. Went for the old standbys mentioned a time where I thought an area at a business wasn’t clean and mentioned the produce dept at the Finer’s nearby was very cluttered more than I was used to at Fresh Foods.

Another answer I gave was about how I think if you got a good team around you that passes the time very quickly. If everyone was on the same page to get some work done that goes a long way. They asked me about how I feel about accomplishing a task I give examples of doing receiving for the produce team and how it’s a difficult job and then once it’s complete I gained satisfaction. Now it seemed as if this young man was rushing me as he was quick to end the interview before I finished asking questions.

I told him that I formerly worked at The Show and he lauded it as a very nice facility and it was (though don’t worry I have been very negative about them on this blog however I just temper my comments in this situation). I had to ask him how long had the NTC been there, were there any plans for that place for example is it a “dine-in show”. Other than that I walked away recognizing that I probably won’t get a position there.

No big issue with that, it’s not like my hopes for the future was hinging on this. Unlike 10 years ago! This was just an exercise I didn’t take it that seriously. I tried to dress appropriately, still had my baseball cap on. Wore a button down shirt and a pair of dark slacks. If nothing else, just take myself out of the comfort zone and just because I wanted to do it.

The mgr did let out quickly how much the job paid. It didn’t move the needle for me one way or the other. I did tell him I work full-time for a grocery store and I do make more than the wage he noted. Taking this job would be extra money if I can get the availability just right. Perhaps he did that to let me know this isn’t the job for me, however, if I didn’t want it that wouldn’t have been the deciding factor. The cinemas aren’t exactly spitting money at prospective employees especially if they’re young and silly even in a time when these businesses need workers

Another note, well they may not have known I was coming though they didn’t entirely waste my time. The mgr who interviewed me didn’t even have my name down nor any details from my application. Indeed I didn’t come that prepared with a resume of my own, like I said I didn’t take this interview that seriously.

If you want to know every now and again I still do applications for the NTC. No further nibbles since June of this year, however, now I realize that this is a retread. If there was anything this was a signal that it was time to do something different. The same old thing isn’t really working.

As a matter of fact I’m working on something with Fresh Foods right now with the idea that if I stay in one place for a long time I stagnate. I’ll say more about it later, however, I’ve been chasing jobs in the cinema business and hoping for the best at Fresh Foods for a while that now I wonder if it’s just time to just move forward. Perhaps Fresh after almost 8 years had served its purpose for me.

April Fools

Allow me to announce for the record that I hope to ultimately decrease any future stories about Anthony a guy who I consider a fiend and not a very good friend. Time to move away and let go, especially since perhaps he isn’t thinking much about me anyway. He likely found another target since he is a user, however, that’s no longer my business.

As you see that is a minimal likeness of the man I knew for many years. He’s got those red beady eyes, a frown, a grimace, with a Guy Fawkes goatee. My artistic skills aren’t that great however I feel this is adequate if I wanted to show you how I truly view the Fiend.

Anyway here’s what I wanted to share with you.

Five years ago in 2017 before the “reign of error” I was trying to get into touch with Anthony. I felt the need to discuss with him and seek advice on a panel interview I would be a part of. One thing I did at first was to text him to see if he was available to chat. We exchanged texts perhaps I was trying to be jokey and he wasn’t really having it, in 20/20 hindsight he was crabby for some reason. When he’s crabby he just let’s things fly and sometimes yours truly can be a convenient target.

So anyway out of the blue he requests that I take off April 1. My response to was ask if he’s requesting off April Fool’s Day. Basically on my end perhaps there was some confusion and wanted some assurance that I myself wasn’t being pranked. His rough response via txt

“Stop with the @#$%^!*@_@$#!$# jokes. I’m asking you to take off because I want you to go somewhere with me.”

I had to calm him down as best I could and told him I wanted to talk to him anyway and ask if I can call him. He was OK with it so I dialed him up. Told him about the panel interview I would be part of where one of the supervisors and another supervisor from another store. I had to explain to him several times what my role was and this panel interview wasn’t for me though I was part of the process to ultimately hire another assistant mgr for the dept.

I don’t remember his advice but a lot of it was to just show some of the hire ups my boss at the time – and this was before Ruthless Roger – the HR person and a store mgr about my understanding of the role at the very least. To see my point of view on why I wanted to do this it was to at least see the process up close as far as what it takes to get promoted at Fresh Foods.

Remember you read that Ant was a bit crabby. Sometimes I might repeat “If you don’t mind me asking” and he comes back with “DUDE You can ask me anything YOU WANT!” and he did that to me twice during our convo. Again I can be a convenient target perhaps if I didn’t tolerate it he wouldn’t keep doing it. Either way he felt it was OK to just take out whatever frustration he had onto me and it wasn’t cool, especially if it comes from a friend.

Anyway I got my own frustration off as this was the same convo where he noted Finer’s. I had been updating him on possibly becoming a buyer as the next step for me during that period of time and it also seemed when I bring it up he wouldn’t support that. In that conversation he decided to be like “Hey, OK, Alright. If you come to Finer Foods you’d make more money“. At which point I just said tensely “YOU MUST HAVE A REAL HARD ON FOR ME COMING TO FINER’S”

That got his attention he tried to keep me calm and stated “No, no, no. I’m just saying, just saying”. I didn’t respond I just hoped my response and then subsequent silence would get the point across that there was no interest in that direct. Also this was the umpteenth time during that period when we talk about work that he would bring that up. Newsflash this proved to not be the end of it.

Eventually we ended our call and not long after that he sent me a sexually charged meme. It was a medication themed meme showing a curvy scantily clad woman talking about such side effects as high blood pressure, heart issues, etc. The implication is that there are health effects to having your fun with said scantily clad woman. And remember he was crabby right?

I wrote “is this covered by my benefits?” to roll with the meme. And he had to respond, “I don’t think you need to worry about your benefits and all because I don’t think you’re getting any to begin with”. My response “I really like your thinking”. He read it but had no response but just had to reply with something just a dick response.

So that was it although remember during that period he was sending me things other memes and some videos that were related to his interest in martial arts. There was really nothing else with that and one time asked him outright “Are you a bot?” and his response was to send me more of them.

So our convo took place not long before April Fools 2017. Little did I know our “situationship” would take a turn by at the very earliest in June. He would again borrow money from me and showed little inclination to pay back. He would be a bit of a troll near the end of our real communications. And at this point I didn’t think I would experience the event I refer to as the Climax of the Reign of Error.

That rather unexpected event was a primary reason with no real “falling out” that caused me to really distance myself from the man who in 2018 would become Anthony the hustler. I began to think more logically and reasonably about him and his actions after that point.

What could’ve been?

I’m having trouble as far as trying to come up with a follow-up post to the shoot from earlier this month. Then I realized let me expose an “easter egg” for you. I showed a few scenes of grocery stores on my instagram page within the past two months and one of those scenes are actually of a store that I had interview with in 2014 during the streak era.

The store in question I had an interview with during the Streak Era was with a company I call Finer Foods which does represent a real life company owned by a major corporation and it was located not too far away from downtown. It was a bit closer to home than the store the Fiend wanted me to come work for and they were looking to hire people as it was a new store that had yet to open.

To give you a basic timeline. In January or perhaps earlier in February 2014, Anthony had sent me a text asking if I wanted to work for Finer’s. I reply, Yes. He said I should be hearing from someone and I do, however, around the same time Finer’s corporate offices came calling. This was one that the ball was dropped I will admit because the acceptable option back then for yours truly was a shorter commute which meant the location closer to downtown.

As with other interviews during that period of time I had to take some steps before receiving a job offer unfortunately there is hardly any guarantee. That period is called the streak era because I went through a number of interviews until October 2014 and failed consistently to get a job offer. So this interview was the seventh of about fifteen interviews and the count would be zero and seven.

I had to go through a phone screen successfully and then had to do an in person interview. I had to change trains and then walk a bit to get to a hiring center which either used to be a daycare center or a hair salon. The people doing the interviewing were wearing uniforms consistent with Finer’s which was in those days a white shirt, black pants with a black necktie.

I hardly talk about interviews however it wasn’t long before this interview that I learned it was a bust. I just couldn’t read the interviewer and while I kept up my optimism it wasn’t going the way I hoped it would. Perhaps I tried to hard to show that hiring me was a good choice and hopefully move up the chain if you will. The interviewer wasn’t showing enough enthusiasm and had no reason to believe she was going to offer me a position.

So I didn’t leave in great spirits although I did “hope” for a phone call. Worse still she suggested not the store I was originally told by someone in the corporate offices over the phone, she mentioned yet another store on the north side of town which seemed like a much better commute than going to the northwest side of Chicago.

Another thing that threw me off about this interview, I forget what questions I asked – and it probably wasn’t very good anyway – but her answer was to tell me that she never worked or doesn’t work for a store. She probably was an HR person as I can only imagine those are the only ones whom a company would trust to make hiring decisions. One question she asked me threw me off and wasn’t sure how to answer “What frustrates you?” To answer that in the context of a job without talking about all of your life’s frustrations is not exactly a very easy task. I don’t remember my answer all I can say is that one can only do the best they can with that question.

It’s almost like being asked about your tardiness or just general attendance. I feel like once that’s on a manager’s radar and while it’s an easy fix you can’t win with that question.

Anyway at some point after that I reached out to Anthony regarding his contact the one who had called me. I only ask if she was at work on that day, he only answers NO. Though I made the assumption that he washed his hands of it and decided that one word answer was as sign that I was being blown off. Just decided it was OK for me to pursue those opportunities I really want.

Of course as time went on into the next month I get bombarded by single-minded texts and missed phone calls by Anthony with primarily one question, “What’s going on with Finer Foods?” As things just slow to a crawl again with no potential prospects coming along I break down and give Anthony a call thinking he has some connections I can use to leave The Show. He characterizes me blowing off his store for a soon to open store for his company as “putting all your eggs in one basket”. Meanwhile as you might have figure he later tries to have me put all my “eggs into his basket” and pursue the opportunity he had set up for me. Well consider that a move that didn’t work the way he nor yours truly wanted it to.

Last month for the first time I ever I paid a visit to that store. Nothing remarkable about it I figured quickly it had the same layout as the previous tenants. Unlike Fresh Foods in the same situation Finer’s didn’t take a significant time to design & build out their spaces. I came looking for some typical items to purchase. And it was an interesting visit, one can only wonder what would’ve been had it worked out back then.

I heard so many negative things about Finer’s as a company that I find myself wondering if working there would’ve worked out for me in the long run. At this point who knows, I feel as if it took a few months after this at least into 2015 to find a move that in the long run worked out best for me.

And if you haven’t done so already follow me on instagram

Interview Time re-visited

Around this time three years ago, I attempted to get rehired with my old team at the Hole. Why waste much time with the outcome, it didn’t happen. I interviewed not with Larry who at that time just returned to the Hole to take over my old dept, but with one of the store managers who was actually in the office when Morley gave me the bad news back in October ’17 – climax of the Reign of Error.

Anyway, I look back it was a bit of a wreck. Perhaps I thought there was a rapport to establish and the store mgr just decided hey dude I don’t know you. I forgot all about you. The irony is while Morley was very willing to say I can’t get a copy of my record or at least of the write-up this store mgr filled in the blanks and said I could make a written request. So the answer isn’t just no…

Now I can point the finger at Rog for my dismissal from the Hole, however, the questions remain in my head. Was my dismissal part of Morley’s plan to inject new blood into my old dept? Was this solely Roger’s call and I think it is based upon how I thought /goofball was behaving towards yours truly at the time? And when I tried to return do I think Morley wanted to find a way not to bring me back in spite of the seeming implications in the mgmt office on my last day there?

Those are questions that remain unsettled and often my thought process points towards the actions from Rog to the assistant store manager as they were direct barriers in my mind. However, if I was concerned about Morley he’s no longer with the company as in outright fired. And of course why I tried to return Rog was no longer the dept mgr to be worried about and he also after some time left the company.

I had people backing my return mainly supervisors and even Wil the team’s associate buyer and it meant nothing. At that point in March ’18 I wasn’t coming back not there anyway. The supervisor said when I did visit my old dept about two months later that it was strange that they didn’t bring me back. They didn’t know what was up with that, I gave that supervisor my take that I just wasn’t able to connect and we left it at that.

On the day of the interview I ran into Danny who was doing new hire paperwork. My first comment to him was “the nightmare is over?” It was what I had said to Wil actually days earlier before I got a call from this store manager for an interview. He just chuckled and noted that the now departed /goofball was either too bossy or just wanted everything his way. He never said what claimed his job although from how he was talking it sounded like Ruthless Roger was just looking for excuses with him also. Then we talked about the changes since his last shift and I don’t think he knew Larry was the new dept manager. According to him Gary was working on his paperwork with him. So after that I do the interview….

Incidentally for the first time since I had returned to the company Danny had actually came to my dept at my current assignment to cover the night shifts. He must’ve forgot that I saw him when he was getting on-boarded with the company and asked if Rog didn’t want me to come back. My response was “By the time you came back at least he was long gone, and even then I don’t know if I’d want to work with him again”. He just responds with a “yeah” as if to agree.

Another few thoughts and events since then. Since I alluded to the strangeness of what happened in March ’18, Morley was one of the people who likely knew I was trying to come back. One of the supervisors stated that he would tell both Larry and Morley and of course got the call from that store manager who I had also been told was actually screening people.

One month later I finally write the post “On the Spot!“

Feel free to read the original post

October – Dawn of the ‘streak era’

October has been something of a pivotal month within the last 6 or so years. I left The Show for a teller job at Gotham Bank. I also lost the job where I made the most gains in an unexpected fashion which we’ll explore further later this month (in addition to it being explored at different intervals and the aftereffects when it did happen)

I don’t want to dwell on either, but talk about what happened just about eight years ago. This time in 2012 I learned that an opportunity that I had lost became a dodged bullet. I had occasionally talked about a mgmt interview with a neighborhood cinema company.

To be fair I had an old “fiend” put me onto it. Earlier that year I saw a notice for this on that company’s website – I was a customer you see and often check showtimes. I really talked myself out of it because they were looking for experienced managers with a certain set of skills which I can’t say I really had. For example, I generally don’t use spreadsheets and evidently have no interest though if I wanted to be in business it’s a necessary skill.

Well Anthony put me onto it and was starting to get frustrated with the Show, and this was before the real weirdness that I got embroiled in. Also just note the year before I had largely kept my distance from him, however, as part of his rather paternal instinct or perhaps not even that he just needed an excuse to come around. So he was still giving unsolicited advice and I accepted this.

If I couldn’t be a manager at The Show, I could go elsewhere I figured. Of course when I did turn my resume in to that company there was a waiting game. First I got no response, Ant gave me another email address to send my info to and got a response. According to him he gave me a very good reference or at least put in a good word for me.

The theater owner gave me a basic timeline which ultimately got pushed back to near the end of that summer. Ant still found a way to get some money for a hot dog – literally that happened – and while I expected him to pay that back I told him to eat it for any updates. See I began to lean on him for information because I was ready to go.

Eventually she got back into touch with me, set up a date and time to interview which was a workday and I had a short turn around to get out of the interview and get to work later that afternoon. I felt very confident in my interview in hindsight did I show that for that role I was green. What I didn’t know back then is you have to do more than show you’re a hot shot to employees you have to do some housekeeping which depending on your level includes showing how much money the theater made.

What I had to learn in my later experience sitting on an interview panel for mgmt or interviewing to be a supervisor or interviewing to be a buyer is that you have to create a plan that has results. I’m giving you the basic idea but I hope you get the point have some new ideas and in some cases have some real numbers to back it up.

Well I thought the interview went well enough that I was waiting for the job offer and sadly none was coming. The notification of next steps especially after a follow-up email to her got pushed back a week – she did state a certain period to expect follow-up from her.

For Ant’s part he stated his expectations that if he knows about next steps then I’d know also. It seemed he thought we would be a packaged deal as he was part of that process as well. Over time I listened to the Hustler and start soaking in his own complaining about the company. With the weirdness around us I was starting to become unhappy. As I’ve stated on this blog a number of times I was ready to get out of there I needed this opportunity and thus put all of my eggs in one basket for this one.

So as the clock starts to tick and my confidence at an all time high at that point I wait for an answer. It seemed almost everyday for maybe a week Ant would text – he would offer no updates of his own – “did you hear anything?” And each time my answer was no. After one final time with no explanation he finally gave his own indication of an update “WOW!“

According to him he got sent to the next round of interviews his own next step. He would be up for General Manager – and to be fair that call for experienced managers said nothing about what kind of managers that company was looking for. In my own head I was thinking something like supervisors or even senior managers and I was shooting for something resembling senior manager like at The Show. The power to really hire or fire.

Well the way I see it now she was making decisions or changing her mind as she went. Perhaps she had no clear idea of what she was really looking for. In my head if a GM was what she was looking for I definitely would say I’m not it. Not ready for that at all!

Not with my ideas for that theater. I would’ve tried to take some of the ideas from The Show which was a posh place to work or come to the pictures and bring it to the neighborhood. Bring a piece of downtown to those who may choose for their own reasons not to come to the movies in the heart of Chicago. There was a grill in the lobby that seemed to never be open when I do go to the pictures up there, how do we get that running on a consistent basis. The owner attributed this to a staffing issue….

Well anyway Ant suggested that I follow-up with her the next week and she finally told me the bad news via email. Yours truly didn’t make the cut for the next round, she wanted candidates with “significant management experience”. I was so bummed about that until I left the theater – The Show or $h!tplace – I was still whining and upset about these turn of events. I wasn’t going to leave anytime soon and that wrecked my confidence! It just seemed like such a sure thing.

I told Anthony what happened and he already begins to prescribe alternatives like look at other companies. I already hated job hunting I was loathe to do so because by experience it takes time and work. I was loathe to do so when things got weird at The Show. Then I got one great opportunity and after great anticipation dust!

This would set the tone for the next two years when after many interviews one out of 14 or 15 interviews I got no job offers. I’ve come up with one excuse for this, however, that may not be an explanation I was just on an odd streak that I was running until in 2014 Gotham Bank finally broke the streak.

So anyway this was an interview the Hustler wished me good luck and I hoped for the best, however, it didn’t work out and he wanted to be a listening ear. He proclaimed he might go a bit further and that was the conversation we had in an auditorium we were working when he said “I just don’t get you“. Turning that convo into one about how I was pushing him away.

Well this time eight years ago it was blasted in the press that the theater where I had my interview was shut down for a week. The theater owner’s company which operated the screens was evicted from the premises by their business partner who actually owned the facility. It was shocking and what that meant was that Anthony wasn’t getting the job either and there was no further opportunity for me with that.

Anthony had discussed possibly bringing me and some others from The Show to the neighborhood theater bringing their talents and work habits with them. He thought of me as an idea man and everyone else had their talents for good or bad. It just wasn’t to be.

Remember Ant likes to follow-up and often I liken it to groveling which is definitely beneath a man who is just stubborn and dominant. He likes certainty, however, after a while he no longer got a response when he tried to contact her. Perhaps the theater owner had things going on behind the scenes that she didn’t want to explain at all especially to those candidates she went forward with.

While I had continued to dwell on this for the last two years at The Show, as it turned out this was a momentary set back. Yours truly never fully let go of his idea of being a manager at a theater. I hoped for the best at The Show until it was just decided that it was time for me to move on. If they offered I don’t think it would’ve been accepted by me. In my head they waited too long for what is something they should’ve discussed but if they were in no mood to evaluate anyone for a raise….

In some respects years later I’m glad it never happened. The idea had occurred to me that yours truly would’ve crashed and burned. Considering the mgmt and the employees it would’ve been stressful when things need to run smoothly in my opinion. Even in perfect circumstances that doesn’t always work out that way.

Anthony would hang in there for at least another year to enjoy the rides in my mother’s luxury car and getting some money or even lunch paid on my dime on those late nite rides home. He would complain about pay as he seemed to have the need to nickel and dime any job willing to offer him a job. He would even try to suggest I try to nickel and dime jobs during that time when I was trying to leave The Show!

Either way that period just about eight years ago, was a hard lesson learned. A very necessary one at that.

Finally putting my eggs in one basket. Well that wasn’t really said at the time, that’s the situation at hand in that time period. However, that term would come up for another idea that the Hustler would just get into almost two years later. Another interview that actually never happened but he was deadset on.

Before the outbreak

Actually I was supposed to go to an interview back at the dine-in Show – operated by the national theater chain – where I had worked for roughly 8 months during 2015-16. My last interview there was after being let go from the Hole and months before the actual end of the Reign of Error. That interview didn’t go well and it seemed based on the people who I still knew up there it was very likely I wasn’t coming back at that time.

Regardless, this time around before the quarantines, the order to serve only take-out foods with no dine-in, and before the stay-at-home orders I had the opportunity to interview to be a porter at the dine-in Show. Basically I would transport food orders to moviegoers in their respective auditoriums. I’d be eligible for tips and it’s something I have some experience in due to my previous stint there.

I didn’t go, it was a workday and it didn’t really end until I punched-out for the day. Before these lockdowns and the dire predictions of the spread for this bug that’s going around right now this was a normal day. It wasn’t too uncommon for someone to come up at say 3 PM when I would’ve gotten off to walk-up and expect to be served. The person who’d take over for me wouldn’t come in before I clock off for the day.

So when it got that busy near the end of the day, I wasn’t entirely in good spirits and decided at that moment that I wasn’t going. In my favor they didn’t call me to schedule an interview this was basically an open interview. I was invited to an open interview via e-mail and people just had to show up and get interviewed. It’s basically like going to a job fair which Fresh Foods might have at their stores at certain intervals. The way I see it you never know what you would get with such a gimmick. Some of the people I work with now, were hired through such an event.

Either way I never saw this as a big loss if I just decided not to show up. Perhaps it might not look so great for me in the long run, however, this is a basic entry-level job and I wasn’t interviewing for a mgmt position. They may not have such a great record of who came in and who didn’t, I was just on a list of people they invited to interview. Also the porter job wasn’t really the job I wanted if nothing else it enabled me to work elsewhere just as it was the case when I was in my honeymoon period at the Hole four years ago.

So not long after this pandemic struck, a week had passed after the interview where the state government and federal governments start issuing their orders to stem this pandemic. I also found out while looking for jobs with the national theater chain that theaters are closed right now until this pandemic is over. Therefore they’re not doing any hiring currently.

If I had gone to this open interview when would I have started? Would my start date have been pushed back thanks to this bug? Even if I had started would I still have a job once it became clear that movie theaters around the country would be closed due to this bug?

Just think about it for a second if I had still been working at The Show and the dine-in Show I’d be out of work. It’s a good thing I work at a grocery store otherwise I’d be sitting at home making NO money. And it’s unclear if I would’ve returned to work at a theater especially if they just decided it wasn’t important for me to return.

To be fair, I’d rather be working but then it’s kind of cool to be sitting at home letting the world heal from this bug. It’s not something I can hardly afford at the moment, but then again if I’m serious about becoming a YouTuber perhaps one day I can afford to sit at home and wait out a major bug outbreak. It’ll have to remain a dream for now.

 

The job that didn’t “suit” me…

As far as marking this month, I will use a “rerun” to do the deed.

As often stated this month five years ago I got fired from my “new” job as a bank teller at Gotham Bank. The post I wrote over the past spring is just a sequence of events that caused that nightmare scenario.

I also illustrated that I got ready and started applying for jobs because as it turned out this wasn’t working out for yours truly. This time five years ago I was able to connect with the boss I would have at the store to be known as the Hole.

Another tidbit I never noted was that after my 1st & 2nd interview for a job at the Hole I went on a day trip to the south. It was for a funeral of my dad’s uncle in the suburbs down there. It was first trip south other than homecoming at Mission College in a number of years.

It was an interesting excursion, however, I wish it was under a number of different circumstances.

Of course as we know in the new year 2015 would prove to be a wonderful new year for yours truly.

Feeling No Love

I’ve dwelled on the stagnation of my time at The Show and then what happened later at The Hole with /goofball. However, I never really discussed at length nor dwelled on what happened with my bank teller job at the company I dubbed Gotham Bank. The teller job represented the job offer I finally received after over two years of looking to leave the theater.

Unfortunately it didn’t go well and after no more than a month and a half I was let go. It was really such a short time that I was there and being unemployed that it’s safe to say there just wasn’t much time to dwell on it. This event was what I now consider a temporary setback. Before getting into what went wrong how about something of a lay of the land for that time.

One of the first people I met once I arrived…

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References

I noted the streak era briefly earlier this month. Today’s story is more of an aside and even worse is not easily provable. All I have is the word of someone else and the man in question may never admit this if he did this.

Anyway this was a few months before I left The Show. I was still applying for jobs, going on interviews, and I suggest to a coworker – lets call him Woz – that he calls Anthony and see what he says as a reference. Because Ant knows Woz I suggest Woz use his ability to use one of his accents to throw him off the trail.

What was the point of this exercise? I was concerned about the increasing count and no job offer. Perhaps at this point I was just about 0 for 12 while job searching and had five more to go. Some of those jobs asked for references on their applications and Anthony was utilized for that purpose. Granted I have no way of knowing if any of those companies checked references, what I do know is that most of those interviews resulted in no job offer.

I don’t know what led me to ask Woz to call Anthony posing as a manager for this made up company called Esquire Theatres – named for a former cinema located in downtown Chicago. Perhaps I had that sinking theater that as talkative and occasionally vindictive Ant could be, it’s possible that he’s doing something to hold me back. It doesn’t take much for him to get upset and he wants to do something about it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in him to hold me back from getting away from the job I referred to as $h!tplace because either I won’t follow-up on his leads. Or perhaps because he still hasn’t figured me out or whatever. What I knew is that there might be something going on with him and after a number of interviews to leave The Show starting in 2012 I got no job offers. It was a real strange streak.

So Woz actually does call Ant and eventually texts me his findings letting me know that I was  “a good guy, but very unreliable”. Ant’s words about what he thinks about yours truly. Drop in a light dig that could tank my chances if someone dared call him as my reference. Alas, I never really did anything with this information too much on my plate for that time. Sometimes it’s not so easy for me to switch gears until I just have to.

Not long after this I do two more interviews and finally get a job offer from Gotham Bank which I accepted. This job enabled me to finally leave The Show after almost five years after the theater opened. And Gotham did have a section on their application where I could put down references and Ant was one of them. Either they didn’t call my references or Ant was in the mood to put in a good one who knows. It doesn’t matter I got the job anyway!!!!

As far as Anthony’s response I did kind of pose a scenario to him once as far as why it took so long to get a job offer over two years after I started interviewing for jobs. I decided in part one reason it wouldn’t happen was because of my teeth. I had to force him to look into my mouth to see the dental work I had done. He’d seen me a handful of times since I left the theater and it seems he didn’t notice. Perhaps it was something he never paid much attention to anyway.

When he does see the dental work his first question was “Why did you need to do that?” I don’t remember what I told him but I hinted this was one reason why I never did get ahead when I was job hunting. Even stated that perhaps if I had never gotten that dental work done I wouldn’t have found the job at Fresh Foods. He quickly dismissed this assertion by saying “I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s all in your head”. He quickly changed the subject and wouldn’t address this further.

I did note that for that interview that resulted in an offer with Gotham, I hadn’t yet done the dental work – where I get the bad teeth removed and was fitted with a flipper – I still had bad teeth when I went on the interview. In fact I cancelled the appointment for this major work to do this interview. Perhaps it was in my head, perhaps it was meant for me to work for just over a month at this bank branch.

And perhaps some of the other interviews which resulted in no offers was because of my teeth, or I didn’t interview well or because of bad references. Perhaps all the above.

What I do know now is if you allow the man I now know as the Hustler any possible power over you, he’ll use it. In this case, if he knew he had the power over whether or not you’d have a better job he could decide whether or not you’d get it or lose it. Since it seems he’s not stable himself, he could be the reason he holds you back. Even if you can’t prove it…

 

June 2014: Another rejection…

For a moment I’m going back to the middle of the streak era. If you don’t know for a period of over two years while still employed at The Show, I had a number of interviews and yet no job offer. This month marks five years since I had one interview where I had someone on the inside helping me and got nothing for it.

This story I told my mother in full recently. My dear old friend Anthony somehow went from a job at Finer Foods to a “Homegoods” store. The month before I called him and was trying to discuss with him another subject only for him to put the spotlight right back onto trying to get me on at “Finer”. Well anyway I showed a lack of will on that issue and Ant just let it go at least for that time.

One month later I get a random text from Anthony asking me if I wanted to work at that “Homegoods” company. I answered affirmatively and texts me to come up to his store that day. I get dressed to go for an interview, he’s worrying about when I’ll get there. I’m sure I made sure to give him an ETA if you will just so he won’t get worried. Knowing him if he’s involved he’ll get worried and I’ll hear about it.

When I get up there Anthony had just finished a shift up there at this store on the northern edge of downtown Chicago. He wanted me to meet with one of the managers up there and needed me to have a resume with an application. For a manager to be available we waited a moment even after Anthony had approached one about me. Eventually Anthony went home for the day as he was there early in the morning.

I waited a minute and one of the managers pulled me aside to a nearby desk in another department and we start talking. I try to sell myself as a man who can carry different hats as I had been doing at The Show. I answer questions as far as availability not really knowing the store’s operations. I also noted that I had been a longtime shopper with that company. He did open the door to questions near the end, however, I felt as if I didn’t get to ask more questions as the mgr cut the interview short.

Once it was over we shook hands and in 20/20 hindsight as I maintained my optimism he seemed to move onto the next thing rather quickly. I stopped him and thanked him again before I left just to be sure he hadn’t forgotten about me. However, I got the feeling perhaps this interview didn’t go as well for me as I thought it had. However, I got a rough timeline as far as when the store will call me about next steps.

Within the next few weeks Ant would send a quick text to let me know I will be hearing from the store. I was like great however just one problem, I never heard from them again. I didn’t know what info Ant was getting from mgmt – especially since I know he will follow-up if he’s really into something – however in the time after I interviewed (actually it was termed a screen) I just heard nothing. Who knows if his bosses just told him something just to get him off their backs.

Either way at least two months after this “screen” Ant texts me again simultaneously asking if I heard from his store and if I hadn’t call them. Of course true to form when in doubt I did nothing. While he showed some persistence with Finer Foods during the course of that year trying to help me find another job elsewhere from The Show he wasn’t as tenacious about this opportunity.

During the course of the remaining Streak Era period I had moved onto other opportunities which at this point were mostly banks and then one interview to be a theater manager at a national chain. I had finally gotten an offer which I accepted at Gotham Bank with whom I interviewed with at different branches over three months. Still even with some knowledge of the interviews I was starting to get Ant still would bring up the topic of Finer’s asking me to call his contact to get up to his then store who couldn’t interview me when I had been up there.

Needless to say I was really able to move on and not rest my laurels on contacting anyone who may or may not have the interest in me that I expected them to have. Thankfully I finally had found a employer away from the movie theater willing to hire me though in the long run it didn’t work out for yours truly.

Got a question

I’m taking the lead of Tommy at the Formerly Unfortunate Male Virgin. If you got a question, I hope I got an answer. Perhaps your questions will be the basis of a future post. But otherwise let’s have at it.