The job of the hunt...

... or the hunt of the job....
... or the finding of a job...

I'm looking for a vehicle | I'm looking for a ride | I'm looking for a party | I'm looking for a side

I'm looking for a job. I've made no hiding remarks about it. I'm at the point now, where I'm not looking to back track and do things I know I can do, but get less money for it. I want to move forward with my skills and I recognize there are some things that are beyond my scope of actually figuring out. Therefore, my limits are also refined. 

However, I did apply to Comcast in the end of March, given the challenges we've been having in my house regarding the advancement of the cable company's non-transparent business practices. I thought if I could get my foot in the door there, I'd be able to not only better figure out what they're doing to make their personnel not helpful, but maybe I could be one of those that could help. 

So I had a scheduled interview for 11am in the beginning of April. It was one of those automatically generated emails where you pick your time and they'll call you, although the confirmation stated it would be from 10-10:45 CST.... wherever they were calling from, it was the middle of the US. Ok, fine... even though it's a company all over the country, they can do what they want. 11am comes around. No call. 11:10 comes and passes. No call. 11:30 comes and passes and my phone was still dead silent. I sent a response to the email program that originally set the appointment up. I questioned the legitimacy of the interview, as no one has reached out to me and I don't have a number to dial in to. Almost immediately, I get a reply... the interview has been cancelled and I need to reschedule. 

Wait... what? 

I waited around for 30 minutes... shifted my day around...  to be told I've been cancelled on? What if I hadn't emailed them... would they have contacted me? Probably not.

I played the game and rescheduled for 3pm that afternoon. Time came and at 3:05, my phone rang. It was an Orlando number, not a Midwest number. The woman on the other end deeply apologized to me, saying she was supposed to call me this morning and got stuck in a meeting. She's sorry no one contacted me to reschedule, but is glad I was able to do it myself. She stated the phone call was being recorded and that I shouldn't worry if it sounds like she's hung up on me. She is making notes to be able to send to the hiring manager of the store I applied to. She's actually calling on behalf of Comcast... this was a recruiter calling me. 

Weird... first they thought I was contacted about rescheduling. Then I'm told I'm being recorded. Next they're a slow typer and are making their own notes to pass on... This is about to get interesting... 

She asks me if I'm aware of the job I applied to. I say kind of, yes. She goes on to explain that this particular job is the back of house position for one of the retail stores. It's a loss and prevention / stocker job, where I'd be rotating all the products off the shelves. I'd make sure all inventory is accounted for. I'd be helping the sales floor staff, but I'd not be making commission; I'd make an hourly wage (more than what I'm making at my current job) plus a 5% quarterly raise would be mixed into this. I wouldn't need to worry about a base salary plus sales salary as it's straight pay. It's also 40 hours a week with benefits.

What's the catch? I won't have a life. 

They require a literal on call type of guarantee from everyone. 

Meaning, you have to work weekends plus all holidays. They have a 2 week rotating schedule which means for one pay period, you could work Sunday to Thursday and then another pay period work Monday to Saturday. The work week starts on Sunday so you're at the whim of the scheduling needs of the store.

There's really no days off with this job, nor is there a straight 40 hour / Monday - Friday schedule. 

Which means I could work an entire month and not have a day off... which is something that happened when I was working for Kmart. During the height of season, I worked 30 days straight with no day off. I paid the price by getting sick - I had a nasty head cold at the end of that shift and couldn't shake it for over a week. I don't want to relive that. 

So after talking to this woman for 10 minutes (mind you, this was supposed to be a 45 minute phone call), I mentioned the whole schedule thing after she finished describing it to me. I said I was really looking for the full time aspect, the pay, the benefits, but I need Monday to Friday. She said she can't help me with that, that it happens to have been the reason for the cancellation that morning - her superiors said that if anyone this group talks to, mentions scheduling conflicts, the conversation is over. They can't go further with anyone if the perspective employee has any type of challenge with the hours described. 

I told her I'm more than willing to work the job... that it's really 7am to 9pm due to opening and closing routines... I will work any number of hours within that time frame, to make 40 hours, as long as it is Monday to Friday. 

Nope. I have to accept a flexible, fluctuating, rotating schedule. Since I won't, conversation has to be over. 

And so it was. 

Ten minutes.... it was all I got. Within 30 seconds, I got two emails in my inbox from Comcast... thanking me for applying for the position, but telling me I can't go any further with the position, due to my "no longer having any interest in the position".

Seriously.... they emailed me saying they don't want to go further with me because I said I'm no longer interested in the job. 

I never said I wasn't... I only made comments about the schedule. I was interested in working for Comcast, but not at the hours they wanted. 

Potato, potahtoe, I guess. *Shrug* 

Guess I've got to keep looking...

Last weekend I saw the movie Songbird. It's a December 2020 release that describes "a devastating pandemic ravages the world and the United States is in its fourth year of lockdown. Infected Americans are ripped from their homes and forced into quarantine camps known as Q-Zones, from which there is no escape, as a few brave souls fight back against the forces of oppression. Amid this dystopian landscape, a fearless courier, Nico (KJ Apa), who's immune to the deadly pathogen, finds hope and love with Sara (Sofia Carson), though her lockdown prohibits them from physical contact. When Sara is believed to have become infected, Nico races desperately across the barren streets of Los Angeles in search of the only thing that can save her from imprisonment ... or worse". 

It co-stars Craig Robinson, Bradley Whitford, Peter Stormare, Alexandra Daddario, Paul Walter Hauser, Demi Moore

The movie basically plays on what has been happening over the last year of the global life of humans. Visually, this movie is amazing. I did a little research and found out it was filmed on RED Komodo cameras (which cost thousands of dollars... and their accessories cost upwards of a grand). Whatever this camera does... it films amazingly. The scenery is crisp and clear, and I think you could actually see stubble on men if the camera panned close enough to the shave. Haha. 

I have a friend who likes The Walking Dead, as well as good photography and thrillers. So I told him that this movie has the back drop of an apocalypse (TWD) + aspects of The Purge (because it's a Michael Bay production) + a global pandemic + it's filmed beautifully. There's no problems in scene jumps or too many light flares (I hate these new movies that rely on trapping light in scenes. 

See Also

* The song lyrics in the beginning of this post ("I'm looking for a vehicle") belong to 1984 by db.