John Chalke has a Job

The Job Hunt Part II

2008-07-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

Last night, as you read, I prepared my resume. I admitted it to one place on careerbuilder.com. Today, I am searching careerbuilder, and plan to submit my resume to as many jobs as possible. What follows will be a list of potential jobs:

1. Kiddie Kandids - Children's photography - not pornography as I thought I had read countless times. Another party is really egging me on to get this one, so I decided to apply. It definitely has location down for it as it is roughly 5 minutes away from my house - an easy 20-30 minute commute to my second job. The benefits include:

-Training to become a photographer: my primary interest in life is film, and I am constantly learning about camcorders and videography. Stanley Kubrick started as a photographer, so it could only help that passion.
-Free pictures: It does not say if these pictures have to be of your children as I don't have children. I would assume that I could also get portraits done of myself or my wife if I wanted some pictures taken.
-Flexible part time: Excellent for retaining my first job.
-9.50/hr starting pay. This fits in well with my desires.

2. Sales/Marketing - This particular job is with an advertising firm that specializes in sports teams, restaurants and the such. It is quite a find on career builder, as most sales positions, even entry level require some sort of a degree or experience. This would be the ideal place to interject that I don't have a college degree - perhaps this fact will make the blog read a tad clearer.

The benefits for this job aren't listed besides training, which isn't quite as much a benefit as a necessity if continuing employment is the goal, on both ends of the employee-employer relationship.

3. Insurance Salesman - Pros: Possible 100,000 first year. Cons: Being a douchebag. Professionaly. Needless to say, the cons outweigh the pros.

I will be applying more places, but this does it for now (as my internet explorer exited out of my career builder window.)

The Job Hunt Part I

2008-06-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

Let's rewind. This blog was predicated on the idea that I would have a second job. As that fell through, I was left with only the one job that doesn't have quite as much material as one would've hoped for. I am now searching craigslist and careerbuilder.

Getting a second job may be harder than I initially realized, as the requirements amount to much more than I had previously thought. What follows is a run down of some of the surprise reqs.

1. Growth minded - Within the interview I have come up with the metaphor "I am a seed, and your company is a garden." I will not entertain follow-up questions.

2. Must have professional speaking voice and demeanor - Impossible to be taught, and hard to judge yourself, this is definitely something that comes with practice as there is no corresponding degree or class even.

3. A resume - Bear in mind I am applying for random entry level positions (in an upcoming post) so a generic resume is needed, but it will in no way differ from an application. What follows are two entries from the "Work Experience" field of my resume. One of them will unfortunately be changed before it is sent out.

Server March 2007 - Present
The Derby Tavern
§ Develop positive, strong relationships with customers.
§ Ensure customer satisfaction by creating a pleasant dining experience.
§ Retain menu knowledge by keeping up with restaurant changes.
§ Creative input on potential restaurant improvements.
§ Suggestive selling to benefit both the restaurant and the customer.

Server/Cook July 2005 - March 2007 and May 2007 - August 2007
Papa Beaver's Story Time Dinner Theatre Chesapeake, VA
§ Maintaining my own sanity without commiting suicide.
§ Mouthing off to Carl, and making sure he knows he's a fuking idiot.
§ Ignoring customers.

And here is the entry for Honors and Activities:

United Methodist Mission trip to Camp Highroad in Northern Virginia.
United Methodist Mission trip to the Eastern Shore.
Frisbee.
Employee of the Month Derby Tavern Februrary 2008.
Watching movies.
My two michelin stars.

4. Foster company success through professional appearance, being courteous to customer and other Scottrade associates by having a positive attitude. - Not awkward, but the longest requirement.

5. - Not more than 2 years of sales exp. Check
- Not more than 6 years of post college work experience Check

And so ends this current blog.

John Chalke still has one Job

2008-06-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

I realize that I haven't posted in roughly a week. Unfortunately, this is not due to a lack of time from having a second job ie i didn't ge tthe second job. I am disappointed, definitely. I will eventually get a second job I know, but this job seemed like a good starting point. Either way, I am still waiting tables.

For this job, the scheduling manager is going on a vacation, and therein did the schedules ahead of time. This leads us to understand that I cannot start a job until after that is up, otherwise it would be far too difficult to schedule.

However looking for jobs will begin again shortly. I will put together numbers and whatnot. In the meantime, I will talk about my other job, my waiting job. I will leave you with three quotes from my last night shift I worked.

First customer:

To understand the lunacy of this instance you must realize that this customer had been looking at the menu for a while, and that we are not an Italian restaurant.

Customer: "I am looking at your appetizers menu and I see that you have fried calamari. Do you also have bruschetta?"

Me: -utterly confused pause- No.

Second Customer:

For this to work, know that the restaurant does not have a dessert menu, but rather a dessert tray with actual pieces of desserts on them so that the customer can see exactly what they look like. It includes mostly cakes, and every now and then one dessert that switches up. One of the desserts is a three layer white cake with buttercream frosting. It looks like your average cake. We are required to present this tray to every table, and describe each dessert, including that afformentioned one.

Me: finishing up the dessert tray presentation. This is a key lime pie.

Customer: looking over the dessert tray and eventually pointing to the above mentioned yellow cake, specifaclly at the frosting. So... this is frosting?

Me: Yes. In a dead tone.

Customer Three:

This customer actually committed the least of sins out of the three, but just confused me as to where he has gone out to eat.

Customer: You have calamari that's fired, and then served with marinara, tell me about that, i've never heard of it that way.

Me: Well, sir, we prepare it exactly like roughly 90% of all restaurants that serve calimari.

Thus concludes this installment. Hopefully a second job (and more posts) will come soon.

I have a Job

2008-06-23T22:54:00.000-07:00

My name is John Chalke and I have a job.

Within the day, hopefully I will have two jobs.

The first job is waiting tables.

Being as the first job is all that I have right now I will discuss this job at the time:

The restaurant that I wait tables at is described as either casual fine dining or casual elegance. Fine dining perhaps is a bit of a stretch, even when modulated with "casual" but it's not unbelievably easy to categorize. The food that we serve (without detail) is known primarily as seafood. However it can also be categorized as boring - if you were to go into that detail.

I want to make sure that it is not assumed that I hate my job. I enjoy it to quie an extent, but that doesn't mean that I in any way agree with every thing that we do. I hope to address these issues in this blog, but I do not care to constantly reference that I don't actually dislike the job. If such were the case, I would quit. If everything goes well though, I will transfer into the kitchen and get off the floor. The topics may drastically increase or decrease, or possibly stay the same. There won't be quite as much angst minus customers, but there will always be discussion.

To start this blog off I will discuss my most recent conversation with a customer (note: I have kept the authenticity intact for the first go around):

The customer has ordered a sandwich.

Me: Would you like fries or chips with that?
Customer: What?
Me: It comes with either fries or chips.
Customer: -silence-
Me: You can also instead get mashed potatoes, green beans, rice...
Customer: No.
Me: What would like for a side then, ma'am?
Customer: No side.

Time elapses. The food comes out.

Customer: Doesn't this come with chips?
Me: Yes...
Other Customer at Table: You didn't want any.
Me: ...but you declined them.
Customer: Oh, could I have them?
Me: Of course.

Time elapses. I bring out the side.

Customer: Are these chips? Oh, I meant the fries.
Me: of course.

She receives her fries. End service (if only.)