THE LORD LEADETH ME TO A COOL NEW JOB: and it’s in my field of study!!

GE x500; a gift from a friend a couple years back.
I’ve two digital camera, but this is my my main one and it’s almost for me what that blanket is for Linus. I HEART it!

A new year can often mean new beginnings that you didn’t see coming, but had hope for; my hope was fulfilled Jan. 3rd….

…I GOT A NEW JOB!

Thank God most definitely! After months of searching (yes, in this economy, weeks become months), I have been sent what I need (a job) and what I want (a job doing something in my field of study-in this case digital photography)! I know this will be awesome on my resume. My title is an e-commerce lister. That’ll look and sound good on a resume, too. I explain more about my position below; keep readin’! I mean, I am so happy to have gotten this opportunity after sooooooo long, I wish I could put star stickers around this job on my resume, but I would NEVER be taken seriously by any future employer, so I guess that is not realistically possible.  : (

Here is a run-down of what happened toward being hired: One day, I went to a job center that I’m registered with, as I built an occassional habit of doing, to write down a slew of jobs off their helpful board. I also went there to get advice on re-doing my resume. One of the receptionists there, Laurie, gave me great instructions on re-doing the resume and she also told me about some positions that their company was hiring in (they are a job center connected with that company). She felt my experience with computers, administrative assistance and my Adobe Creative Suite knowledge would work well with a few of the jobs. So, I went home feeling more confident & renewed (if you have ever spent a LOT of time job-hunting, it can have darkly depressing moments). I redid my resume and I also applied for the e-commerce lister and e-commerce scanner jobs the receptionist told me about. I didn’t know how many people might apply, so I wasn’t going to wait even a day later. (By the way, e-commerce, as you may know, is electronic commerce: it is the buying and selling of product or service over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks). Maybe about two or three days later, I received a phone call from the company about an interview. I was psyched just by that! It was as if “interview” really means “you got the job”!

So, the next day (Jan. 3rd), I prayed, also asking God to go with me and to help me to say the right things (if you pray and if you are connected to God, you know about prayer; I often pray about things & about doors opening for me career-wise) & went to the interview. At the interview with the e-commerce dept. head, Amy, I was just myself and natural. Everything she asked me concerning my skills I answered with belief in myself. And I also kept constant eye contact (a mark of sincerity). She noted many things I related on my resume with pen and seemed enthused with me and about their fairly new e-commerce department. She also perked up more when I talked to her about my enthusiasm for digital photography, saying it would work well in this field as products are shot and posted online in their online store. After the interview, she said she’d follow up with me on Monday via phone and that she still had two more interviews, but that she really felt I fit the position. I smiled beams of sunshine inside myself when she said that! She showed me around the facility and introduced me to some of the staff in the e-commerce department, telling the dept. supervisor that I was “friendly” and other positive things… *sunshine!*

When I got home, I still felt confident and just resigned my spirit to wait until Monday. I made any jitters hit the bricks (being nervous doesn’t help). I was positive. Instead of waiting until Monday, a few hours later I got a call from Amy. After the greetings, she said something along the lines of: “Would you like the job?” I said: “Hell friggin YEAH I want the job! I want to cartwheel into your office right NOW!!” LIE. I didn’t say that, but I felt that way. What I REALLY said was: “Yes, I do!” And then a slew of ‘thank yous’ spilled forth like suns, smiles and hearts exploding out of my mouth like a manga character or something. My roommate smiled because now I can help MUCH MUCH better, lol). I smiled so widely at my roommate, I think I may have verged on this:

The good news matches this awesomeness…

Amy even said, “I just wanted to make sure noone else gets you.” Now, I am one of the most humble persons one can meet, but that there made me feel pretty dang good…

I am the 2nd spot. One more person will be hired to work with me and one other person in that position (3 people). I will be starting Monday as an e-commerce lister. I explained e-commerce above (though most people know what it means, anyway). I will be one of the person’s behind the listings and descriptions of merchandise on my company’s online store and I will also be photographing the merchandise…right down my alley, yeah!! I won’t be using my GE x500 camera (shown in the 1st image above), but I will be using their Nikon, also a fine camera. I will also be using the fabled Mac computer (I haven’t used a Mac since college). If you are an artist and you are found out to not have a Mac as an artist, people look at you like you just morphed into a villainous purple and green monster before their very eyes! “You don’t use a Mac??!! Get thee back with your error!! Gaaaasp!!” Yes, Macs are like computer gold in the media world. Amy even said that with my art degree, I can add an artistic bent to the photographs. Even when I was being shown around the photographing/staging area, my brain generated images of the cool perspectives I can give a skirt on a mannequin or an electronic device or a pair of shoes. If you love photographing things and have a creative slant on it, you know how exciting that would be! A photographer can find artistic value in a beat up garbage can on a lone, grimy, bare street by using the right angles and filter…and it will become the classiest, most sophisticated garbage can on a grimy street that you EVER laid your eyes on! But I digress. I remember telling my new boss how excited I was. Goofy, yeah, but TOTALLY sincere…

Speaking of sincere, I sincerely thank God. VERY MUCH. Like THIS WIDE___________________________________________________________________________________________. Well MUCH more than that, I just do not have enough space for all that line. It would go on forever. Just imagine an infinite length…that is how grateful I am! With all of the challenges, red tape, closed doors and hard-heartedness in this world, it’s easy to be refused and; therefore easy to get discouraged. I got discouraged plenty of times. Many times, discouraged enough to wanna smack up every HR department that is in existance. I’m a believer, but I’m also human. But though I was discouraged, I managed to pick myself back up with the strength, endurance and the resolve God enables us with and managed to pick myself up with the prayers and advice of others (incl. good ole Mom!). I kept going.

A journey worth taking in any situation.

I kept going in large part because I know God knew I needed a job, so of course it would come. I also have long realized what the image below states:

Logic and wisdom.

God doesn’t do things when WE want Him to, but when HE knows we are ready for it. That is how caring and careful He is…He isn’t going to let us have something at the wrong time, He isn’t going to be so quick to bless us if we do not even believe He can. He also is not going to give us something He KNOWS we cannot handle so that we can hurt ourselves or fail (for ex: like sending someone a car when they are a bad driver; He won’t send that car because He knows you’ll KILL your crazy self…you’ll get it after you’ve improved), He isn’t going to give us something if we didn’t do anything or enough to earn it. He also isn’t going to give us something if we do not pray properly (go into prayer w/ respect, go into it believing, ask for forgiveness of sins-go into it pure of mind/heart, praise Him-He deserves it, be honest, ask that it please be done in His will-it’s not up to us if it happens, end with the prayer ”through Jesus’ name”-Jesus is the messenger). IF IT’S FOR YOU, YOU WILL RECEIVE! IT’S REALLY HARD AT TIMES, BUT BE PATIENT!

I thanked God even when I got the call for the interview; I was soooo psyched!! He is always present; we can’t do it alone! So, thank you God , Jesus, Holy Spirit & Heavenly family and thank you my encouragers!

I went to the job center and told Laurie that I got the job she told me about, I thanked her a mazillion times! I know mazillion is not a word, but it is now! Hahaha!! #obnoxious

Well, I’m out with this post. Into work Monday. Looking forward! Now, when I whip out a camera & take tons of photos around people, the people won’t look at me and roll their eyes with infinite, annoyed agony…it’ll be my JOB to be a photo freak, now!

(PS…My blog was featured on a blog awards list, for a second time, last month. I will do a short post on that, soon!)

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THE BIG CHANCE & SMALL JITTERS III: the result (ugh), but I suck at quitting

Gotta keep going until I reach the sky. Or at least a helluva good job.

Well, as you can see here, this is the third installment of my job interview experience; about the interview I had with the public design/marketing agency. I was being interviewed for a visual arts position.

(Before you all read the rest of this, here is a disclaimer: I am not bitter. This is comic relief so that I will not be sad or punch anybody with a brick. SO, read it in good fun. I was laughing,myself.)

I did NOT get the job. I was emailed a follow-up stating along the lines of: my skills were admired, but I did not quite fit the job. If this is a true statement…….YOU SHOULDA GIVEN ME THE JOB!!

See. Even EINSTEIN agrees I should've gotten the job.

If this is not true, then that was a professional, watered-down way to state: “We like your stuff, but we found someone we like better. We found someone whom impressed the clothes off of us with their charming, hyped up designs and words and, so , when they start working for us, they will reveal just what a mistake we made becasue it was all talk just to get this job. The truth is this person has no REAL maintainable, consistent skills at all, poor work ethic &…they steal. We’re sorry, Ms. Johnson!! PLEEEAAASE work for us! We are BEGging YOU!!!!!!!”

That last part was just a fantasy, but who knows, maybe they really did hire an incompetent, over-self-hyped idiot who just wants a job, but has no passion. No all-important creative IDEAS. I am great at visual IDEAS.

I am not bitter. Just having fun with this so I won’t be feeling dejected. But that will be hard for me to be, as I always mope for a little while, then I get right back on the train and keep chugging along. I am the worst quitter in the world. I always keep trying because if I don’t, I WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. Just imagine giving up without knowing that a week after you gave up, your big chance was coming. That would SUCK.

So, I will keep chugging along until I can climb that ladder to the big THIS IS WHAT I EARNED in the sky. I know part of this means moving out of state (this interview was out of state). I am perfectly fine with that. New place, new job opps, new experiences. New air.

While searching for that AWESOME career move, I think I am going to try extensive travel. Maybe do some good in the world while I am at it. I have been looking up volunteer travel opportunities. That would be another thing of interest.

Hey, I am a Sagittarius. I don’t sit still and I DON’T give up. Noone ever should……..

(Stay tuned into the caloniedoesart channel. My next post will be another art analysis on a graphic art piece entitled “GO!!GO!!GO!!!!” It involves cars and crazy arrows.)

(psssst…If you are in the design business, if you have a company or you’re an individual and you need design work, a logo for ex., contact me: calonie.ct@gmail.com!)

My artwork: http://paintingsilove.com/artist/caloniejohnson
Follow @SheDoesArtWow

THE BIG CHANCE & SMALL JITTERS II: my job interview result…thus far…

What I have DEFINITELY been doing…

Well, everyone, my interview at the design agency has come and gone and I am counting on Godly intervention!

It rained the day (two days past, already) that I went, but that did not dampen (poetically-charged pun intended) my determination. I HAD to get this job! I was 10 minutes early which is ideal…to be early. The night before, I actually had a nightmare that I was late for the interview. What the heck!?! One of those “ironcally bad-timing” things. Like the time my boyfriend and I JUST came off a cruise and the very next day we saw the movie “2012”…you know, the one with the sinking CRUISE SHIP scene? Or like, on the SAME cruise, this woman was actually playing, on the piano,  the theme from “Titanic”???

Ironically bad timing.

But the “ironically bad timing” nightmare had no effect as, like I said, I was beyond on time. I half waltzed (my confident side)/half slow-walked (my trying to stay calm side) my way into the building and smiled at the receptionist like an old buddy. Hey! I’m friendly and wanted to make sure to convey that to anybody there! I sat and waited for awhile, watching, on a flat panel tv, a neat video demo of the company’s purpose. Then, it was time…

Unlike the Titanic, the interview didn’t hit a virtual iceberg and sink. It actually was a positive interview and moved along smoothly. I tried to listen and speak as naturally and confident as possible. She, the owner, explained the business and position, then asked to be shown printed samples of my graphic work. I explained each piece and a bit about my process. She asked me some questions of myself and I asked a list of questions I had. It wasn’t a loooong, long-winded list. It was reasonable. So I wouldn’t come off as a psycho-paranoid-crossing every “T” interrogator.

Really, everything went well, until the middle of it when my throat caught an itch…. Now, I am getting over a cold that never quite formed (as in no runny nose, nasty poppin’-ilk-cough or lazy a**ness wooziness to go along with my scratchy throat). This semi-cold has been fading away in aggravatingly gradual stages. Earlier, in the week, I sounded like an extremely scratchy-voiced Jewish mom who lives in New York and yells at the kids all day. That fell off and I sounded like a scratched, everyfewseconds skipping CD…every few syllables or word skipping as I tried to speak. Ugh. The day of the interview, I sounded a bit better, but still with the scratchy throat. No matter HOW much Cold Buster spray, cough drops or whatever I took all week! Bleepin’ bleep bleepity BLEEP!!

So, the middle of the interview, I get a BAD BAD itch in my throat. I felt it and even as I tried to keep my composure before this professional, interviewingmeforagreatjob lady, on the inside my mind was screaming, “NOOOOO!” and cursing profusely and “Why now?” I am convinced, and I’m serious, that Satan was trying to mess up my chance. He likes to screw stuff up. Anyway, I ran to the bathroom after excusing myself with as much calmness as a choking – up person can. I coughed in that restroom like I was on my deathbed.

Anyway, the remainder of the interview was just swell. Satan lost…again. More points for the Lord! I was told to email some of my illustration/drawing works and told I would be informed in a couple weeks. Until that decision, I feel like the image below, right now…

Hopefuly, this will be replaced with a big fat smiley face!

…but not in a disheartened way. Nervous, but NOT disheartened. I am just continually praying for the best. God brought me to this point and I pray He bring me the rest of the way to a decision (her decision) that I have been waiting on from someone for a long time, now.

All I want is to utilize my skills full-blown (not just on the side).

All I want is more experience.

All I want is to be psyched about going to work!

All I want is to make a better living.

All I want is a chance.

(psssst…If you are in the design business, if you have a company or you’re an individual and you need design work, a logo for ex., contact me: calonie.ct@gmail.com!)

My artwork: http://paintingsilove.com/artist/caloniejohnson

Follow @SheDoesArtWow

THE BIG CHANCE & SMALL JITTERS: my job interview

Yes, as the title says, I have an interview…TODAY! In just a few hours…

It’s not just ANY old interview for a job, it’s an interview within marketing. An interview that will require me to show some of my graphic design and art works in a portfolio. I have waited a loooooooooooong time to get a chance like this. To work in a job that is actually my field instead of “other” in order to have money in my pockets. Not to mention positions like this make more Mr. Green!

The closest I’ve ever come to utilizing my degree (a Bachelor’s in Studio Art, cum laude) was a job directing activities (which included crafts) for seniors, tutoring art at a library I worked at and, of course, creating and selling art in the side for patrons since second year of high school. My art on the side business has helped me stay connected to art so that I don’t lose touch AND so I don’t lose my friggin mind living in an ultra small, barely gettin by town where people are more interested in paying their bills, food (both understandable), buying clothes, detailing their cars and nails AND hair than in buying art (these 3 more trivial)…unless they can get it for near free. Which does not help ME a whole lot. I’m thankful for the business I have gotten over time and other connections with out-of-towners, but I know I have to move on and have a real CAREER.

So, I had some enlightenment, recently. I won’t go into detail, but the emotional and mental epiphany told me I needed to step up my job search! Or live a life, in one area (career), being miserable and regretful. So out of a huge cavalcade of jobs I applied to online using TWO methods (jobsearch sites like Careerbuilder & Simplyhired, for ex. & a more direct, phone-calling approach which seemed to get more responses than the jobsearch sites), I got two postive responses. One was a design agency that pays you through the clients you acquire and design stuff for (the agency prints the work, you get paid…I can still do that one, too) and the other was this opportunity.

So, now, with a portfolio at the ready, I am ready to see how this turns out. I don’t know what’ll happen. Maybe I will get the job, maybe I won’t, but I can thank God and be proud I got this close & not give up. If I GET the job, it will be a fresh and prayerfuly happier start!

HOPE (not “luck” because that is only chance) me the best! Thanks!!

(psssst…If you are in the design business or you have a company you need design work for, a logo for ex., contact me: calonie.ct@gmail.com!)

My artwork: http://paintingsilove.com/artist/caloniejohnson

Follow @SheDoesArtWow