Finally, the job I was hoping for: a brief history
-While still in Morocco, I saw online that a guidebook company I admired was hiring editors in their New York office. I wrote a cover letter in my hotel room and e-mailed it to them.
-Heard from them almost a month later, after I'd arrived home to Oakland. Had a phone interview and an "editing assessment" over the internet. Didn't think I'd done so well.
-Moved to New York with Christina thinking we'd be able to live in the beautiful apartment some family friends had offered to rent us for a reduced price in a co-op on the Upper West Side. Plan fell through because the owners got in trouble with the co-op board for renting to too many guests.
-I spent 2 weeks looking for apartments full-time while Christina was at work, sitting in the temporary corporate apt her work gave us for a few weeks. Worked with 21 different rental brokers. Almost closed a deal with one for another, smaller place on the UWS.
-Followed up on a lead from a friend of a friend in Morocco who knows someone who works at the New York Times. He hadn't needed assistance in his unit when I first contacted him, but once he heard I was in NY he put me in touch with the head of the Pulitzer Prize team at the Times, who needed a "junior production assistant" to help team assemble Prize submissions for this year's running; job would be almost purely photocopying and resizing electronic documents in Acrobat. Interviewed with them, which really involved them just checking my pulse, and was offered the job 2 days later. Told them I'd wait on it for a week to see if the guidebook got back to me.
-Found a fantastic place in Brooklyn, where we'd decided to live after we determined Manhattan was too crazy for us. The first place we'd been looking at on the UWS was still pending but required a lot of paperwork (parents' tax returns, etc.) and was becoming a hassle. We put money down on the Brooklyn place, had our credit checked and signed the lease that evening. Called the other agent back the following morning to thank her but tell her we'd gone with another place and got a hole bored in my head by my cell phone's earpiece for 10 minutes. Went back the next day to her agency to pick up my personal documents so she wouldn't hire some crook to steal my identity or set fire to my parnets' house.
-Took the NYT job; was convinced that the guidebook wouldn't call me back since they were 3 weeks behind on their promise of doing so and hadn't returned my 3 phone calls.
-Got a call the next day from The College Board. The recruiter said she'd heard good things about me and wanted to interview me, though she was compelled to tell me they were already probably going to hire a very qualified internal candidate. Over the past week I'd given myself numerous pep talks about the NYT job and had grown pretty optimistic and excited about it (hoping it would afford opportunities to advance), so I thanked her but said I'd already accepted an offer, but that it was a temp position through Feb and I'd certainly get in touch with her if I were looking for something new at that point.
-Sitting in a Starbucks on Christina's laptop on a rainy day, got a surprise phone call from the guidebook asking me to come in the next morning for an interview with the executive editor. Did, and thought the interview went quite well, though I had a feeling he was looking for someone with a bit more hands-on editing experience than I have. Overall left feeling pretty optimistic. Told me they'd get back to me in a week.
-Following weekend still no phone call -- I'd left a message asking for news -- and left for Tulsa and Minnesota to make a 1.5-day visit to both sets of my grandparents. Spent those 4 days in nursing homes and sleeping on my aunts' couches; the former, in Tulsa, with my father's mother playing Rummikub and eating mashed potatoes out of a box, the latter in Edina (Minneapolis suburb) moving my grandmother from her minimum-care assisted living condo where she'd lived with my grandpa for the past 8 months to a round-the-clock "extended assisted living" single room in the same complex but a mile away through tunnels under the building from my grandfather, who remained in the same unit but couldn't care for her due to his own health conditions. got a message from the guidebook around this time saying they were checking my references, and then another that afternoon saying they'd like to offer me the job. thought about it for 24 hrs, called from the minneapolis st paul airport to accept it, and called NYT from chicago to thank them but apologize for changing my plans. Was irrationally terrified that the Times guy would have a similar reaction to the realtor I'd changed plans on, but he was very understanding.
-Now back in Brooklyn, recuping and getting ready to see Madame Butterfly at the Met with Christina tonight.
-Heard from them almost a month later, after I'd arrived home to Oakland. Had a phone interview and an "editing assessment" over the internet. Didn't think I'd done so well.
-Moved to New York with Christina thinking we'd be able to live in the beautiful apartment some family friends had offered to rent us for a reduced price in a co-op on the Upper West Side. Plan fell through because the owners got in trouble with the co-op board for renting to too many guests.
-I spent 2 weeks looking for apartments full-time while Christina was at work, sitting in the temporary corporate apt her work gave us for a few weeks. Worked with 21 different rental brokers. Almost closed a deal with one for another, smaller place on the UWS.
-Followed up on a lead from a friend of a friend in Morocco who knows someone who works at the New York Times. He hadn't needed assistance in his unit when I first contacted him, but once he heard I was in NY he put me in touch with the head of the Pulitzer Prize team at the Times, who needed a "junior production assistant" to help team assemble Prize submissions for this year's running; job would be almost purely photocopying and resizing electronic documents in Acrobat. Interviewed with them, which really involved them just checking my pulse, and was offered the job 2 days later. Told them I'd wait on it for a week to see if the guidebook got back to me.
-Found a fantastic place in Brooklyn, where we'd decided to live after we determined Manhattan was too crazy for us. The first place we'd been looking at on the UWS was still pending but required a lot of paperwork (parents' tax returns, etc.) and was becoming a hassle. We put money down on the Brooklyn place, had our credit checked and signed the lease that evening. Called the other agent back the following morning to thank her but tell her we'd gone with another place and got a hole bored in my head by my cell phone's earpiece for 10 minutes. Went back the next day to her agency to pick up my personal documents so she wouldn't hire some crook to steal my identity or set fire to my parnets' house.
-Took the NYT job; was convinced that the guidebook wouldn't call me back since they were 3 weeks behind on their promise of doing so and hadn't returned my 3 phone calls.
-Got a call the next day from The College Board. The recruiter said she'd heard good things about me and wanted to interview me, though she was compelled to tell me they were already probably going to hire a very qualified internal candidate. Over the past week I'd given myself numerous pep talks about the NYT job and had grown pretty optimistic and excited about it (hoping it would afford opportunities to advance), so I thanked her but said I'd already accepted an offer, but that it was a temp position through Feb and I'd certainly get in touch with her if I were looking for something new at that point.
-Sitting in a Starbucks on Christina's laptop on a rainy day, got a surprise phone call from the guidebook asking me to come in the next morning for an interview with the executive editor. Did, and thought the interview went quite well, though I had a feeling he was looking for someone with a bit more hands-on editing experience than I have. Overall left feeling pretty optimistic. Told me they'd get back to me in a week.
-Following weekend still no phone call -- I'd left a message asking for news -- and left for Tulsa and Minnesota to make a 1.5-day visit to both sets of my grandparents. Spent those 4 days in nursing homes and sleeping on my aunts' couches; the former, in Tulsa, with my father's mother playing Rummikub and eating mashed potatoes out of a box, the latter in Edina (Minneapolis suburb) moving my grandmother from her minimum-care assisted living condo where she'd lived with my grandpa for the past 8 months to a round-the-clock "extended assisted living" single room in the same complex but a mile away through tunnels under the building from my grandfather, who remained in the same unit but couldn't care for her due to his own health conditions. got a message from the guidebook around this time saying they were checking my references, and then another that afternoon saying they'd like to offer me the job. thought about it for 24 hrs, called from the minneapolis st paul airport to accept it, and called NYT from chicago to thank them but apologize for changing my plans. Was irrationally terrified that the Times guy would have a similar reaction to the realtor I'd changed plans on, but he was very understanding.
-Now back in Brooklyn, recuping and getting ready to see Madame Butterfly at the Met with Christina tonight.
posted by Seph at 4:09 PM
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