Oh no she didn’t, oh yes I did! April 11, 2009

I got a new job!  I am way excited, I love the staff, the environment, it’s great!  My first day was yesterday and it was a LONG one because I did internet training all day, that was really fatiguing but it’s gonna be great!  I have two bosses technically, one’s a branch manager and one’s a customer service manager (I’m a customer service rep at a bank) and I met them both in my interview and the branch manager remembered I had two kids so yesterday she sent them home goodies!  How great is that?!  They are laid back while still being professional, very upbeat, and very much a family.  I couldn’t be happier with the job I found!

Expounding on the subject of employment, I hear so much about un-employment rates, and “there are no jobs” many people on unemployment, etc…  I know I’m a bit different because I have experience in a niche market, but seriously… I watched the employment listings for 2 weeks while waiting for my interviews, and I have to tell you there ARE jobs out there, lots of them.  The Wyoming Job search listings through the state for our county are like 50 pages long.  I’m sure not all of the jobs are desirable (I didn’t apply to wash cars or clean office buildings) and not everyone is qualified for all of them (I didn’t apply for any of the hundreds of positions for nurses and pharmacists), but there are a lot of entry level positions out there for decent money.  I have heard of businesses here having to close their doors because they can’t find good help?!  I’m sure it’s not like that everywhere, but when we were re-financing our car a few months ago and Joe had just been laid off, the banker said “I’m sure you’ll find something in no time, it’s impossible to be un-employed in Gillette”.  At the time I thought it a very risky comment, but now I think I might agree with her.  Joe found a job in two weeks in his field.  He didn’t take an entry level position by any means, but they are available in his field as well.  I don’t know if it’s the salary people don’t like or the benefits or what, but I am just blown away at our un-employment rates right now.  I can’t imagine they’re making more on un-employment than they could be making in many of these entry level positions.  I kind of think people need to look at the long term picture, entry level positions give you chance for advancement.  I’m sure it sucks to have to start over after getting laid off of a job with better pay and more benefits, but surely even these entry level positions are better than un-employment with no benefits?  Also just to qualify my thoughts a little, the recession has hit here, lots of layoffs in recent weeks and lots of people fearing for their jobs, so I do understand the economy stinks and job security is questionable everywhere, I just have trouble wrapping my head around the amount of listings vs. the amount of applicants.  If you want to see what I mean, go to http://careerbuilder.com search for jobs in Campbell County, Wyoming and you’ll see the amount of open jobs and the amount of people who applied for each job.  It’s really staggering, we’re still running ads on TV stations in places like Michigan and I’ve seen signs in Colorado, Montana, and South Dakota inviting people to come to Gillette to work.

On a similar note, we had dinner out last night and one of our waitresses is a teacher of Joey’s.  That’s the 2nd restaurant in two months where a teacher waited on us.  In Rapid City it was a kindergarten teacher with 50+ students in two sessions during the week, he works weekends and nights as a waiter to supplement his income.  Same thing with the teacher of Joey’s.  She wrangles 25 kids during the week and moonlights as a waitress.  This just floors me!  There are people in other government jobs knocking down $100k a year and the average teacher’s salary is $30k to $40k to start with a cap at just under $70k for a tenured teacher.  WTH is wrong with this picture people?!  It’s no wonder our economy is in the crapper!

Just a note, if you’re going to search for a job on CareerBuilder, beware of the scam jobs wanting you to invest money to work for them, or worse the jobs offering you $100k the first year, because those are commissioned jobs selling insurance and the like, you only make that kind of money if you can sell the product and in this economy I wouldn’t put my house on the line for one of those jobs.  That’s saying a lot considering I come from a strong sales background and my house is burned down!