Working Woman

I will have to admit that I haven't written in a while because I have been sort of sad due to my failure of finding a job. Nathan kept assuring me that I had only been searching for a job for about 2 weeks or so and not to get down on myself because I hadn't found anything yet. It felt like it had been a LONG MONTH of me searching and submitting a million resumes and not hearing anything from employers. I decided I needed to go to a staffing agency and see if they perhaps could help me out. I didn't even have much luck finding these places. May I just say this... that Honolulu is AWFUL with downtown parking and as a result I had a hard time even finding these temp agencies. I was about to give up... I couldn't find a job on my own and here I am a professional with a degree yet I feel that it is useless here, then once I decide to go through a temp agency... I can't find the darn buildings and if I happen to find them... I can't park. I finally was able to locate and park at one and arrived just in time to where I could finish the entire "interviewing process" in one day. I have always thought to be good at computers. And by good I mean, I use them on probably an hourly basis .. haha.. and that I feel secure about using Microsoft Word and not a complete stranger to Excel. I felt like I had a great basis and that I could be a good receptionist. So, the receptionist at the temp agency directed me to a computer and told me that I would be taking several test testing my computer skills, starting with my typing skills. Well, as it turns out my typing... is not good enough. I can type well when I look at the screen the entire time and sort of type what is in my head, but when it comes to copying a document and having to look away from the screen and going back and forth from the screen to the paper... I lose my place and I type AWFUL! Especially since they time you on these things and I just sit there trying to find the line I was typing in the midst of this size 10 single spaced font full page paragraph. Moving on, they test my Microsoft Work skills. I thought, "Finally, something I know well!". Oh, boy was I wrong! This program was my lifesaver while I was teaching and I felt like I knew a bit more than just the basics. Well, as it turns out that there are functions on Word that I never even knew of and it wasn't covered in my computer class in high school so... the one program I felt like I knew to the T... I didn't. I was sitting in this chair just losing about 5% of my confidence with every wrong answer. Even getting the correct answers weren't good enough to cheer me up... I was so down and upset. I did so-so on the Word test, but I was upset because I thought I was going to do great. Moving on to the Excel portion of the test... OK Excel is a lot more advanced than word, everyone knows that. I know how to insert data, use the basic functions, and make a graph and make it look nice. But of course that would not be good enough, I have to know about macros and I don't know what else they asked me. So obviously, that part of the exam did not go very well although I surprisingly guessed correctly on some of the questions. I think at this point God just wanted to give me some peace because I was just in disbelief at my lack of skills. Sadly, the only skills I scored 100% was those that I would hope everyone would get... basic addition and alphabetical order. Upon finishing these test I was just wondering why the heck I was having to go through all of this... I feel I'm a smart, professional, hard working, and loyal person yet it seemed no one would even call me to set up an interview with me. I suppose being a teacher doesn't say much to these people and all my other jobs were college part time jobs that were nothing special at all. Finding an entry level job that paid enough to pay my rent and bills was going to be tough. I waited a bit, then I was interviewed by some girl from New Mexico. She was nice and gave me some hope about finding a job that paid decently. In the meantime she asked me if I wanted to take this one job where I would call people and ask for donations of their time for the MDA association which would be for about a month. I thought to myself, "Am I going to be one of those people that get hung up on a hundred times a day or get told 'no thanks' and do that all day long. It didn't sound promising and decided to call back the next day and turn the offer down.

So, this temp agency was not very helpful and I started thinking that perhaps I should be a waitress. I was thinking that perhaps I could make good tips and I would be alright. Then I started thinking about substitute teaching again. I had ruled it out before because I was hoping to find an entry level job doing or helping with HR/PR and that it could be something I could add to my resume and follow up on in Texas. But obviously this was not going to work out as it turns out people from here are very weary about hiring anybody from the "mainland". So, although I knew that substitute teachers didn't get any medical benefits... at this point I just needed a job.
So I decided to hit the website again and see what the first step was to become a substitute teacher. There was something about a 30 hour class I needed to take, along with a $50 test, and before I even considered taking the 30 hour course I had to be sponsored by an administrator at a school that would approve me to even be considered to take the course. Schools here have their own individual substitute list, not like at the school district where I worked where you were submitted for the entire district. You have to go to the schools individually where you would like to possibly work and see if they have any openings on their sub list to add you. I decided to go for it anyways and see what would become of it.
I went to a nearby school but it seemed that because the Vice principal wasn't there, they didn't know much about the substitute program and I left without any answers. I went to another school and I am happy to say that they were happy to sponsor me. The principal was so nice and friendly and he even offered me an extra possible job of tutoring after school if I felt I didn't make ends meet or whatever because I had expressed my concern of not having a stable income with substitute teaching. He also asked me if I was willing to substitute for aides who were in charge of special education students. While I have no prior experience with SPED kids, I figured it wouldn't hurt to add it to my resume for later and it would give me more of a chance to get called in for a job. So I accepted, I don't know what I got myself into but I pray that it will all work out. I'm still nervous because like I mentioned, substitute teaching isn't a set job Monday through Friday. So, my money is based on other teachers getting sick or unable to go to school and giving me the chance to work. I hope to get on 3 schools' list to substitute and hope that it will provide enough work. The principal said that he sees me being a pretty constant sub once the teachers get to know me and add me to their personal list if they happen to be off. I hope so... this job is risky but at this point like I said I just need a job. So, yall pray for me and that this will work out. I thought about being a waitress like part time since school is over at 3, but I'm not sure if I want to spend most of my time working... then what was the point of moving to Hawaii if it was just going to move to work a lot and pay for the ridiculous rent and leaving me no play time. I'll obviously have to see how it goes because if this sub thing doesn't work out then I obviously have to think of something else, but hopefully after I get my transcript the ball starts rolling and I can get called in to sub and enter the substitute teaching world... which scares me because I here it's completely different than being a classroom teacher but oh well...it will have to work. Oh, and as it turned out that I found out that I am exempt from the 30 hours course and the test, YAY!!