Job-getting update!

Recently, I've thrown everything into getting a new job. I prefer to work and use my degrees instead of being a "desperate housewife" as I have been in the past 4 months - and yes, housework has suffered and I don't care. I want my job.

I've interviewed PR people about the jobs I want, networked and networked some more ( I even have flash business cards that everyone likes! Guess plain white backgrounds are too ubiquitous), been to several fantastic PR professional development breakfast courses and applied for every PR agency job that I thought I could do in the San Francisco region, even though I'm not keen to be travelling several hours a day each way. But the one place that I really wanted to work was Hoffman PR Agency.

Ranked 11th in the US, this agency is global with offices in places like Russia, Germany, China, London and Taiwan. Its HQ is directly opposite my church. I've wanted to work there ever since I saw it the first time we went to San Jose Downtown. (Here's the Google street view so you can pretend you're there.) So imagine my delight when a position at my level opened up... I found out about it at 2pm, and it was posted online that day. At4pm Brendan and I were rushing around at the printers, trying to print it, and at 4.45pm I arrived at the agency to hand-deliver my resume, only to find the doors locked!

I decided to wait anyway and see what happened... when a guy walked up to the doors and walked in, I thought, "oh it is open!" and followed him in. He seemed a bit surprised to see me but I handed him my resume and he promised to pass it on. Later I realised that this unassuming man in a flannel shirt was none other than Lou Hoffman, the founder of the agency!

I had interviews for this position, with four different people. I was so excited because this was absolutely my dream job, and even more so when I interviewed with them. Everything I was looking for and far more. I found out yesterday though that they'd given the role to someone else, which is very disappointing.

However, the HR person told me that she'd held off on telling me, which implies that I was second choice for the role. She also told me that a position may be opening up in a few months which would be suitable for me, which is excellent. So I guess that information is a good consolation prize. The competition here is so fierce that PR actually pays less than average because everyone wants to work in a Silicon Valley agency, and some people don't care how much they earn to do so.

I had an interview on Wednesday in San Francisco as well with a recruiter, so that should be interesting as well.

A lot of people have been extremely helpful - it's amazing. People are always willing to refer you to someone they think can help you, or give you advice. Just this morning I got a call from a PR recruiter in San Francisco who someone else had passed my CV on to - while he did only senior level PR recruitment, he gave me lots of leads for jobs and things. Which is really nice.

Since I needed proper work shoes for interviews etc, we went to Marshalls which sells cheap label clothing.

The store contained: "Fabulous Shoes".

Or rather,

"Fabulous shoes" x 10,000,

but my bank account said 'x 3 only!' so I had to pick carefully.

elegance + 5
comfort - 3
stability - 1

elegance + 4
comfort + 2
stability -1

EDIT: After wearing these shoes for a night out, I have revised the score to Comfort -7.

elegance + 2
comfort + 5
stability - 4
colour in photo - 10 (it's grey)

(If you don't get it, it references the conventions of RPG games, where items can give you psitive or negative qualities and abilities. Ever notice how magical clothing and jewelery clothing items in RPGs seem to magically fit everyone from the giant down to the dwarf in your party?)