Job Hunt: Success?

[jeriendhal]

So I went in for an interview and J.C. Penney and they basically offered me a job right there. I'd be workign sales, most likely the jewelry dept., to the tune of $7.00 an hour plus 2% commission. Supposedly on average, outside the holiday season, with commissions it would be more like $10.00 an hour. Not terrific, but it beats the hell out of being unemployed, and it'll keep us going until I can find a suitable admin job with better pay.

We'll see how it goes. Sales was never my first choice, but at this point I can't be picky, and it's slightly better than Barnes & Noble (even if I'm not getting a 30% discount on books).

Comments

success!

[mehhayperson.livejournal.com]

Yay for finally getting yourself a job! It's no fun to worry about money all the time.

Hope the flooring issue gets better soon as well.

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

Hooray for offers!

However, a word or two of advice.

DO NOT include commissions in what you expect your salary to be -- I say this as someone who did years and years of comission sales. If the amounts at the two places are similar, and the difference is the commission, i'd still go with B&N. Why? Because you know books and literature, and you can recommend things and guess at what else someone might like. You are going to be more successful selling them than you will be selling jewelry.

JCP will see you as reliable and mature, and thus unlikely to steal jewelry. It's odd to *tempt* you with jewelry dept commissions first, even though you've got no experience in jewelry and no particular interest in it, but stability and maturity are hard to find in christmas help.

However, make sure that they understand your scheduling needs AND agree to them, because retail will schedule you starting at 6am and run you to at least midnight in those anchor stores - and there's a rumor the whole mall will be open insane hours during December this year. And if you're running, say, 6am to 3pm, you're NOT going to be making much in commissions.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

It's a living. Hopefully it'll be a good stepping stone. Good luck!

[wolfstormdancer.livejournal.com]

Did ya check the 2 sites I referenced a couple of days ago?

http://www.usajobs.gov/

https://www.lmpeople.com/careers/search/search.asp

what kind of admin work do you do?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did post resumes for several jobs on the usajobs site. Thank you for the pointer, Wolf, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier.

As for my old job, I did basic administration, editing directories for the hotel company I worked for. Finally got sick of it after 14 years and they let me go with some severance. Not sure what else I'm good for really. :/

[wolfstormdancer.livejournal.com]

Tell ya what... send me your resume. I don't need personal data just your work history. I will take a look at it and give it a few coats of wax... buff it up a bit... and send it back.... possibly with a few references off those sites. If there is one thing I can do it is create a resume that will fit the parameters of the job description. I ay eed to ask a few questions but when I am done you might be supprised.... then again there could be nothing I can do to help.... but you never know unless you try.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Thank you Wolf, I really appreciate that. I'll send you what I've got, and the job offer from a company that contacted me today.