|C|andid |K|aleidoscope

I quit my job of three-years at a small integrated Marketing services agency in November 2005.  After serving two-months notice and staying on for an extra week to help clear and handover all work, I started applying for all kinds of marketing positions.  To date, I have applied for more than a hundred jobs.  This is what the ease of using the mouse and the Internet does.  I can spend every day sitting in front of my lovely computer, just click-click-clicking away on all kinds of jobs I wish I could get.

That started in January and I am still doing this every day and night.  Of course the interview requests started coming in and I went for a fair share of them.  Some of which, I realised I had no interest in (I must have clicked them late into the night and didn’t know what I was doing by then); others seemed pretty promising and two of which even verbally offered the position to me; the rest were ok but somehow just didn’t quite pull through.

I am officially demoralised now.  I have been jobless and penniless for two months.  Living off the little savings I have (which I can now announce to be totally dried up) and of course relying on THE man for pocket money (this is one of the up-sides of being married!).

I can’t say for sure what went wrong for the two that verbally offered me the job.  But for one of them, I have an uncanny feeling that it has something to do with my ex-employer.  Let’s just say that all her employees has nothing nice to say about her.  The other, I really have no idea what happened.  One moment we were discussing the remuneration package, the next I was told the position has been closed.  Am I asking for too much?  I don’t think so…  But one thing I know for sure, is that experience REALLY counts.

I’ve thought about it and know I want to work in the FMCG/Service/Retail industry.  However, I have near to zero experience in this field.  I guess you can’t count the three-months of part-time retail experience I had during my poly days.  Which I guess is the reason why I am still jobless.  Do I give up my dream of working in an industry which I like to just work in some company which does something I find boring and dry?  Or do I hang on and keep looking for some kind soul who is willing to give me the opportunity to embark on a whole new career which I find interesting and have the passion for?  I am almost going to apply for a job at a well-known local shoe retail chain as a part-time sales associate and try to beef up my resume with this new retail job experience - even though it means a serious pay cut and a waste of the qualifications my mum worked so hard to help me get.  But I have news from a law firm who is willing to pay me more than what I expect, and also from a spa/beauty chain which I am quite sure will be paying less than what I want, both asking me down for a second round of interview.

So the question is, do I go where the interest is, or do I go where the money is?