Share with me how did you find your most recent gig?

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Permalink Reply by Imagination on January 12, 2009 at 12:27pm

Internet Searching and applying for Gigs

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Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 14, 2009 at 1:30pm

I was a recent college grad with a teaching degree...what do you know...the area I moved to was all about "who you knew...not what you knew" when it came to the whole teaching gig. SO, after a year of subsituting I decided that I would pick up a server job to make a little extra $$.

Applebee's was opening about 10 minutes from my house. Mind you, when I told my parents this, they laughed. Never did they imagine me doing a waitress type job...they saw me as the desk type of person. I applied, interivewed....made it to the last interview and I was told 'you have no experience....why don't you come back in a few months when we have time to really train you.' I was appalled by this and said to the manager, 'I am a teacher, I multitask, and I am a quick learner....give me a chance.' He thought about this, pondered for a moment (probably thinking I wouldn't last the training week) and decided to give me the job.

Months later the bar manager comes up to me. "I want to train you to bartend." I am shocked because I don't think I have the personality for a bar job!

The rest kind of rolls from there...completely cross-trained in the restaurants, opened three stores as an Elite Trainer, went into MIT, and about 6 months later HR and Training called to see if I would be interested in coming to the office for my current position. That was three plus years ago....

Five years total with the company, a TON of experience, and many people I couldnt' live without in my life. This career path may not have started as my ideal...but the end result is totally ideal!

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Hite on January 14, 2009 at 1:38pm

MCL cafeteria was my first gig. I got it because I could walk to work and didn't have a car. And, friendlys turned me down.

uniform:

white nurse like apron (not sexy nurse like)
flowered apron
Hair net and support hose.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Davis on January 14, 2009 at 2:41pm

I found my job on Career Builder. . .but first I really had to work on my resume. I had been at the same job for a million years and was really out of touch with the best way to sell myself. The old resume was a list of job duties and didn't really give any insight into things I had done. I worked with a couple of recruiting friends (Nicole and Marlene!) who helped me revamp my resume to sell my accomplishments. . .not just a list of duties that were most likely identical to everyone else in the applicant pool. I ended up with a job I really love in a company that is rapidly growing, even in the down economy. I may be the only person in the world who thinks payroll is cool - but it's pretty cool.

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Permalink Reply by Nate on January 15, 2009 at 9:28am

Oddly enough for me I started with my current company as a way of following in my father's footsteps. At 21 I had just found out that my then girlfriend, current ex-wife (like anybody didn't see that coming) was pregnant with the first of my two daughters. I was an assistant manager for Wilson Pizza Company at the time and wanted to get something that paid a little bit better and had security so I applied for a manufacturing position at Cummins (the diesel company), dropped out of college, and began life as a factory worker.

For the first six or seven months everything went well... The economy was going great, overtime was plentiful, and for once I felt like I had found something that could pass as a good job. Unfortunately the auto industry and rising gas prices didn't agree with the plans I had made. A year and a half later I was laid off from the facility that I had worked at, no longer got to see friends and family and sent to the corporate hell that is Cummins Industrial Center in Seymour, IN.

I knew that the Seymour facility was in no way a right fit for me, it's run very similar to a concentration camp for your mind. Don't think, don't wonder, don't talk, and prepare yourself for the untimely death that your cerebrum will eventually undergo. Me being me I naturally had to make my presence known by going out of my way to make a name for myself and found unfortunate success.

I was pulled off of the line that I was working on and put into what Cummins calls a Plant Special Projects Team. Basically a corporate b.s. name for their Jack of all trades. I did what any newcomer would do and basically worked myself to death in the first six months. Arrive at 7 in the morning and leave at 8 or 9 that evening and hole up in my cubicle without any signs of a relationship or friendship outside of work. Low and behold my best friend aiken to a brother has since moved home and is now actually living with me as a room mate. I've found my other best friend in the first woman that I can honestly say I truly love and refuse to work those hours anymore. My manager has not been approving of my new more laid back lifestyle so me being me I have currently informed him that there is interest from a marketing firm in Louisville, I am taking two weeks vacation to find a new job for sure, and have no interest in returning to the corporate drovel that is Cummins... Yay!!! Go me, high five, myself, no friends... j/k I don't know how this marketing job will go but it will allow me some sort of free-thinking and something to strive to be better at. Let's hope that I can possibly write a success story of my own.

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Permalink Reply by Shawna Katz on January 15, 2009 at 3:02pm

Sitting on my deck (back when it was warm and sunny). Husband comes and tells me about the HUGE success of his BFF's new company and I ask, " I wonder if I can help her out and do something..." (No basic skills whatsoever in the work force, but I can clean a house like a mad woman!)

Now... loving my career and selfishly feel good about contributing and never clean house anymore!

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Permalink Reply by Matt Mihaltian on January 16, 2009 at 12:59am

I was still somewhat knocked down by having lost my first restaurant when I began looking for a new gig. I interviewed with the allways captivating Nichole Walls, who set an interview with Jeff Crook. Jeff and I had crossed paths in two other concepts. I figured that the stars were aligned and since I needed a quick turn around, the upper level friends would provide for faster growth. I had a great run with T&K soaking up what I could, and meeting some amazing people. At the end of the day I got a phone call out of the blue. Someone I had worked with in the past was bringing a west coast concept to Charlotte, and his father (whom I had met maybe twice) asked him why he hadn't ask me to head up the project. I am still sometimes laugh at the circumstances that put me where I am today, but I will never forget what a small world it is, or why it is important to WOW everyone you come into contact with.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Spears on July 24, 2009 at 10:57am

For me...well, it took 6 months for me to accept my current position. How is that, you ask? Well, I was working with another company and thought I was happy and doing well. After all, it was more responsibiliy, higher pay, and an exciting small business (7-8 employees). A former co-worker and friend was going through some changes at her company and with her position and thought I would be a great fit. She was moving to a different role (3 cubes down) and thought I would be the perfect fit to replace her. YES...to replace her. She was stepping down to support someone else. We had several lunch meetings where she was trying to convince me to take her place. Of course, she had a vested interest...she was working both jobs and was getting buried! I told her over and over again that I was happy and excited about what I was doing and wasn't ready to make a move.

That all changed one fateful day. We were having lunch and things were changing at my company as well as in my personal life. Jokingly she asked about me taking her place just one more time...and I surprised her by saying "get me the job description". And, as they say, the rest was history. After 6 months of her asking (aka hounding) me, I finally agreed to check it out and have been with that company for over 2 years now. She has since retired, and as things have continued to change and my position was eliminated, I once again have taken her spot.

So, for me, it was all about networking and "who you know".

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