After I graduated from SIU, I moved in back home with my parents. I had no money, no car, no job & no girlfriend. All of my college friends were still in school saying, "You should just stay here in Carbondale for another semester."
But, like my older brother who'd been there before told me, "After you graduate you gotta get outta there. You don't wanna end up one of those people who never leave."
As I looked to start my career in 2006, I found it was hard to get anything going without a drivers' license. Mine had been revoked for a DUI while visiting Carbondale in 2002. I looked at getting one in other states, but realized I had to get to the root of the problem there in Illinois.
So, I took the necessary anti-alcohol classes, borrowed money from my folks & uploaded my resume to Monster.com. I spent my mornings e-mailing for jobs in radio & TV, office work, sales & managerial roles anywhere that asked for a degree.
I got an interview at a Steak N' Shake that I felt I nailed, but the guy couldn't hire me because I didn't have a drivers license or a car. "What if we run outta lettuce or something? You gotta be able to go get it."
My first "sniff" of employment after college was a sales job at place in Peoria called Kelly Publishing. I would flip through phone books in Kansas & Nebraska & cold call business to place ads on high school football schedules.
"Are you affiliated with the school?" they'd ask on the other end of the line. And I had to tell them, "No, we are not."
Click!
I lasted two weeks & made one sale, which wasn't enough to cover the gas it took for my mom to drive me the twenty miles both ways.
I went back to emailing my resume off to faraway places: Jacksonville, FL, Orlando, Savannah, GA. But, it was in the local Journal Star newspaper that I found my next job.
Affina! It sounds like something you'd say when you struck it rich. And, it was my Eureka!
It was another call center, but this time I was taking the calls, answering questions about people's pool filters, serial numbers & warranty info. Stuff I knew nothing about but they paid to train me for a few weeks, which helped fill that small school void I'd been missing.
So, I worked the first shift, even doing four, 10-hr day work weeks for a while, catching rides to & from with my mom & saving money for the first time in my life. It ended up being a nice period of catching up with old friends & allowed me the space to dream up bigger projects down the road.
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