Life at Home Post-Graduation: The Continuing Story

I was knocked in the face with a dose of frustration this morning as I called the Broward County School Board’s Sub Central number to schedule an appointment to turn in all my paperwork and get myself in the substitute teacher system.  After 30 other students and myself sat through a four-night training class and I gathered all my paperwork, the receptionist proceeded to tell me that the county wasn’t accepting any applications until November.  Ugh. Really? You let us all sit through this class (that we paid for) with the impression that we could snag jobs any day we wanted as soon as we wanted only to tell us to sit tight and wait for two months?! What a bummer as a graduate still sending out journalism applications just wanting to make a pretty penny or two in the meantime.

I think it means that for the next two months I will try to freelance as much as possible.  I’ve got a great steady client I’ve been working with for a while now on her business’s Web site and maybe with a little word of mouth I can snag a few more to stay busy.

In the meantime I’ll be babysitting my cellphone after I played phone tag last week with the HR rep from the Greenspun Media Group, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, one of the coolest local newspapers in the country in terms of their Web site and multimedia.  Check out their new Flashtastic Vegas weather page.  With Rob Curley leading a revamped multimedia squad, they’re a news organization that stays ahead of the curve.  They’re looking for a few Web-savvy journos to jump on their bandwagon and they offer great internships too.

I’ve learned the important lesson about not missing cellphone calls when you’re in the middle of a job search. Some advice: Crank your ringer volume to an obnoxious level and pick a ringtone that you, and everyone else around you if necessary, will hate so much that you answer the phone with lightning speed just to make it stop. Anywho, if the stars align correctly and my work can speak highly enough for my skills, maybe soon I’ll get the priviledge to interview out in the big city of Vegas! What a move that would be.