Laurabelle's Blog

Well, I didn't get the SPL job. I sent HR an email on Tuesday saying Hey I'm still interested, where are you in the process? and didn't hear anything until this morning when I picked up a message on my voice mail at work. I was kind of surprised since I gave them my cell phone number in the application and such (I'm not at my desk most of the week), but she must have picked up the number from the sig in my latest email.

It was a good thing that I got the message at work, actually. At first I thought I was going to cry, and I didn't want to make a fool of myself. Instead I shed just a couple of tears and then went to tell Kathy, who was blessedly sympathetic, indignant, and motherly in just the right sort of way. She assured me that they were crazy not to hire me, that she wished they'd asked her because she would have put them straight, and that she was sure they'd figure something out for me at KCLS. I don't know how she did it, but she said all the right things, and I felt much better after talking to her.

I've gone over that job interview in my head too many times already, and I'm certainly not going to hash it out here. I don't think it was terrible, but I definitely could have done better. I'm trying to learn how I can do better next time, and in an odd way, I feel a little less nervous about my next job application. The thing is, in a way all the student job applications I submitted last year were just preparing me for getting this internship. If I hadn't done all those cover letters, I wouldn't have been able to write such a good cover letter for KCLS. It's the same thing now. Rejection is hard, but it only means the perfect application and the perfect job is that much closer. School of hard knocks, maybe.

I thought I might go home about noon, but in the end I only left a half-hour early. I kept myself busy and accomplished some good work. One of the highlights of the day was an email from a staff member for whom I had written a script a couple of months ago, saying that she'd finally had a chance to test it out and that it worked splendidly. It's a little thing, but it tells me that I'm doing my job well. In my geeky little way I'm serving staff and patrons, furthering the mission of KCLS by spreading information. That's what it's all about.

I'm good at what I do, and sooner or later, opportunity will come knocking. When it does, I'm going to be ready.