Je reviendrai…

T’inquiètes pas… j’arrive.

Holiday cheer

The holidays are the best excuse for crazy baking. As a tradition, we go cookie crazy the week before Christmas. By the end of our bake-athon, our wrists are sore from beating, mixing and folding, but the end result is always worth it. 6 and 3/4 sticks of butter, 2 pounds of sugar and a dozen eggs (and 2 egg whites) later, we are bouncing off the walls belting out Christmas jingles at the top of our lungs. Good times.

The desert menu for X-mas 2007:

1 sinful pumpkin cheesecake with a whip cream topping

1 swedish tea roll filled with butter, cinamon and marachino cherries

1 batch Christmas snowball cookies rolled in powdered sugar

1 batch Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

1 batch sugar cookies frosted in almond icing

1 batch chocolate ranger bars

And on the side:

Celery, carrots, cucumber and olives with spinach-artichoke dip without the spinach

Resumes, Cover Letters, oh my!

I am almost tempted to do a little experience with my resume and see what happens. My resume presently is not incredibly strong, but I have worked with one of the biggest and most well-known companies in the world (let’s call this company G). Granted, I did not go through the tedious hiring process G usually puts potential employees through, but entered the company through an aquisition. Most people would believe that having G on ones resume would be a big plus, but I am starting to see the drawbacks.

During interviews, I am often asked, “Why did you leave G?.” “Wasn’t G a great place to work?” Recruiters immediately think that anyone who would leave the almighty G must be a.) hard to work with, b.) hard to satisfy, c.) a horrible worker or d.) terribly stuck up. For who would ever leave such a wonderful, acclaimed and prestigious company? I will admit I enjoyed certain perks that G offered its employees but a few people with whom I worked made it impossible for me to see a future with this company. Why would anyone stay in a deadend job where they were insulted, pushed around and lied about? G does not have a perfect track record. G does do evil. And believe it or not, G is not the perfect, infallible place to work. People do quit.

Having G on my resume also seems to give people the impression that I should be exceptional. After all, most employees at G go through extensive screening and several interviews. Aquisitions are the loophole. Not everyone at the acquired company was exceptional. In fact, there were some people who were not the brightest marbles in the bag.

The fact being that no one should make any assumptions about who I am or how I perceive myself based on this aspect of my resume. I once thought it would be great to have such a padded resume but now, I am considering removing my G experience from my resume. It carries too much baggage. Without G, I might be able to land one of those crappy admin positions I have been applying to. I am tempted to experiment.

While I am at it, I might as well say that I am a recent graduate and have a degree in business (wth a 3.78 gpa bonus!). I took a few years off after high school to experience the real world before deciding that a college degree would be necessary in order to advance in the business world. I spent the time before entering college working several jobs that ranged from working the cash register in a department store, to waitressing, to answering phones in a call certain. During college, I continued working as a cashier to help pay for my schooling. I am thus looking for an entry level job with room for advancement and aspire to move up to managerial position. A perfectly constructed lie that would land interviews left and right! (I might as well just sell my soul to the devil now.)

The funny thing about this is that 90 percent of the companies I apply to would not even know that this resume was a big fat lie. Most never verify the information. And even funnier still, I would probably have more sucess with this phony resume than with the real one that has real experience.

But in truth, I believe in sincerity. I refuse to lie to get the job. I refuse to give them the answer they want to hear. If sincerity and passion are not their virtues, perhaps they are not the company I want to work for.

Paris update

Update from the Paris internship front:

Looks like I will be in Paris during the week of January 14th. No one knows yet. I have not even purchased the plane tickets or asked my friend whether I can crash at his appartment for a week. I hardly have enough change to scrape up enough money to go to Paris, but I am going. I know. But I refuse to tell anyone; I refuse to have to explain myself. I am going – that is certain, but everything else remains in the dark.

The trip will be short and sweet – a voyage across the ocean to meet with a potential employeur. I know the chances of emloyment are slim but it is well worth the risk for all that I might gain. My friends and family might give me those reluctant looks and tell me to reconsider, but as far as I am concerned, there is nothing to reconsider. I want to go to Paris. I want to find work. I can’t find work in the US. Apparently, I am too overqualified for admin and too underqualified for any other job. I have gone to 4 different temp agencies, none of which have found me anything worthy of mention. The fact being that this employment opportunity in Paris could lead to a carreer, a future and some hope. The job, be it administrative and repetitive, is in a secteur that interests me. And just being in such an environment would be beneficial.

So, wish me bon voyage. In a few weeks, I will be on a plane to Paris to meet my future. If it works out, great and if not, at least, I will know.

All I want for Christmas

A few weeks leading up to Christmas, I started making a mental list of all the things I wanted this year, but try as I might, I could not find many material items to put on my list. I could have asked for clothes or jewelry, books or cds, but many trips to the shopping mall left me at a loss for ideas. I spent hours wandering the bookstore looking for the perfect book to add to my wishlist, but it became a futile search in a sea of worthy books. Too many books, too little time. I think I will forego reading altogether. Lately, I have wanted the updated Chicago Manual of Style. As my days are spent conversing with people whose first language is not English, I feel my grammar has taken a turn for the worse. I logged on to my Amazon account and added grinningly the Chicago manual of Style to my wishlist. But alas, Christmas day came and no heavy grammar Manual was unwrapped. It’s ok. I didn’t really want it anyways. A big book like that would have been heavy in my suitcase. I searched a little more for items to add to my wishlist: something light, easily transportable — a book here, a dvd there. Maybe a nice coat or a shiny new pair of earrings (even though I haven’t worn earrings regularly in 10 years.) The necklace in the display was nice and the purse. How about that little device that you can plug into your computer or the unattainable game console that everyone is lining up for (what’s it called again?). I could ask for a paintset. I have always wanted to pick up painting or drawing or some sort of creative outlet. I could begin my career as a closet artist (which would have been my dream had I not already abandonned all hope of an artistic career). I could ask for a bunch of kitchen utensils to fill my non-existent kitchen. I would really like to have a nice chef’s knife and a set of stainless steel clad-iron pans. It became a growing list that stretched so many years of my life. My faded hopes and ambitions came back to me in these childish wishes, the idea that I could possibly become something greater than myself. But my real list is empty. There is nothing material on this list, nothing I really want that can be wrapped in a box and put under the tree because the truth is I don’t have a life in which to store these items. So what do I want for Christmas? I really don’t know, though a job and a ticket to Paris would be a nice start.