Tag Archives: cupcakes

Expert for a Day

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At college, every day we’re pushed to look towards the future. To consider what classes we have to take for our major. To apply for an internship that will push us to the next step in our career. Even something as simple as eating dinner has to be planned in advance here, with friends to be texted, a cafeteria to be chosen, and limited hours to do it all in.

At times, the future can be overwhelming, so this weekend was a welcome chance to spend some time thinking about the past. It’s hard to believe that more than a year has already passed since I flew down and saw Scripps for the first time during the JES (James E. Scripps) Scholars Weekend.

Just one short year ago, I was mostly silent on the bus ride from the airport to campus; too shy to try to forge connections with people I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see again. Today, I talked more than anyone else in my group of scholars, hailing from places as varied as Austin, Texas and Baltimore, Maryland.

This year I was the one answering questions, not asking them. I reassured scholars that, yes, there are guys on campus; I astounded them by commenting that actually, this sixty degree weather is pretty cold for us; I entertained them by pointing out the cupcake stores and the best boutiques on the drive through the village.

Last year, I was in their shoes, stressing about my interview with the professor who would become my adviser and, this semester, my Core teacher. Now, I find it strange that the constantly smiling Scripps professors ever intimidated me. Last year, when the admissions workers asked my major, I spurted out a top ten possibilities list. This year, when the prospies quizzed me, I calmly responded, “English dual major with Gender & Women’s Studies.”

Admittedly, I still had no answer when one girl from Chicago asked me what my concentration is, but I’m only a freshman. I’ll wait for another year or so to fly by before worrying about the answer to that question. In the meantime, I’ve learned that when stressing about the future, sometimes the best thing to do is to think about the past, because that, at least, is something we’re all experts in.

It is so cold in Portland right now

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Apparently I’m somewhat fixated on the weather, but it has been cold here to the point of unreality—at least, it feels unbelievably cold as I sail downhill on my bicycle.

I have had a dull couple of weeks; a few hiccups in the unpaid internship that have been very revealing and informative about how to go about setting up a good dynamic with the people I work with, especially the line between jocularity and hostility. Also, I am excited that I could use the word “jocularity” in a sentence without sounding completely ridiculous.

Onto equally vague but more cheerful news: as I was deciding whatvariety of cupcake a dutiful offspring might bake for a parent’s birthday, I received an email from a friend that works in the same office as I do, about an open development position. She had received the email from one of the social justice non-profit organizations she worked with over the summer, and forwarded it to me.

Of course, earlier that week, I met the director of said organization in an elevator with a bicycle, and given the following conditions:

a) Sleepy

b) Frozen into a person-shaped icicle by a 12 mile bike ride in 34 degree weather with 20 mph gusts

c) Being me

I, of course, neglected to introduce myself.

I feel like I can see Valinda bringing her hand to her forehead, and shaking her head side-to-side slowly and unbelievingly. At least, that’s what I wanted to do once I sat down with a cup of coffee and my 1800-piece auction solicitation mailing, even before I knew they had an opening.

The position has quite a bit of event planning, which gave me pause before I started thinking about it. I chatted with my friend E* and one of my awesome former boss-folks who reassured me that this was definitely something I could do. And looking at my resume and remembering that I have done programming and some event planning, as an RA, worker in the Annual Fund and as an alumna volunteer, the event-planning component seemed far less intimidating.

Plus, one of the responsibilities of the position involves mailings, and I have a somewhat abnormal love for managing mailings and managing data.

Admittedly, after five hours of papercuts, my abnormal love is being somewhat taxed by this enormous auction solicitation mailing.

*The one that worked at the college that sent me the information for the open position in California

There really aren’t words for how silly this is

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The data entry job I applied for at the local foundation turned me down because they thought that I’m much better suited to be a coordinator.  The coordinator job at my friend’s college/place of employ turned me down because they think I’m much better suited to play with data and data entry.  The irony is almost delicious.

Which is to say: I remain unemployed and my wallet continues to be populated solely by a rapidly multiplying population of dust bunnies and tumbleweed.  They informed me they were very impressed with me, which means there’s a growing population of people who are impressed by me, but don’t particularly want to hire me.  I’m apparently at a level of impressive where I’m over-qualified because I’m 23 and have all the skills to do a job, making me into I am what my former Super Excellent Boss-Person L called a “flight risk.”  Which means, essentially, because I’m young and fairly qualified for a job like “Advancement Coordinator,” I look like I’m not a good fit because I look like I’m only on my way to other things.

Apparently I’m actually too awesome to hire.

Continue reading →

Latest Interview, and Interview Preparation

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Portland’s last Wednesday in October was incredibly cold.  It was less than 40 degrees as I rolled out of SE and up to where my interview was.   As usual, I was early, and found myself with fifteen minutes to kill before I could reasonably amble over to the office where my interview was.

At that point, I went into the office, and offered icicle-handshakes to the people interviewing me.  It seemed like it went well, and the pair of staff members that interviewed me had a very appealing dynamic, which I think speaks to the friendliness of work environment. It was actually a fun interview, and I managed to work in the fact that I bike downtown several times a week, wrote a thesis at Scripps, have a cupcake blog and did fancy things at Scripps.  I also said I really wanted to learn Raiser’s Edge (a program used for fundraising), and I think sounded somewhat knowledgeable when I was talking about how Access and Ebase were not particularly powerful database programs.

At one point, they asked me what my work-style was, and I said that I like to break things down into manageable consecutive tasks (how I wrote my thesis) and ask a lot of nitpicky questions because I am…nitpicky.  Continue reading →

On Interviews

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I have an interview at a museum in Portland!  I was in the middle of assembling ingredients for Vegan Cupcakes when I got a call from an unfamiliar Portland-area number.  I thought it might be the pub from the 5C Happy Hour I organized calling to ask more questions (they were very good at follow-up), but it was someone from Human Resources at the Museum telling me they wanted to interview me to be the Development Assistant.

I applied right before I left for my latest excursion to the east coast (it was an awesome trip.  I love my friends on the east coast, and I spent time with the best baby in the world).   I fumbled a little in the call because I was so excited when scheduling the interview, but what I learned while working for Phonathon came in handy in keeping me on subject and friendly-sounding.  Beyond remembering to speak at a pace people can actually understand, remember to smile when you’re talking.  It sounds super cheesy, but it works.

Anyhow, I’m headed into work a little early on Monday, leaving at lunch to catch a bus to the museum, having my interview (the person who called me said I should plan on an hour!) and walking back to my internship and finishing the afternoon in the office.  I know they know I’m looking for a paying job, but I think I’ll feel a little bad if they only get a few weeks of work out of me.  I’d probably end up volunteering more to feel better about it, especially since my friend, G, works there.

The museum requested no calls, and their website says that “Candidates whose backgrounds most closely match the requirements of each position will be contacted by Human Resources,”  which is something of an ego boost: this means that they thought my qualifications were actually good, and not being superficially polite in a rejection email.

In any case, I’m preparing for the interview by researching the museum in more depth than I did for my cover letter.

Valinda advised me to put together a “story bank,” which are stories that demonstrate all the skills they want.  Luckily for me, that’s basically what I do when I’m writing cover letters already, so I already have a story bank.  I’ll report back on the interview, and how my meeting with the alum went, later on.