Flight

I just got off the phone with the parents and booked my flight. I'll be moving on April 1 and arrive in Germany April 2. The idea is to crash at the parents' for a while and move to Hannover as soon as possible. The parents are looking for an apartment for me in Hannover for better access to the job market. 

Hannover: Cool. 

Moving: Shitty. :/

Hollister & the status quo

It's been exactly one week since my interview at Hollister for the basic sales associate position. They said they'd call either Monday or Tuesday and I have not received a call so I'm assuming that that's it. I also never heard back from Abercrombie since I left a voicemail, which I think is a piss-poor business practice. I mean, you call someone you're interested in hiring, and you never return their call? C'mon...not surprising that their stock price has been dropping dramatically for more than a year now...

On top of that, US companies have pretty much stopped hiring any foreign worker due to the economic crisis, which is turning out to last longer and hit us harder than anticipated. In fact, according to Business Week or Forbes Magazine (I don't remember which one at the moment) we're looking at a rather L-shaped economic downturn as opposed to a U-shaped one, which simply means: We don't know when it's going to get better.

Anyways, I'm done here now. I've sent the first draft of my job application to my dad today for review and hope to get it back soon. My high school transcript request is taking a while to process unfortunately and letters of recommendation are coming in (too) slowly as well, but I'm getting to the point where I have all the information I need and all paperwork prepared to start applying vigoriously until I have a well paying job in Europe.

I'd say I've got about 3 weeks left here, but I'm unsure if I should purchase a ticket now. I have to talk to the parents, but expect to do that tomorrow. Once I get green light, I'll purchase the ticket and start moving my stuff. Bummer that that's going to cost me a fortune. I've found a one-way ticket for about $300, which is great, but I'm guessing that every box that I'm sending over via mail is going to cost me between $30 and $40. I'm just guessing at this point, but I'd say that I have to ship maybe 5-6 boxes and I'm still leaving a ton of stuff here behind like my blender :'(, DVD player, mini fridge for the car (well, I never got around to acquiring a vehicle here...), board games (my beloved monopoly!!), sound system, white board, and probably DVDs...

I do have to admit that I'm rather unhappy about this development, but what can you do? If I don't even manage to get a job that has virtually no requirements and where they virtually take anybody that walks in, then this is not a place for me to be. Besides, I was hoping to gross more than $14,000 a year after graduation. $40,000 - $45,000 sounds good.

Hollister Update

So i went to the mall today for my group interview at Hollister at Rosedale. I think I did ok on the four or so questions they asked, but I was really tired so it was hard to show any enthusiasm. Plus, it was a group interview. The interviewing manager asked me if I had looked into the Manager in Training program they have and applied, and I told her that I had and how that went. She was a little confused as to why I didn't get the job and said that she's going to talk to the district manager that I had interviewed with. There's little bit of hope for me, although I'm not too optimistic that I would get either job. We'll see... I keep ya'll posted.

Hollister & Exelacom

Howdy,

I called Abercrombie today and didn't get a hold of the district manager. It went to voicemail eventually. I'm getting tired of them not being able to return a call, it's not good. Anyways, I've got a group interview at Hollister tomorrow afternoon for a basic sales associate job. We'll see if I get it.

I also finally heard back today from Excelacom. It's a consulting firm based in Virginia near DC and they rejected me today. I applied in November around the same time as I started talking to Eagle Creek. I've also sent emails today to a number of my former professors asking if they would write a letter of recommendation for me to submit along my applications. I'm hoping to get my high school transcripts sometime this week and be ready to send out apps by next week.

Moving

Well, I haven't heard from Abercrombie since I returned their call and got to voicemail and left a message. I'm going to give them a call on Monday as well as Hollister for the sales associate job, but I don't think that either is going to work out.

I'm planning on moving to Germany within the next 5 weeks with March 31st or somewhere close to that being the most probable date of departure. I'm in the process of finishing my applications for some jobs in Germany as well as figuring out the logistics of moving.