wherein Liz indulges in a compressed moment of hideous nerves

I'm heading off to a job fair. Oh god, they're all going to hate me and I'm going to die. It will be terrible and embarrassing and the worst moment of my entire life. I will literally evaporate in shame and/or run out of the building on fire from spontaneous human combustion.

*twitch, twitch, panic*

...

...

...

Okay, right. I can do this. The worst that will happen is I won't get a job, which is exactly where I am now, but I will be a person without a job who has talked to hiring people at several companies and gotten their contact info. Also there are some organizations looking to drum up volunteers, and that sort of thing looks good when people ask you what you've been doing while unemployed.

So yeah. I am heading off to a job fair.

Wish me luck?

job fair results

I survived! :-D

(This is not a surprise, regardless of what I said in my previous post. I just find that one effective way to manage bouts of panic and/or nerves is to start listing everything that I feel will go wrong, and get more and more exaggerated until I am up to "and then I will spontaneously combust in defiance of all known laws of physics" levels of catastrophe. At that point the ridiculousness of my words crashes down on me and I realize the worst that can happen is very boring and ordinary and also unlikely, and I go do the thing. I don't recommend that method for anyone with generalized anxiety issues, but since my anxiety is entirely situational, I can usually make my hindbrain recognize that my fears are illogical and thereby dissipate my jitters. These days I try to do that internally, since reciting a litany of "oh god we're all going to die" scenarios out loud tends to get really irritating for the people around me. *wry*)

Anyway, I have an interview for a part-time job on Tuesday evening. The job in question would not start until January, with some training in December, but even so. A potential job! And the lady staffing the table (who will also be doing the full interview) thought I was awesome!

I also have lines on paid training programs to become either a certified nursing assistant (CNA) or an electrician, neither of which requires any previous experience. And several other employers seemed to like me and encouraged me to submit online applications to supplement the resumes I left with them. So, you know, there are options!

I collected a LOT of literature and business cards, and also a fair amount of chocolate. Tiny candy bars are apparently good "come talk to us!" bribe material.

...

To sum up, that was exhausting, but I am very glad I went. :-)