crossing fingers

So, as I've mentioned before, I've been applying to jobs online. Today I turned in my first resume in person. It's at the "hippie" grocery store - you know, organic, vegetarian, free-range, etc. It would be an awesome place to work all around, so I checked out their website and emailed them my resume. A guy emailed my back and told me when he would be in the store so I could drop off my resume in person. So today I went.

I thought it was going to be a quick, here's my resume, nice to meet you, shake hands and leave, so I didn't get very dressed up - khaki shorts and a polka-dot shirt. The shirt was low cut, but not a tank top. Significance? My tattos were visible but not on attention-drawing display.

Jay and I went into the store (I needed some veggie sausage anyway) and I went to the customer service desk. I noticed a big stack of applications, so I grabbed one and headed to the cafe area. On the way there a guy stopped us - "looking for me?" It was the guy I was supposed to meet, and he saw that I was carrying a resume so he guessed I was me. He told me to go fill out the app and he'd be with me in a few minutes. As I was filling it out, he was running around, having other people fill stuff out, getting paged to the front, etc. Jay went to go shop / look around while I waited.

Eventually he came back over, and gave me a rundown of everything. They weren't hiring right this second (despite the enormous amount of people turning n resumes), and when a position does open up it generally goes to someone internally. The store by my house is the flagship store, the busiest store, and thus the highest demand to work. But he slips in an "outsider" application whenever possible. After we had been talking for a few minutes, he told me that I had a really strong presence and belonged out helping customers. I agreed and told him this is my strongest point. We chatted a bit more, and I could tell he was really digging me. In fact, he gave me the hiring manager's name to the other Asheville store, AND a list of other local (similar) business that I could also apply to, just in case. He understood that I just moved here and need a job, but he said he hoped I would wait because I was "an easy sell" to the official hiring manager.

Poor Jason was wandering the store during this entire time. According to him, it was about an hour and a half. This doesn't surprise me, because even though the guy kept getting called away to "interview" other people, he always came back to me, and we talked for a LONG time. I walked out of there with a really good feeling. Hopefully something opens up soon, because I know I'll be the first in line for an "outsider" position.