your moment will come.

!!!The hunt is over, I have a job. What a relief!!! I felt amazing for about one hour....then the clock started ticking and I realized I had one week to get a car, find a place to live, pack up all of my stuff, get a drug test, finish my freelance project, mentally prepare, and sign my life over to Indianapolis, Indiana. 


Even after this amazing success, I still have no idea what it is that appeals to employers. What I did notice with this job is that it felt right. The interview went smooth as butter, I felt comfortable talking with the employees, and most of all I felt I could be a part of their team. When I drove away from my second interview, my stomach dropped, I really wanted it. This was not just a job that would pay the bills or that I would stay at for one year and move on, this was THEE job, thee job I had dreamed about and it fit like a glove.


It was a long haul, exhausting, and brutal...but it showed me how valuable a job like this is. I believe that all of my searching will help my work ethic and my drive. So in the end my only advice is to keep applying, try to relax, and be persistent. 


It might be a busy week, month, or couple of months, but a new blog title is in order, maybe something like "The New Worker...." or "In the first year...".....we will see.


Hailey Schultz

the clock stands still.

Minutes go by slow, but weeks go by fast. I am not sure why this is, but I can't believe I have been bored so long. It is funny how when I have nothing to do all day the clock stands still. But when the week is over I feel like it flew by and I got absolutely nothing accomplished. 
I am anxious and fidgety.
Ready for a full plate, I am ready for work and lots of it. 
My brain is oooozing and dripping with design.
Freelance has some amazing qualities. I really like it. But it is hard to work at home with four brothers, two dogs, my mother, and grandmother, and although I love them very much, it is cramped quarters around here. 
The couch has my imprint.
My mother is very nice to let me crash on the couch but my back is taking a toll and the couch is getting pretty tired of me sleeping on it. Sleeping on a couch doesn't allow for efficient RPM's. 
One Bathroom
We have a rather small house and with only one bathroom and four young boys, need I say more, it would be more sanitary to go in our yard at this point.


So tomorrow starts a new week. The minutes might go by slow and the week fast but I hope by my next Sunday blog I can say it was a productive and satisfying week. 


Hailey Schultz

don't forget about your weekend.

I love shopping! I also love HGTV, I love cooking, traveling, 

playing with my dogs Sam and Max,

I also love coffee, but most of all I love to laugh. These last 

few weeks there has not been a lot of 

laughing on my part. This is very discouraging. I see the 

wrinkles between my two eyes getting 

deeper by the hour. Every time I leave the house I put a thicker 

coat of make-up on and a huge pair of 

sunglasses, really is my life so stressful at 24 that I need to be 

using a type of anti-aging cream? 

I need to have a weekend, no computer, no cell phone, just a

couple of days to relax without feeling

guilty that I haven't used the day to its full advantage. Am I 

entitled to waste one day of my life for

no reason, just for pure pleasure and maybe for a couple laughs?

Hailey Schultz

shuffle your deck.

About four months ago I started full-time job hunting, and I had a plan.
My plan was to:
*apply to my top 40 companies located in Chicago via Internet, 
*then choose my top 20 from that list, 
*then send a hard copy portfolio, resume, & cover letter to the top competitors,
*then call those 20 companies
*and reapply

Then wait until they all call me back and get many offers in which I could choose from.

This obviously did not work. 

Looking back, I should have shuffled my options. I put all my cards into one city, one major, and one type of company-the TOP 40 design firms in Chicago.

I am a huge card lover, Golf, Poker, Solitaire, BS, Blackjack, War...in almost all card games there are two options, you play it safe, or you are a risk taker. I take risks, I
throw all of my cards in one bet, I throw all of my money in with poker, I like to win it all
or loose it all. The problem is I used these same tactics job hunting as I did playing cards, but I lost all of my bets. You won't loose anything if you apply to a more broad spectrum, but you will loose the opportunities that you don't apply to. I was stubborn
and wanted my dream job downtown Chicago at my dream company with a huge salary
to support me.

Currently unemployed, I do not have any answers when it comes to finding a job, but I have a lot of advice and experience in failed efforts, so learn from my failures, and teach me how to better shuffle me deck.

-Hailey Schultz

Roast Watermelon.

I am in the midst of a bonfire, but after watching my brothers and their friends jumping over the fire and throwing sparklers and various things into it, I believe I need a break.

Kids are extremely creative, they will try anything because there is much to learn and experiment with. Sometimes I tell them it won't work, that is too dangerous, or I roll my eyes, but many times they do it anyway and I am proved wrong. This is very similar to design I feel. I tell myself all the time that ideas won't work before I even give them a chance to develop. Try different ridiculous ideas and watch them turn into your best design. Mistakes many times lead to new inventions and you must give them a chance.

My brothers, who are in middle school, started grabbing different foods from the house and roasting them over the smokey fire. When they brought down a watermelon I immediately looked over at my mom and we exchanged our skeptical smirks. They cut it up, slid a slice of watermelon on the skewer, and roasted it over the flames. The outcome, a warm slushy exterior and cold juicy interior, a surprisingly pleasant treat. I will take their example and use it in my life, wow never thought I would learn such a valuable tip from my annoying, exhausting, moody, messy, smelly, sassy, squirrely, almost teenage brothers. Let us all try roasting more watermelon in our lives and perhaps it will lead to another pleasant treat.

Hailey Schultz

find a rhythm.

Life revolves around repetition. It is healthy to have consistent waves through life, even when your life is spontaneous...right? Having interviews in various places, staying at friends houses, on the road sometimes, with my family other times...my life has no rhythm.

I can see that it is becoming unhealthy waking up and going to bed at different times, eating whenever I can grab something, and doing work in-between everything else. My patience is plummeting and I am not the most fun person to be around. Every time I wake up I have just fallen asleep, every time I try to go to bed my body thinks it's dinner, and during meals I should be working. I am having to adapt to others life styles but what about my life and my habits?

Next Monday I have another interview, and I will have to wake up around 4am to get there in time, then I will be driving around 12 hours home, and another day will pass that is completely different than any other. I will try to start Tuesday out as normal as I can, but most likely my patience will plummet, I will not be fun to be around, and I will yet again be forcing my body to conform to my families schedule. Schedules are imperative, but while in the job hunt...just go into survival mode!!!!!

Hailey Schultz

Breathe.

Breathing is a funny thing. Your body does it without you giving an effort, except when you are stressed!

I had an interview in Indianapolis the other day for an amazing job (cross your fingers) in which I planned extensively for. I printed directions, I got a full tank of gas, stayed the night at a friends with a Starbucks right across the street, set my alarm on LOUD, I brought clothing that would not wrinkle, all of my resumes and my portfolio were on my drivers seat...but there are always snags. My commute was 3.5 hours so I left 5 hours early just in case. The just in case happened when I looked down at my phone, my face turned bright red. I entered a time zone change and lost a whole hour!

I am notorious for getting lost, I have no sense of direction and pretty much every time I get in a car I am instantly on the phone with my mom as she 'google maps' my location. Having only 30 minutes to check in and get lost forced all of the air out of my chest as I hyperventilated and slammed on the gas. Fortunately I was there ten minutes early, perfect.

The year I took off of my life for worrying was not worth it. You will run into snags most likely every interview. But looking back it worked out just fine and there was no need to get worked up, so next time, I will just breathe through it.

Hailey Schultz

You will travel.

I love to travel, and for the past five years I have dedicated myself to college and work, so traveling took a back seat. One of the nice things about job hunting is if you apply in various locations you have a great excuse to travel.

So far I have been able to make various trips to Chicago, new places that I have never been to such as Romeoville, and states I have never been to like Indiana. It is a little expensive to make these long trips but it is a great opportunity to relax during this stressful job hunting chapter in ones life. My applications are out in New York, California, and Florida, so lets make this a part of my job search... ;)

Hailey Schultz

Making yourself visible

It is a hard fight to make yourself visible in the job market today. For years I have googled my full name and for some reason none of my information ever popped up. I was lost in the web and had no presence. I would usually find others who share my full name and their Facebook pages Linkedin pages, Twitter accounts or YouTube videos.

I am not sure why, but now finally I am number three! My Linkedin page is the third option and I am proud. It is quite odd that I have a blog, a Facebook account, a gmail, college email, yahoo account, Linkedin, website, Creative Hotlist portfolio, Twitter account, and of course all of my online banking, loan, and billing accounts, and out of all that my Linkedin account made the mark.

What comes up when you google your name? And how do I make prominent Me, rather than the other me's facebook accounts that take the number one and two spot?

Hailey Schultz

Unknown callers

Don't you hate answering the phone when the numbers blink on your screen instead of a familiar name? Whenever my cell starts to ring I get a shot of excitement, maybe someone interesting is calling me, but when I glance down and see it is a random number 123.456.7890, I cringe. It could be a potential job offer, or it could be my ex, it could be a long lost friend, or it could be a salesperson, or worse yet, Sallie Mae.

I admit it, I am tens of thousands of dollars in debt and I just can't pay the $1,000 bills coming in monthly. I pay what I can and that is the end. It keeps the collection agency away, but the calls keep on coming. This is a common situation that people in their twenties are facing. 

Note to loan companies, calling won't get you your money, but helping me find a job will.

Hailey Schultz

Internships

My focus today was applying on Creative Hotlist which is an extremely user friendly website for designers looking for work, probably my favorite website so far, and it is free to join. You choose your job search "designer," and then you have a few other options if you would like to narrow your results, but my favorite option is "level."

My first pick was the junior level, and then I downgraded to internship, after applying to every junior level entry. Having my preconceived assumptions of what would pop up, I wasn't surprised when about 50% were unpaid and of course hundreds of miles from my location. I was, however, surprised to find the requirements for internships:

-knowledge of company's productions
-1+ years of professional experience
-past experience with CMS frameworks
-compensation dependent on experience
-design degree required
-Benifits: large discount on store products
-unpaid 40 hours a week, with potential overtime

Wow, seems like internship is another word these days for "taking advantage of the newly graduated, unemployed, young America with student loans twice as much as our parents house costs."


Hailey Schultz