From 9am to 6pm I'm an Office Manager for a Real Estate investment company and we are currently hiring! How exciting right?! Hooray for economic growth! I mean, okay, yes- at first we started hiring people because we had to fire two people who were under-performing and we needed to replace them (wah-wah), so at first the only part of the hiring process I was apart of was the scheduling of interviews/presentations and assessment tests- not necessarily exciting, though there was some pre-screening involved so at least I had that little scrap to play with.
About a week after we started interviewing people to replace the now vacant positions, one of the Principals of the company pulled me into his office and informed me that he wanted my help in creating a job description for a new position he was creating under me to better utilize the skills of everyone in the office and he wanted me to head up the interviews- YYYYYAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSS! This was a total work validation moment- am I right?! You know that feeling when you feel all warm and fuzzy and appreciated and important and it's the best feeling ever (other than sex and chocolate) and you just flip your hair like the goddess you are and float on cloud 9 all day like, "'cuz I slay."
While I have sat in on a few interviews and asked some questions, I've never actually held my own one-on-one interview before, and I was really proud of the fact that I had made it to the next step in my career- finally I was going to be the one on the other end of the table! Move over people, Boss Lady is coming through! Woot Woot!
My main boss (my company is managed equally by 5 Principals and I report to all 5 of them) and I did the first interview together, and from then on I interviewed people first, and then if I liked them he interviewed them after me- and let me tell you, it's one of those rare times in your life when you can look at yourself actually like the fact that you've grown up and become a responsible adult. Of course eventually you have pay bills and resolve conflicts without the violence they may deserve, and then all that goes to shit and all you want to do is color in your blanket fort until your mom is done cooking your dinner, but then you remember living at home sucks so you brave the 405 and go to work anyway.
One afternoon I was interviewing a 23 year old woman who told me that she fell in love with the buying and selling of real estate while she was going through the process of buying a home with her boyfriend- and then had to back out in escrow because her boyfriend broke up with her. She also told me that she was currently a job that she was really dissatisfied with. Originally she wanted to be a lawyer, but after working in this lawyer's office, she realized that was not the career path she wanted, but was staying on there until she found her passion, which she thinks may be real estate, and another job. She told me, "It may sound cheesy, but I just want to find what makes me happy."
I looked her dead in the eye and told her, "That isn't cheesy, that is exactly what you're supposed to be doing right now. You're young, you just broke up with a serious boyfriend, and you're looking for a new job. If you take a job you don't love it will show, trust me. We (meaning the employer) won't like it because we'll see that you obviously you don't like it, so take the time to really feel out your options and chase your passions. And as a woman- you're so much better off finding yourself now, while you're young and unattached, so you can really know who you are and what you're passionate about before you attach yourself to someone or something that may not be what you end up wanting." It was such a "big sister" "women helping women" "Girls Clubs of America" "Bianca Del Rio to Adore Delano" moment, and my Grinch-sized heart grew three times it's size that day.
I owe a lot to the older (and slightly older) women in my life who have taken the time to give me advice, mentor me, listen to me, and just be around me over the years. They showed me different ways to live and work and be and I'm a better woman because of that exposure; and it made me really happy to be able to continue that cycle. It was especially heartwarming that I was able to do this for another woman in the work place (where women are still struggling with glass ceilings and misogyny- good job world), and ESPECIALLY to a young woman who was coming out of a relationship and trying to find herself. I can SSSOOOOOO identify with her, because even though I split with my ex over a year ago, I'm still working on finding and following my happiness. It's something I decided to do consciously every day, and I think it's something we all need to do throughout our entire lives to ensure we're on OUR path and not wandering around after someone else on their path or lost on what used to be our path but now is not.
We all need some validation every once in a while, and I think in that moment this young woman needed to hear that she wasn't being cheesy. That no, she hadn't watched Eat, Pray, Love too many times or read too many New Age Self-Help books and she really did need to follow her bliss. That finding what makes you happy should be a priority in your life and she was doing the right thing searching for happiness in every aspect of her life. Hopefully she left feeling as good about our conversation as I did, because that conversation was two days ago, and I'm still pleased with it- it probably made my week actually.
Spread the love people, we all need it, so hand it out generously.
