Job interview tomorrow & anxiety!!

[alreadydead]

I guess I'll have to start with a little backstory here... I'm 28 and 4 years ago got a degree in computers, but I was never given a job in data entry/clerical/computers BECAUSE OF my being very overweight. I never got my first jobs in high school because of my weight, nor did I get my first jobs after college because of my weight. So since this year, I've given up totally on getting a desk job (which I would need because of a back injury 8 years ago I am physically limited & also gained much of my weight in the year that I could not walk at all). And I've just expected to be unemployed & homeless for the rest of my life, and that there's just nothing I can do about it because no one's going to figuratively hold a gun to anyone's head and make them hire me.

 

A couple of years ago I applied for a job at the porn store here in town, and of course, never heard a thing back from them. Well they've always got an ad in the paper that they're hiring every month it seems. So either the people they've hired instead of me don't work out or they're flaky and quit. (I think the poser-townies {people not from here who pretend to be, so they can be the big fish here in the little pond} get all the jobs downtown, and they're very transient, they're students who drop out of college after a very short time.)

 

Anyway, when I saw the ad again a couple of weeks ago, I just got really offended because I AM a freak. This place is full of barefoot inbred bumpkins and rich stuck-up snobs who'd have a heart attack if forced to look inside an adult store. And I thought how can they NOT hire the ONE goth/industrial freak in this town?!?!

 

Well a woman from there just called to get me in for an interview with her tomorrow. I haven't had *any* job interview in well over a year, at least!! I'm completely nervous!!!!!!!! Do I dress up in the suit pants & dress shirt like for the office jobs I've interviewed for, or do I goth myself out to prove my freakiness? I even wrote that I was a goth/industrial bondage freak under the "special skills/qualifications" thing. LOL! What if she gives me some sex test and asks about things that I haven't heard of? What if she takes one look at me and decides I'm just too fat to get customers to buy anything? What if I get the job and end up not being good at it, or other people I work with will hate me because I'm fat/ugly/awkward/weird? And if I did get the job, how long will it last? I've never had a job that wasn't temporary, which has always made me wonder how long I (a restless Sagittarian) could stand the same day-in-day-out thing? What if I don't get it at all? Then I'll never know.

 

It's funny because I've been wanting this job since I applied again. I usually don't reapply for places that haven't hired me because I have far too much anger towards them for discriminating against me. But when I applied for it again, I was in a different mood. I guess I didn't think there was any chance I'd even hear from them, so I guess it was like, well, like how I screw around with people/things, even though I have really wanted the job. In my better mood, I thought I'd be good at it. Even though I'm no salesman and I've avoided sales jobs like the plague, I thought I might be good at the porn store because freaky sex is something I do know somewhat about. lol I've even wanted to be able to tell people, when they ask me what I do for a living, that I'm a porn-peddler. (I love to shock people/ruffle feathers. LOL) But now that they've actually called, I'm not so sure I'd be accepted, liked, good at what I do, etc.!! *sigh*

 

But I do need to know what to wear... Dress like I'm applying for a stuffy corporate office yuppie job or do I goth myself up to prove that the subculture really is who I am and not the preppy yuppie butt-kissing corporate world?

[Iggy5129]

Don't sell yourself short. I think you should still try to get a job with your degree, it will make you more money and probably be more satisfying (room for raises, advancement, etc.). There is no way you were turned down for every job simply because you are overweight, that is against the law. You may just not have been well qualified or you did poorly in the interview. Work on your interview skills, beef up your resume and try again. I mean I would still go for the porn shop job just to tide you over but continue trying to get the job you went to school for. As far as the interview goes, alway overdress a little because you don't want them thinking you don't care and are not professional. I mean it is a porn store but you still need to be somewhat professional to get things done. Good luck!

[sumguy]

dress smart-casual, best of both worlds, and if you're worried about a questioning, and you can brush up on ANY topic using link removed.

 

The only skills you need for customer service is a basic knowledge of the store layout and stocks, to be trustworthy and to be friendly.

 

Hope this helped! =)

[Call of The Zombie]

If the guy in an adult shop looked like some kind of freak, I'd walk out without even looking around, let alone buying anything. Dress nicely, but be yourself.

[alreadydead]

But I don't want a computer job. I only got a computer degree because I was still young & dumb, and believed that would be a sure-fire way to get a job. That is NOT who I am at all. It's just not. I really couldn't care less about the corporate world now that I've had all this time to reflect and be my TRUE self again. College was like a phase - I tried to be preppy and "fit in with the world". When I failed at fitting in with normal people, it taught me to be my TRUE self fully & completely and to not compromise that ever again. I have no interest in computers, though I have wished I would've gone for what I'm really interested in which is ancient history. I have no interested in computers, the corporate world, or keeping up with the latest in computers. My true academic interest is in ancient history. I wish I would've studied that instead... But I was young & dumb and trying to "be like everybody else". But I am a goth/industrial freak. Being a part of the subculture is my true self. I'm just not a preppy corporate type and I don't want to hear it when people tell me that's who I should be. But appriciate your point of view and I will dress up for the interview, with what little I have, that is.

[alreadydead]

If the guy in an adult shop looked like some kind of freak, I'd walk out without even looking around, let alone buying anything. Dress nicely, but be yourself.

 

 

For one, I'm a girl. Secondly, everyone else I've seen working there just wears jeans & t-shirts so I don't expect to have to wear a business suit or dress preppy otherwise to work there. So maybe it is just my limited view, but I am a part of the subculture out there, and I have yet to see a place like that where the employees are dressed like the Young Republicans Club.

[Call of The Zombie]

Sorry, my mistake.

 

But still, every adult shop I have been in, the clerks were neat in appearance and not dressed in goth/industrial type outfits. It is a business, albeit something viewed as "dirty" by some and they may have rules about how you dress.

 

Funniest thing I ever heard in an adult shop: "Hey Billy, have you seen that copy of Anal F***fest anywhere?"

[alreadydead]

Well here, they just wear jeans & t-shirts. When I applied again, the girl working there had on some band t-shirt. I used to know a guy that worked there that dressed pretty bummy, in dirty jeans & t-shirts. I've got an online friend who talks about a freaky goth/industrial guy with rainbow-colored hair that works in a sex shop where she lives. The ones I went to in Chicago had people just in jeans & t-shirts as well, even though they were store t-shirts. I'd be pretty PO'ed if the corporate crap takes over life in the subcultures.

[tylercdurden2004]

A great book to get that I read before my recent interview is "60 seconds and You're Hired" by Robin Ryan.

There are many other books in your local book store I recommend reading these.

[HellFrost666]

If I were you I'd say Goth yourself out, a little. Don't go overboard. Do the dark eyes and lips. Maybe just wear black jeans and a gothy looking shirt.

 

Are you sure you don't live in my town? The way you describe it sounds just like where I live. We had a porn shop here (until the local churches finally got it closed.) There was a goth girl that worked there and that is how she dressed while she was working. *And yes, I am not ashamed to admit I went to the porn shop, lol*... But this girl was also a big girl.

 

Good luck. I really hope you get this job. Make sure you write me and let me know how it goes.

[alreadydead]

I will. I'm going to leave for my interview at 9:30... I've got knots in my stomach something awful!

 

It at least gives me some hope that a bigger girl worked where you live. I hope I'll be given the chance to work.

 

The problem here is you don't see anyone over a size 2 working ANYWHERE here so I don't really expect to be given a job in a store. *GASP* In college, some people from computer businesses came in to talk to my class. And this one guy said to the class that he'll only hire thin people for his store, because customers won't come in to a store that has an overweight person working there. That's the mentality of this area/state/region.

[Call of The Zombie]

this one guy said to the class that he'll only hire thin people for his store

 

That is a violation of Federal law. You can't discriminate against people with weight issues just like you can't discriminate against someone who is African American or Latin American.

 

This guy should be reported.

[alreadydead]

It seems to evade the law in WV. Lawyers here have told me that it's not a protected class so there's nothing that can be done about it or even proven.

[mgirl]

The thing is, discrimination may be illegal, but a lot of people hire based on first or physical impressions, in which case there is no way to prove it.