Mandy took a sip of her water. She read the message from Kimberly. Girl, you are a mess. Did you get fired??! LOLOL. Ms. Paul looked like she wanted to murder you. LOLOL! Mandy responded. LOL! No! I just got off the phone with her. I used words like hostile work environment and explained customer satisfaction. Kimberly wrote back. Good job girl! Now let’s talk about the juicy stuff…How’s the online dating? Have you met anyone yet? Mandy typed…You and Reagan, I swear. I haven’t even looked yet. I’m so tired of wasting my time.
Mandy could see that Kimberly was still typing a response. She checked her work emails. There was the daily job openings announcement. The company was growing and had several openings. Most of time they were always for the job she already had. Mandy almost deleted the email but decided to read this one. She saw that a Marketing Rep/Assistant was being advertised. She clicked on the link.
Marketing Representative/Assistant needed. Pay $30/hour. “$30 per hour,” she choked as water shot through her nose. That’s like double what I make now. She continued to read but there were very few details. “Detailed, organized, knowledgeable about the company. Flexible hours needed. Submit a resume only to this address marketingrepasst@gmail.com.” Hmmm…that’s not a company email. She wondered if it was spam. She went back to the original email and clicked on the link again. The same post reopened. She emailed the generic HR email to ask if it was a legit posting. A few minutes later, she had an instant message from Deborah Matthews. Hi. I am responding to answer any questions you may have about the Marketing Rep/Asst position. “Well, that was fast,” Mandy thought. She typed a message. The email in the posting is not a company email. Is that a mistake?
Ms. Matthews responded. Oh no, the email is correct. Do you have other questions?
Mandy responded. Just one…just a resume only??
Ms. Matthews: YES! Only a resume. Don’t even type words in the body of the email. The person that is reviewing resumes is very particular. We have had several good candidates get rejected because he feels they cannot follow instructions.
Mandy: Seriously??! Is he a psycho??
Ms. Matthews: He’s…very particular! Good luck!
Mandy wasn’t sure she needed the luck because she wasn’t excited about applying to work for a jerk. She went to thank Ms. Matthews but the entire conversation was gone. She couldn’t even find her name in the company address book. Weird. Mandy went about her day on auto-pilot. She took several calls from customers wishing to confirm travel details or that their vacation materials had shipped. She wished that her job involved actually planning the trips. Then she would at least get to daydream a little bit.
At lunch time, she finally opened the app to see her “likes”. There was a blonde-haired blue-eyed Adonis in the stack. “What the hell” she thought and swiped right to indicate her interest. The next potential suitor was an elderly man standing on a boat holding a huge fish. He looked older than her father. NEXT! She quickly swiped left. The next gentleman was chiseled and wearing a military uniform. She knew nothing about the military but he was cute! He was chiseled and made the Adonis look like a plain guy with dad-bod. “Am I being punked today??” she thought. She swiped right and went back to the list of potentials. Her inbox lit up as she noticed that she had just received a message from military guy. The next like was simply a photo of the Greek isles. The bio read “Seeking a woman to fulfill my deepest fantasies. I’ve never been good at relationships but I can make your legs shake” She was intrigued so she swiped right. “He might make for a fun conversation,” she thought. The next guy had tortoise-shell glasses and a cute smile. She viewed his next picture and noticed an attractive female with him. “Hmmm…maybe his sister??” she thought to herself. Then she read the bio…”Seeking a male or female to engage in a polyamory…” Mandy stopped reading. “SERIOUSLY! NEXT! If I ever get a man, I’m definitely not sharing him.” Mandy didn’t bother to go through the rest of the matches.
“$30/hour would mean that I could truly afford this apartment,” Mandy thought as she stared out of bedroom window. She was on the 6th floor of the building and she had a great view of downtown Nashville. She had been mesmerized by the view when she first saw it. That was why she outstretched her budget to live here. As she nibbled on some carrots, she sat down to her laptop and opened her resume. “Since this jerk doesn’t want a cover letter or even a greeting in the email, I need to make sure this thing sings,” she thought as she typed. She even thought about emailing her mother to proofread but she didn’t want to worry her. Her mother had a way of seeing clean through to her soul. Mandy had never been able to lie to her. Plus her mother would ask questions—unlike her dad. Mandy put the final touches on her resume and attached it to an email. She pressed send and said aloud, “Here goes nothing.”