This entry’s going to be short and sweet; a quick overview of my ever growing resume.

I alluded to having a job in my last entry, if you’ll so kindly remember. Yes, I am currently employed. After about a week of fretful job searching, two waitressing interviews that were a bust, and dozens upon dozens of CVs handed out to any work establishment willing to take one, fate finally smiled on me. I got called into the United Advertising Group (UAG) last Tuesday for an interview, which was followed by an observation day, and by Friday I was going through training.

For some reason or another, I’ve always been particularly lucky when it comes to the efforts of finding work. I never had any problem finding babysitting jobs in middle school and high school. The first real job I applied to as a camp counselor when I was eighteen went swimmingly. I was one person in four clusters of group interviews (group interviews are the worst) but still managed to get hired by SOU Conferences. I spent an entire day handing out job resumes during the summer of 2010, and come the following day I was employed with the Ashland Motel. I guess the universe understands my insistent need to not be broke. How kind of it.

So what do I do at my new job exactly?

I’m a door-to-door salesman.

Just call me Willy Loman.

Well, kind of. Y’see, in New Zealand, it’s common for people to go around door-to-door, selling things and collecting money for causes, but apparently it’s very strange to receive phone calls of the same nature. Basically, telemarketers don’t exist here. Or they do, but they’re me. At your door. Asking for your money.

To sum it up quickly, I go around collecting money for WSPA – World Society for the Protection of Animals. WSPA fights against a ton of causes I feel strongly about: bear baiting, bear bile factories, whaling, dog culling, livestock export, civet coffee, dog fighting, etc. etc. Shark finning is the main cause we’re drawing awareness towards right now. If you don’t know anything about shark finning, go look up some facts on it and contemplate on why it is that humans suck so much.

The majority of people who work at UAG are my age or younger. Actually, most seem to be younger. Quite younger. First-year-of-uni, not-legal-to-drink-in-the-USA younger. It’s a strange feeling, seeing as I’ve never really felt old amongst peers before. If anything, I’ve almost always been the baby when it comes to work environments or being amongst friends. Nonetheless, the people at UAG are all incredibly friendly. I’m on a team of mostly dudes who are all funny, somewhat crude, and love blasting rap music in our team van. They’re all kind of awesome, to be honest. I’m hoping I can get past this quiet American girl phase that I’m in, seeing as I wouldn’t mind striking up a friendship or two.

Anyway, today was my first day of going out on my own and asking for donations. I was finding it pretty daunting as we headed out for the day’s pitching site.

Me on the way to the job site wondering what it is I’m doing with my life.

Needless to say, I was quite nervous before I actually got out on my turf and started making my pitches. What if I was crap at my job? What if someone slammed a door in my face? What if I cried in front of a total stranger? What if I was so awful my coworkers made me walk home? Lots of horrible scenarios were running through my head as I sat in the van.

I wont go into too much detail, but overall it was a pretty good day. All the people I talked to were quite friendly, most of them willing to listen, and at one point an adorable old woman gave me a cup of tea as I told her about WSPA (I don’t know if I was allowed to take it, but she was so adorable and sweet that I couldn’t say no – plus I was a bit haggard at that point, so tea was kind of a perfect pick-me-up). Even if people couldn’t manage a donation, most of them told me they supported WSPA’s cause and wished me all the best. No doors were slammed in my face. No tears were shed. It was all good. In the end I made two sales. Considering new employees aren’t expected to make any sales in the first two days, I was pretty psyched.

Now I’m sitting back at my apartment; body exhausted and feet aching. It’s quite an interesting job, to say the least. Now that I know I’m not crap at it, I definitely plan to stay on with them for the next couple months. My hopes are to save up enough money over the next four months to go back out and travel some more around New Zealand. But first I must be a salesman for a wee bit of time.

Let’s just hope Arthur Miller didn’t script this part of my life.

Let’s also hope that I don’t gain a coworker named Biff anytime soon.