allyson and bryan

Scenes From the Job Market /

The mall is empty, dim, poorly lit. After all, it's 2 p.m. on a Wednesday, and everyone else is at work. Except for The Girl, who's unemployed and thus shopping for an interview outfit. The Girl walks into Banana Republic. She's sweaty, frazzled, frustrated by the inability to piece together a presentable top-and-bottom that won't break her (unemployed) bank account. She sighs.

"What?!"

Her husband and patient shopping shadow hands her the shared and temporary cell phone, stating the name of an HR rep from Company A, at which she'd applied for a dreamy-sounding job just that very morning.

"Um, hello?" she asks, cradling the phone in one hand and an overpriced black dress turtleneck in the other. As it turns out, Company A wants The Girl to come in for an interview ASAP, before, that is, she flies out to the opposite coast that same Friday. "I'm, er, at the mall, can I call you back in 15?"

Flash forward 14.5 minutes, to where The Girl sits down on the pavement outside Macy's at the Danbury Fair Mall at 3:20 p.m. on a Wednesday in November and proceeds to give a 30-minute phone interview. This, after traveling through Asia and Africa and parts unknown to such things as malls and Macy's.

And so it goes for the rest of that week, a roller coaster of shopping heartbreaks and cell phone triumphs and three actual in-person interviews in less than 24 hours. It's all very different and exciting and oddly foreign.

At this very moment The Girl and The Patient Shopping Shadow sit in the JetBlue terminal of JFK airport where an 8:50 p.m. flight to San Francisco (oh dear, sweet San Francisco) is delayed to 10:30 and then 11:00 and then 11:30.

At least this gives them time to think about recent interviews and possible opportunities and where life may take them next.

And with free wireless, to boot.

stars, they're just like allyson @ 7:11 PM  

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