a lesson learned.

Today is International Women's Day, and I figure what better day to write about being a woman in a male dominated field than today. This week has had it's challenges, that's for sure.

As you know, I've been looking for a job in the automotive field. An entry level jobs that gets my foot in the door. There are lots of them out there. It's just a matter of finding one. I applied last week at and upscale dealership for a lot attendant job. The job isn't glamourous, and I'm ok with that. I realize I have no training or experience and that I'm going to have to start somewhere. I went in on Tues this week to inquire about the position in person since the service manager wasn't available to talk when I put in my application. I had noticed the employees were dressed nicely so
I pulled out the old business-cassual attire to show I am serious about getting the job. I was lucky enough to get a quick 10 min with the manager. He told me the job had been filled but wanted to know what my strengths are. I gave him a bunch of quick bull-shit answers. "I'm a quick learner with a strong mechanical and mathematical background." "I'm very detail oriented." The typical crap. He responded by telling me that while they don't have any positions open, he appreciated the fact that I came in to talk to him. "Shows tenacity." He explains that they might have a position as a greeter available. The greeter would involve getting there before customers, MAKING COFFEE, and, you guessed it, GREET the customers. Crazy, I know. I explain I'd be fine with that if I have the opportunity to shadow technicians in downtime. He looked perturbed that I said this. I can't understand why. I told him I am going to school for automotives. He says, "well your job is to greet the customers. That is what you will need to be doing." I would have appreciated more of a response that stated something along the lines of "We definately like to promote from within...blah blah blah." Or even explaining that I am welcome to shadow techs in my spare time. Nothing. I left a little discouraged. To top it off, the guy told me he had called me the day before. There is no record of missed calls on my phone and it's not known to miss phone calls altogether. Liar.

So moving on....Went to another dealership dressed in my professsional kiss-ass dress. This one was a domestic dealership. (Note: Katie has complete disdain for the design of domestic automobiles. Pieces o' crap, in my opinion.) The lot manager took one look at my resume and kindly told me that I'm too overqualified for a lot attendant. He remembered my voice from a message I left for him the week before and commented on how professiona I sounds. "What about a sales position?" I AM GOING TO SCHOOL TO BE A AUTO TECH! Did the sales thing. Not my thing. He asked me if I realized how little a lot attendant gets paid. I explained that I am willing to make that sacrifice. This guys wasn't a total slimeball like the previous guy, but I still left frustrated and jobless.

So. What is holding these people back from hiring me?

Lack of jobs?
Professional background?
Being female?
Lack of experience (I'm not applying for jobs that require skill. Most require washing cars)?
Good communication skills (blogs entries excempt)?

Which one takes the cake?

On the flip side I'm blowing it up in class. Yesterday we started a 12 page math packet which is due in a week. He gave us the classtime to work on it. I finished it first out of 30 people. My new friend next to me was about a page behind me and he double checked all my work. I got most of them right. Pat myself on the back. By the time class was over a lot of people had finished half of the packet. Some people had barely made it past the second page. The teacher posted grades for the class up to this point at the end of class. All the students clamoured to find their status. I waited it out. The crowd called for my student number - they wanted to know if I was at the head of the class. Turns out I'm not. I'm about 0.7 points behind the number one guy. The head of the class is my new friend that checked my math packet. I laughed and told him that he's going down. I will be ..1. He laughed in return. Good old fashioned friendly competition. Good thing we've been doing our homework together.

Murdurous Thug got pissed at me today. We had one week to type up our graded rough drafts of our resume and they were due at 7am today. At 9:30am, our half-hour break time, the thug approaches me and asks me if I type well.
"I type ok. What's up?"
"I'm slow at typing and need to type up my resume and I was thinking you could...."
"I'll help you, but I'm not going to type it."
"Nah, I don't need your help. Fuck it. I'm failing this anyways."

Lesson learned: Do not help these guys. The fact that he didn't do his resume is not my problem. If I help and give them an inch, they'll take a mile, like I owe it to them. I don't need to earn their respect by bending over backwards for them. Instead I need to earn it by being a damn good mechanic.