Branching Out: Applying for a job in retail

We all know how I feel about being a waitress: It pays well, it's what I know, and I am damn good at my job...BUT... (that's a very big BUT right there)

I'm not happy doing it. I have mastered the art of what I like to call "The Cheerleader". To a guest, I am cheery, energetic, conversational, and above all very VERY efficient. I'm a perfectionist and I don't like to fail which pretty much makes me a model employee. In general, I work in turn and burn restaurants and I flip tables like no one's business with consistently higher sales and fewer errors than anyone else. I learn fast and save my stress for later, but saying that this is what I wanted for myself is just a hop, skip, and jump away from saying every little girl dreams of being a hooker. This is not "Pretty Woman", my friends. This is life...like the cereal...

There are a few things I truly love in life: my husband, my dog, nature, and art. I chose to pursue art through fashion and jewelry. In 4 years, I learned a lot- a lot about what I wanted out of life and what made me happiest, as well as picking up several new skillsets on the way. Then I graduated, there were bills to pay, and I forgot all about it. I got married, moved 2 more times after college, and...I started this blog. It became my little niche in the world, a mark in cyberspace if not on the world.

The daily grind kept on grinding, and when it became too much I applied for other jobs in the same field and was offered them. I turned them down partially out of fear of change and partially because I knew "same shit, different place" wasn't going to cut it in the end. As I find myself doing every 6 months or so, I found myself perusing the classifieds again this week, and just for fun, I opened the retail section- because you know, i delight in fashion, jewelry, makeup, and secretly all things girly. One of my favorite stores, Francesca's Collections (a boutique with a unique and fun vintage feel) has a listing for their new location, and...with no retail experience under my belt, I threw caution to the wind and sent in an application.

I opened with a cover letter (something I never do):

"My name is Samantha Elliott, and I have no retail experience. What I do have is a bachelor's degree in fashion design with a minor in art and jewelry and 10 years in the fast paced food and beverage industry where interaction with guests, keeping customers happy, and doing high-volume cash sales on your feet is must- that's 10 years of direct sales experience including upselling and suggestive selling, multitasking, problem-solving, and overall guest satisfaction with cashier experience. In college, I also spent a year in a movie theatre box office doing thousands of dollars in cash sales in hours as well as suggestive selling in a concession stand. I've held several jobs where creating visual displays was a part of my job duties, most notably the weekly lobby displays I was required to create and change as an RA, and the many wedding displays I've done in banquets, in addition to the fashion shows and art displays that were a part of my coursework in college.
I am not currently using my degree professionally, but I do keep a blog where I require myself to make new pieces and use my talents, because art and fashion are where my passions truly lie. As a waitress, I take pride in accessorizing with style and looking as best I can in a uniform. As an individual, I'm especially fond of unique and timeless pieces and a frequent visitor at Francesca's in Park City, Lancaster. Check out my blog: http://xarataproject.blogspot.com/p/xarata-project.html and my website http://xarata.etsy.com, and take a chance on something unique and different that just "works". It's how all the best finds are made."

A little corny, but to the point and different enough to grab some attention. It worked- they emailed me back prompting me for a more user-friendly format for my resume. I sent it to them 2 days ago, and not hearing back have despaired. When I saw that they relisted the job ad, I decided "what the hell? Persistence never hurt anybody". I completely revamped my resume, having sent in separate Fashion and F&B resumes the first time, I took the time to craft a retail resume (you know, with things like "cashier" under past employment in lieu of "Movie Ticketing" and "Waitress" -both which have cashier in the skills line), pasting it in the email, uploading it to skydrive, and making sure it was in .doc format. I also attached the previous cover letter so it doesn't immediately scream re-ap, but shows I took the time to troubleshoot, refine and give it a better go should they read it again.





The Little Details:
The job listing is part time, so I would still have to waitress to pay the bills and going on restriction means destroying the little seniority I've earned for myself. On the upside, I'm on Bob's benefits so changing jobs doesn't affect my insurance or anything. Retail is one of those industries where people seem to climb pretty quickly, and if there came a day where I could leave waitressing, I would be very happy about that. Retail isn't as hard on your hands as serving is, the clothes are nicer, the discounts are better, and when you get bored, there's always stuff to organize (which is so much better than scraping gum out from under tables). Mostly, it would just be a really big change, but probaby a positive one. We drove by the new location and...it actually isn't there yet. There is an empty storefront in the shopping centre though which is probably going to become the new location. In some ways, this could be really good, because it probably means that they're not opening until late summer/early fall which is exactly the time when all of my shifts at the Lodge magically disappear and I start scraping for money and scrounging for hours, while fighting the idea of going on unemployment. It might be scary, but it could be perfect...

Oh, by the way, Bob is up for a promotion at work so cross your crossables! It's actually the same promotion that he didn't get last time that he was supposed to be a shoe-in for and everyone was so shocked and disappointed when he didn't get it. He's spent the last 6 months listening to management complain about the mistakes they made in that last round of promotions and only rarely does he mention that hey, I applied for it, I didn't get it, and I'd rather not hear about the ineptitude of those were apparently my betters. So again he's supposed to be a shoe-in, and it would be a really big raise which would allow us a little more freedom, but neither of us is trying to get our hopes up too terribly high...just crossing our crossables...


So that's just me sharing to anyone in particular what's going on in my life, my little hopes and fears, where I might be headed next. any words of wisdom?