Excuse me while I sit over here crunching numbers and listing things and generally trying to give my brain wiggle-room for whatever curveballs get thrown my way today.
Number-Crunching for Reality
- Minimum hourly wage in Rhode Island is $10.10, about $8.08 after taxes and whatnot
- Living hourly wage in Rhode Island is $12.10, about $9.68 after taxes and whatnot
- At minimum wage working 35 hours a week (if that’s what this particular establishment’s policies view as full-time), 80% of what I earn will cover my total living expenses leaving 20% for savings. Whether all those savings need to be kept in savings for tax purposes or I can put some of that toward necessary purchases (like replacing a computer so old it needs to be mailed away to have anything fixed) is not yet known.
- Part-time, with either pay amount, would come to significantly less. At minimum wage I’d need about 28 hours a week just to cover expenses, living wage 24 hours a week. So, full-time is clearly the hope here.
Listing Things for Confidence
- I have 15+ years of childcare experience under my apron strings. I’m cool under supremely-irrational fire and have special skills for keeping things interesting no matter how slow they get. Also I can carry weights up to 90 lbs. while they’re kicking and screaming, so 50-lbs. boxes are pretty much a cake-walk.
- I’m the acting secretary for a small volunteer chorus, a long-time/very trustworthy volunteer of an eminent arts organization, and — back when I was a Sunday school teacher — the kids all called me Sheriff. So you could say I command respect and get things done. You could do that, and you’d be right.
- I’m continuously engaging in personal education/development to keep my mind sharp and sharper.
- Besides what’s on my resume, there’s my whole CV as a singer-storyteller and writer as proof of my creativity and innovation being regularly put to use so that I’m always ready to get down with the problem-solving and critical-thinking necessary to keep things running smoothly on the job.
Wiggle-Room for Adaptability
- Communicate primary interest in working full-time. If only part-time is a possibility, you will cross that bridge on your own time. On their time you will accept the job because working in a bookstore is literally the dream, spaz.
- Communicate your preference for having the same work schedule each week, let them know about your schedule-building skills/offer those skills in case this is something they don’t feel comfortable/know how to accomplish at the moment. If it’s simply against policy, remember that part of the reason you applied for this job is that their listed hours of operation are not likely to conflict with your personal schedule needs.
- Have on hand a list of upcoming dates/times you know you won’t be available to work because of prior commitments. Have a secondary list just for you about which of those dates have their own wiggle-room in case your shortlist of unavailability appears to be some sort of deal-breaker, and make sure to communicate that your commitments were made before you applied for the job so making such commitments in the future will be less likely to contain scheduling conflicts (particularly if you are able to have the same work schedule every week).
- If you get the job, take down the information immediately pertinent to you beginning your first shift/onboarding to their way of doing things. Have your five follow-up questions on hand for immediate feedback should you learn that you have not gotten the job (hardly likely, but better to be prepared than not).
Also published on Medium.