Finding a job

I never realized how difficult it is to find a job. Before leaving the Czech Republic I had an awesome job. I was working as a waitress in the Spanish restaurant La Casa Blu. You can think that it is nothing special but I loved it. It was a coincidence I got there. Once my friend Lucy just told me that her cousin works in the restaurant and they were looking for a new waitress. I had not tried working as a waitress before and I had been working only in McCafé. I was not even looking for another job as I already had one. Never mind, I decided to try. I remember exactly the day we went to La Casa Blu for the first time. I liked the atmosphere there. We were not supposed to wear any uniform and everybody was friendly. We agreed on going there to try working there and after, the boss Pepe was supposed to decide whether we were able to start or no. After few times going there we were allowed to have our own shift!

In the beginning it was just normal job. Moreover, I do not like being new in a new job when you have to learn everything from the beginning. Sometimes I did not feel well there because they were making fun of me that I was too shy and so on. Time went fast and I already spent a whole year working there! I have to admit it was a miracle to find this job. After few months I felt totally comfortable there, I knew how to do everything and I already made a lot of friends there. Sometimes I was so used to going there that when we went for a holiday I missed it! It was unbelievable. It was my dream job. I knew that it was not a job for my future, but I could relax there and I was totally happy with the money I earned there. Thanks to it I could go to Sri Lanka, for example. Another advantage was that we had sometimes shifts together with Lucy.

It was just a perfect combination of everything. I was practising my English there, I could eat delicious food there, I was in contact with new people all the time and I was paid for it. Sometimes I felt annoying because I was speaking about La Casa Blu too much. And we ended up our party many times there even though we were with our classmates for example.

In La Casa Blu we had a special system of payment which depended on sales during a particular day, working hours and tips. It differed every day. Once it happened that I was totally lucky. People from Harley´s bar had a Christmas party there and they decided to give me generous tips. I was shocked when I found out how much I got. Although when I checked my account I noticed I did not receive so much money as I expected. Therefore, I contacted our main boss about the situation and he tried to explain me that the shift was really hard for everybody and therefore he divided tips among everybody who was working that day! I could not believe. Firstly, if I had not asked he would not have even told me. Secondly, our payment system is always the same without exceptions and suddenly he decides to change it. Of course, when there are few people, the system is the same. I answered that I did not find his solution fair. Then, he suggested solving the situation according to me and he sent me money. We never talked about it again. It seemed solved. After I left to France for Erasmus. Before leaving I even agreed with another boss Pepe I could come back as soon as I am back in the Czech Republic.

When I came back I was sure I could work again in La Casa Blu and actually I was looking forward to working there again. Therefore I was stunned again. Our boss Pepe just wrote me: “I can´t hire you again. The owner of the restaurant does not wish so”.

Maybe you are not surprised, but at that time I had no idea that this could have happened! I already had my plan to start working there, travel and enjoy carefree summer. All my plans were ruined. It was my perfect job and I could not imagine that it could be different way. I did not want to leave it like this. I did not want to work anywhere else. I was talking with Pepe but he said he had no influence on the whole situation. When I sent a message to the main boss he just answered without interest that he did not want people in his restaurant who work only for money.

Excuse me? Me? I am working only for money? If he was ever mistaken it was this time. I seriously loved the job. I was looking forward to being there. I was careful about all guests who came. I was always on time for the shift. I was trying to do everything perfectly. I cared about the name of the restaurant. I even start helping Pepe to make a working schedule. When I was speaking with people there I never said anything bad about it. It was part of my life. I was calling Pepe in my free time to make things better in the restaurant. I took my friends there many times for no purpose. Even when I came to Prague just for two days we had dinner in this restaurant with my friends from France. Unfortunately, some people are probably too blind to see this. Nobody cared.

Nevertheless, I am grateful for this opportunity. I learnt so many things there. I had so many good and bad memories there. I travelled a lot thanks to this job. I met so many interesting people there. I had such a good year there. All thanks to Lucy!

I was trying to convince myself that everything bad is good for another reason. I just still did not find out for which one. It was even worse when Lucy told me that they had hired a girl who was already working in La Casa Blu. The girl who did not care about anything. The girl who was speaking bad about everybody from the restaurant all the time. The girl who was super slow and lazy to come that she was not able to have more than four shifts per month.

The thing is that I really need to find a job if I wanna travel and study this summer and next year. I could not think about it much before my exams but now it is a perfect time to find something instead of complaining. I wanted to make it as efficient as it was possible. Therefore, I sent at least twenty CVs to different companies/cafés/restaurants. You can imagine how it looked like afterwards. Since morning someone was calling me and my head was as a big balloon. Of course I immediately forgot where I applied. Every call started same: “Hello, Barbara. I am calling you because you reacted for our advertised position. Why were you interested in working for us? ”.

I guess there is no right answer for this question to impress financial company and restaurant at the same time. It was just a big mess. In the end I agreed on having six different interviews or assessment centres in two days. It is crazy and impossible. Tomorrow I will have to postpone one and cancel two of them. My idea was to have some part-time job for maximum 20 hours per week to do something interesting and in the meantime to work in a café or restaurant to earn some money and relax.

Today in the morning I had an assessment centrum in Provident. I was scared a little bit about what I should expect. Eventually I liked it. It was a part-time job in a financial department and I could learn a lot of things there. We were four people attending the interview. Firstly we had to introduce ourselves. Secondly, we were explaining which things we should take to an island to survive. Lastly, we had sixty minutes to fill the test. It was interesting for me. I was just disappointed that I did not manage to find a solution for the logic task. In addition, it surprised me that I had to do something from my accountancy class as I did not learn much there. I had quite a good feeling after it, but you never know.

During the afternoon I had another interview in a café in the city centre of Prague. In the beginning I did not even want to go there. Although when I entered the place I started to fancy it. The room looks cosy and pleasant. The girls working there were wearing special uniform but I kind of liked it. During the interview we were just talking about responsibilities to have a café and how to make customers happy. The job is quite diverse which is what I like the most. They do not prepare only ice-cream, but pancakes, coffees and sandwiches as well. I felt happy after the interview and we agreed that I would come to try the job in practice.

When I left the place things were happening really fast. I totally forgot that when I was desperate about La Casa Blu I tried to find similar bar and I found one – La Bodeguita del Medio – Cuban bar. I have not seen any advertisement about it, but I just sent them email asking if they had free place for me. They immediately suggested that I could come tomorrow to try the job in practice and they will decide afterwards. Later, I spoke to one girl who was working there and I realized I care about this position a lot. It is in the city centre, it looks so nice and it is totally similar to my previous jobs. The thing is that it looks kind of difficult as they have 13 hours long shifts. Crazy. I feel little bit nervous about it even though I was already working a whole year in La Casa Blu!

Another surprising thing is that I replied to one-time job in Croatia. I noticed it by accident. They just wrote quickly they were looking for hostess girls for a pleasure cruise for three days and it is only one day working. I have no idea what to think about it but it could be interesting to go to Croatia and earn some money at the same time. I am going to find out more information about it tomorrow during my meeting.

It looks I will have to postpone my returning back home again as I arranged a lot of job activities here. Although I am already missing my sister a lot! There is also four hour assessment centre tomorrow in Red Bull in the morning. In addition, I need to go to the University to take an experiment I registered for. These days are crazy. The only thing I hope is that I am going to find some awesome job with amazing salary and everything will go well.

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