Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Job...s?

This gig at the Kreuzberger Kinderstiftung is going so well. I'm almost afraid to be writing about it, in case something unforeseen comes along and swoops me away from all this happiness. I'm a bit ahead of schedule, in terms of going through files, organizing the current data, reading articles, researching, and planning. I've gotten my research proposal approved by one of my advisors, and am waiting to work on it a bit more to get it approved by my other advisor. The next step is all about developing the interview questions and written survey. It's actually pretty exciting!



This is where I've been working for the past few weeks. The building is a beautifully renovated house along the river where the districts Treptow, Neukölln, and Kreuzberg meet.


I even have a key!

And with all this going so well, there wasn't much that could heighten my feeling of accomplishment...except for the fact that I got another part-time position that I'd been really wanting. The head of the Global Studies Program managed to arrange an assistant for our new coordinator. The position will last ten months, which means I have to stay in Berlin longer (boohoo). It also offers me a lot of advantages, including a supplementary paycheck as well as the institutional capital that should protect me from being deported. Not only was I pretty sure that I fit the profile of the candidate they were looking for (GSPian, administrative experience, native English, fluent German) I'm also 100% sure that this is something that I want to do. It's exactly the field that I'm hoping to get into when I'm done with school and it's something that I'm certain I'll be good at. Facilitating study abroad and helping others is definitely something I want to do with my life.

The only issue now is waiting for the bureaucratic things to go through...there is the slight chance that my Kinderstiftung job will make it more difficult to get (or possibly prevent me from accepting) the job  at the university but, I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope everything works out. In this, like most cases of good fortune throughout my life, I am tentatively optimistic. I won't actually believe something good has happened until I've signed a contract, and have been working for about a month. Still, it's nice to have some positive, hopeful vibes. 

Monday, September 8, 2014

jawb job jobby jobberton job

I have sent out around 80 emails looking for something to do so that people that want me to do that thing will give me money for it. Mostly translation, English-speaking jobs, working at cafés, and the like. It is exhausting. One thing I'm not the biggest fan of: Trial days. Germany had this wonderful idea that people should do unpaid Probetage to find out if my employment could possibly benefit the company. Meaning I've wasted more than ten hours pretending to be somewhere of my own free will, just for someone to decide "it's just not the right fit". My favorites included the time I went to an English-speaking interview to work for Netflix, with an English aptitude test during the first round only to find that it would be customer support in German. And that my German was "excellent but not good enough"....Okay. Or the time when I went to one of the fancy parts of the city (45 minutes there and back) only to be told in a five minute interview that the job might be too difficult. "It's a shame but sorry, I don't think this will work out."
Luckily, thanks to the glorious powers of Vitamin B (B for relationship...in German) I was offered a position to work for the Kinderstiftung whose original job offer I turned down for various reasons. This gig is actually going to be legit. Essentially, I'll write my thesis on their organization, they'll pay me, and I get an office and resources to do a kick-ass project. I'm so happy that finally be able to get paid for doing something I actually want to do!