Posted by Cam W. on September 20, 2001, at 19:03:16
Wendy - I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble finding a job. I did get one, and it is a story in itself.
I had been applying to almost every job that came up and no replies (except for 1 PFO phone call). I called one guy the morning his job offer was posted in the paper (read it on the internet, actually). It was a job in a "mom & pop" pharmacy in a small city about 1/2 hour away from home. He wanted to see me that afternoon, but I was playing Mr.Mom, so I went to see him that night. It turns out that he was a golfing buddy with the director of pharmacist's with my old job (D of P died of an abdominal aneurism about a month and a half after my daughter died last year; that was when my boss took over the duties of D of P).
Anyway, I started talking to him about my experience in mental health and he started asking me questions about adding Seroquel to Fluanxol. He said the question was for a close family friend. At that point his wife walked in and I was introduced to her. She looked familiar, but I really didn't give it a second thought. "Pop" then explained my background to "Mom", and she said she knew.
It seems that I sat beside her at the Schizophrenia Conference two years ago. The "close family friend" was "Mom & Pop's" son, who had been diagnosed shortly before the Conference. I guess I had been very reassuring to her, answered all her questions in a language she could understand, and gave her some hope for her son (I really don't remember what she asked or what I said).
Aside:
That was the Shizophrenia Conference where I asked Nancy Andreason (editor of The American Journal of Psychiatry) if consciousness and cognition were a higher level of motor control. I had just read a paper that implied that She said she doubted and that this wasn't the place to ask philisophical questions. Since then I have found several articles that have backed up my stance on consciousness being a higher level of motor function (but that is another long story, which I will relate if anyone is interested).
Back To Our Feature Presentation:
Then "Mom" went on to say that she had wanted me as a pharmacist since then, but didn't remember my name. Needless to say I was hired on the spot. It was supposed to be a part-time job, but they let the manager go (they said he wasn't working out) and I do feel bad about that, but several of the staff, and the other pharmacist told me he was quitting, anyway. So, now I am store manager. Anyway, the topic of money came up, after chit-chatting for about an hour, about mental illness (I gave them shit about not admitting that their son had schizophrenia, from the start...damn stigma!). "Pop" asked how much I wanted and I told him. "Mom" piped up that they could give me more than that, so I said, "Okay."
The next day I got calls from 2 hospitals that I had applied to, asking me to come for an interview (for jobs that paid, a lot less, for more work). I would have probably taken either of those jobs, if I hadn't gone to the "Mom & Pop" store that night. It's funny how things work out. I never thought that advice I gave would actually get me a job, the way it did.
BTW - "Pop" has agreed to help me get the Mental Health Clinic contract when it expires with my old boss (the job still isn't filled), as long as I do some free consulting with them. Actually, I want to look into working 1/2 time with each of them.
Wendy, all you have to do is keep looking. Jobs turn up in the strangest places. - Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:11634
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010915/msgs/11634.html