A little more about my past and my future goals..

So what is it that I actually want to do?

I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I went to college, like most people I'm sure. I picked Business because it seemed that you could do anything with it. I became bored with Business and didn't see myself in that environment UNTIL I took my first marketing class. I fell in love with marketing, advertising, promotion, and event planning. I thrived on writing marketing plans and business plans for classes. I was so excited with a side of business that could let me be creative and use the skills that I'm naturally good at! I didn't know what "area" I really wanted to do with marketing/advertising but I've always known that it was what I wanted to do. Too bad that everybody wants to do marketing. haha. Then I started thinking that I love fashion and I love books so I wouldn't mind being in either one of those industries. I'm passionate and knowledgeable about them. I've come to realize though that, for now, I'm really fine with doing any sort of marketing/advertising. I just want to learn and I just want to be happy doing what I'm doing in a setting where my skills are important to the business. That being said, I can't really say as of yet, what I'd like to see myself doing in 10 years or what my ultimate career goals are. I haven't even started a career. I just want to get hands on experience in any setting doing marketing or advertising!

The problem with getting a job, for me, has been my resume. It's not the actual format of the resume or anything. It's that it really does not have much on it that shows a company my experience and what I can do and nobody seems to care that I graduated college with a high GPA! Here's my annotated version of my resume (you know..all the things I can't say in an actual resume but want to brag about).

From 2003 and then all throughout college, I was a nanny for an autistic boy and then his younger brother was born with Aspberger's and I was his nanny too. It was a high school nannying job and it was great. I learned so much and during the summers in college I would work for the family 40 hours a week. I've remained close with them and help out whenever I can. This has been a downfall in my career because nobody cares that I was a nanny (although if you worked there you would see it was more than that) for all those years. Yes, I probably should have done something more relevant but I LOVED what I did and I've always been the type to do what I'm passionate about. (TRANSLATION: I'm EXTREMELY loyal, able to multi task like you wouldn't believe, have the utmost patience, and I like a challenge!)

Then I had to do an internship for school in order to graduate. I ended up at a professional photography company and it was wonderful! I was a customer service intern but because it was such a small company I was able to get to learn alot about the marketing and the sales. I did your typical customer service type thing and really excelled. I loved the competitions for signing people up for our yearly service. I just loved learning everything! I would have loved to stay on and move over to marketing (Things I wish I could say on my resume: I was so fabulous that the hired me on full time but due to having a semester left in school I wasn't able to do the 40 hrs/week that they needed me. Then when I graduated they didn't have any positions left..they were actually laying people off!)

Then, upon graduation, out of desperation, I took a job in retail hell. I won't say the name but it is a trendy teen-20's store that is CRAZY busy all the time. It was my first job in retail. The 3rd job I ever held. This job should have been a job I had in high school. It might have been fun then. It was horrible! I went in there to do a job with a very high work ethic and a mentality to do my best! I realized that hard work wasn't really rewarded. Girls who had worked there for YEARS were never promoted because they were "too young" even though a manager that is there was just the same age. Sometimes the girls were promised a position in the future and then they go and hire from OUTSIDE. It was crazy. The hours were crappy along with the pay but worse than that it was a job where you felt like you weren't taken serious and people just liked to make you miserable. The store manager was a JOKE. (My interactions with the other managers and the District Manager were really great though!) She didn't really care about much and was way too lax and didn't hold the standards that needed to be met. She had a horrible leadership style that wasn't effective. I couldn't stand being in an environment where people didn't value hard work and that girls were telling their managers off if they were asked to do something and somehow nobody EVER got fired?! It was insanity! I quit after 8 months..so it is by my own doing that I am not employed essentially. However, sometimes you just have to do what is best for you and I didn't want to be there any longer. It was hard because I'm not a quitter in normal circumstances but I wasn't growing or learning there anymore. There was no value in being there to me. (Things I wish I could point out on my resume: I was offered the manager position there after 6 months but I turned it down due to the fact I really could not handle working with that particular store manager anymore. I couldn't work somewhere that did not value hard work and a place where everything was just a joke. It's unfortunate because I really could have seen myself doing well in that company at the corporate level or even doing visual merchandising since I was always doing things for the visuals anyways..)

Anyways, that's where I'm coming from. I'm not some person that had a good job and got laid off. I know I have to start from the bottom but I want to start from the right place on the bottom. Working jobs that aren't going to get me on the path to my career goals are just not something I'm looking for right now. Everyone has their own standards but those are mine! :)