The joys of job hunting... As I was completing school I knew it was about that time to find a job. You see when I first started going to school I assisted the owner of this adorable little salon in Studio City, CA. The coolest part of this job was that my boss would allow me to bring in my own clients and she would help me every step of the way through my procedures. Problem was haircuts took me 4 hours and lets face it...who has that kind of time??? I had zero experience and no idea what I was doing. She was kind enough to take me on anyway and show me the ropes of hair styling. The other assistants tried to show me how to set up trays, do shampoos, clean, formulate color and so on. For the life of me I could NOT catch on. This went on for a few months as I tried my very hardest to do everything perfectly. Clients would come in and I would shampoo them (some celebrities as well) and I was so nervous at the shampoo bowl I'd occasionally spray myself with water. I managed to embarrass myself every chance I got. The number one complaint (yes there were a few since I was clueless) was that my shampoo was "too soft". My mother was actually the biggest complainer in this area. I guess most people really like their head to feel scrubbed and cleaned when they leave the bowl. Who knew???? i just didn't want to hurt them! Or at least that's what I kept telling myself since I was beyond freaked that I'd mess up once again. Like I said this went on for only a few months. As time went by we (my boss and I) both realized this was just not going to work until I got some more hours completed at school. So I narrowed my days from a few to 1 until I just decided it was best to focus on school.
As I got closer to the end of my education I decided I wanted to do hair on films and TV. I heard you can make a lot of money that way! I was READY!!! Unfortunately it's a bit more complicated to get into the hair union then I had originally thought. So in the mean time I decided to apply to several salons. One in the valley and several in Santa Monica. I began my interview process which is never fun. I called my first boss mentioned above to see if there were any salons she recommend that had a good education program as well as assistant positions. I called them and set up appointments stat! I narrowed my list down to 2. One in the valley less then 10 minutes form my house and one in Santa Monica an hour and a half to two hours in traffic. Got to love rush hour on the 405! Sadly my first choice was the one in SM. I ended up going through 4 rounds of interviews for my first choice salon. It was a Saturday and I was being the usual clutzy self that I am and fell flat on my elbow. As I was being rushed to the emergency room, praying to god I didn't just blow my entire career and 1600 hours worth of school by breaking my elbow, I received a call saying I got the job at my first choice salon!
The manager: "Sam I'd like you to know that we would love to have you as a part of our staff"
Me: "That's AMAZING! I'd love to join your staff but can I call you back? I may have just broken my arm. Call you when I am out of the ER"
The Manager: "Ummmmm....."
Yeah needless to say I did end up fracturing my elbow and needed physical therapy, a lot of advil and there was the lack of ability to use the arm I really needed so I could do hair. Perfect! Way to start a new job. The good news is when I called back my salon they said they were willing to take a chance on me anyway...as long as I was able to recover in the next two weeks (the doc said four!). I HAD A JOB!
I started that week and have been there ever since. I was lucky in my job hunt and I was determined to have a job fast. So now that you are all caught up to speed on how it began, why I did it, how I did it, the job hunt etc... I can now tell you about all of my crazy day in and day our experiences. Trust me my days can get pretty nutty and even funny. There is a saying that stylists are like therapists and they are right!
So until next time....
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