Thankfully, at the time of this posting I am gainfully employed. I am currently working at a local Circle K gas station earning minimum wage. The biggest problems I have working there are that they do not pay enough for me to be able to live on my own and like most people, I do not want to work at a gas station for the rest of my life. That said, even with its downsides, Circle K is a good steady “in-between” job for me while I search for my next career job. I am an aircraft mechanic by trade, and a web/graphic designer by passion. I can also write, report, film and photograph pretty much anything if given the right tools. I have a lot of skills that could help me land a really good job somewhere. The only problem is finding that job. I recently applied for an aircraft maintenance job on NAS Pensacola, but was turned down for the position. I have also attempted to apply to Coca-Cola as a merchandiser and to yet another aircraft maintenance opening for a different company on the Navy base.
A good while back, one of my regular customers came into the store and told me about an open position for an airframes/hydraulic mechanic for aviation company L3 Vertex. This job would have been a good for me. It pays 25.50/hr, benefits, payed vacations, the whole nine yards. On top of that, I would have been working on the aircraft that Naval Aviators become pilots in, helicopters, and even on Blue Angels. The best part was I would have been working in the Blue Angels hanger doing a job that I truly love to do… work on airplanes.
My interview went pretty well. One of the interviewers was the father to some friends of mine from high school. I had the experience, the skills, and the willingness. What I didn’t have, however, was a collective bargaining agreement. Turns out that the L3 Vertex H-60 helicopter program is scaling back. That means that some of those employees would be moving, or leaving the company. Since there was an availability in the trainers section, my spot went to one of those guys. Bummer. At least I developed a report with the company that I feel left a good impression for latter down the road.
That opportunity closed, I tried to apply to Coca-Cola as a merchandiser. Merchandisers are the workers that come into a grocery store between shipments to restock and arrange product. They also deal with the grocers to order more stock and handle breakage and set up displays. Not a glamorous as working on Blue Angels, but still a step up from where I am now. I am still working on confirming whether or not my application is loaded into their system. Getting a hold of a human resources representative is proving to be rather difficult.
Going back to aircraft, I have also applied for a new posting with L3 Vertex, and hopefully this time they will choose me. Additionally, a new civil service contract for Air Force training aircraft is about to post job openings as well. That too would be on NAS Pensacola, just down the road from the L3 Vertex hangers. I will be applying for that as soon as it becomes available.
If all of the current opportunities turn out to be fruitless, I will once again start applying to print shops, and send out resumes to graphics studios. The truth is that even though that is where my passion is, I don’t have the certification, formal training and experience to be competitive. I have that with aircraft maintenance.
Whatever the case, I plan on continuing to search for my next career job. It is out there, waiting for me, and soon I feel that I will be out on my own once again.
