Interviewing!

Holy Moly! I have actually started interviewing! What a shock! My first one was today at a local kosher bakery. The owner is looking for someone to learn all the ropes, bake, and manage the bakery as he steps back from the day-to-day operations. He even mentioned the option, later down the road, to buy in to the bakery and own a stake in it!

This is great. Today, he had me come in so he could give me a tour of the facility. I'm supposed to speak with him next week about whether I'm interested. I definitely am. It will start off as an apprenticeship and move on up from there. The starting pay is pretty low, but I'm hoping I can negotiate a better starting pay. Hours will be a bit funky (it IS a bakery, after all!), but I think I can live with that.

I'm also waiting to hear from a local restaurant about a manager's position there. Not as excited about it because it doesn't really offer as much opportunity as the bakery, but the starting pay (which is really important right now) might be better.

The question will be: Will I be able to go to school at least part-time while working a bakery job? Since much of the work is seasonal (it IS a full-time job, but there are times of years that are busier than others), having set hours when I know I can attend classes might be difficult.

In any case, I will continue studying for the GRE exam (started today - wish me luck!). At least, once I take it and hopefully do well and get it out of the way, I'll be able to see how things work out and apply to school when I can.

Once again, this is one of those instances where it's WHO you know, not WHAT you know. My chavruta, a rav in the community, also happens to be the bakery owner's chavruta, and he connected us, knowing the owner was looking to gradually step back (and possibly even sell it at some point, though I'm not too sure about buying a bakery at this point if my ultimate goal is to make Aliyah) and knowing I love baking and would love to work a bakery job, despite the funky hours. My chavruta also knows I desperately need a job.

As for my other work, the "company" my father so lovingly left me, I think that's done. While at first, after his death, I was rather busy and even managed to sell two systems (for a total of $1800 in commissions - woo hoo), it's been deathly quiet of late. I MAY have set up a system installation, which I will probably attend IF this deal goes through and I'll make a whole $1000. Though if I end up taking this job before installation begins, I'll probably just give that up since I won't want to take off a real job to go learn something that may or may not pan out for future training in installing system.

In the meantime, I'm pretty ready to lay my father's business to rest and bury it with him and move on to better, more concrete things. It's just going to be part of the process of fixing our financial mess, straightening ourselves out, and getting on the path of success and maybe even Aliyah at some point.