A Continuing Hunt for Freelance Work

This is going to be a long one...

The Backstory: My First Job

Let's take a trip back to 2014, I had just finished my GED and SAT exams and was now on the hunt for a job - this was in January. I had a plastic envelope with 20 - 30 copies of my resume and went up to the local mall. The mall had been open for about 2 years at this point in time so it was still quite new but it was busy!

I handed out 10 or 15 copies of my resume before heading home and, for the next few months, I waited. Life continued, I attended my martial arts classes, played games, read books and so on. Then in early April of 2014, I got a phone call; it's around 06:30 in the morning so I'm a little groggy because it was early on a Wednesday and I was still asleep until the phone rang. The conversation went pretty much as follows:

Me (Groggy and half asleep): "Hello?"

Stranger: "Hello, is this Greg Seebregts speaking?"

Me: "Yes, can I help you?"

Stranger: "I'm calling to find out if you're available for an interview?"

Me: "Interview?"

Stranger: "Yes, you left your resume with us some time ago and we've had some openings; would you be able to come in?"

Me: "When?"

Stranger: "About eight o clock."

At this point, I'm fully awake so I go: "Sure, I'll be there."

Of course, I rush to shower and get dressed, downing a piping hot cup of coffee and grabbing a bag with more copies of my resume and some stationary. Got a lift to the mall (it was well within walking distance but my mom gave me a lift anyways) and went inside. The manager spots me with my bag and binder and I explain about the phone call; she leads me through the back of the store past the store room to the employees break room.

I sit down and am given a cup of coffee - which wasn't that good to be honest but I drank it anyways because...well...coffee. A good 20 minutes or so go by before someone comes in and I'm taken to the managers office - I sit there for a while answering a host of different questions - this was the primary interview. After that was done, I was led back to the break room and given a basic literacy test to complete before having to go and answer more questions.

After that was all out of the way, I spent the next few months following up until I was told to attend an orientation day. From there I waited about a month or so before I started working. I worked mostly on the shop floor as a shelf packer but I also worked as a checkout assistant and handled the parcel counter. As the year went on, our quiet little store got quieter and we'd show up to work with almost nothing to do. I stayed on until December of that year before leaving to focus on my studies. Looking back, this was probably not the smartest thing to do.

No Backup:

I had no backup plan in place, I got a job and I'd planned to stick it out as long as I could but with all the health problems I'd had (I was sick most of my first few months) and the lack of any meaningful work to do; one year was all I'd managed. Unfortunately I'd made a mistake and gotten comfortable; stopped looking for work as soon as I'd gotten the job. That mistake has been nipping at my heels ever since and it probably always will.

Throughout 2015 and 2016 I worked the flea market scene - mostly unsuccessfully - while I looked for a new job. I found nothing, the end of those two years came around; I worked a small week-long Christmas time flea market and that was it.

2017, saw me start tutoring English online via Skype chat and that lasted until mid-2018. I've been kinda stuck ever since then though, finding places that look promising but that ultimately go nowhere; this is obviously demoralizing. At the time of this writing, however, things may be looking up as I'm due to start tutoring again in September.

Only difference now is that I'm still hunting for good freelance backup plans.