Story Time: I Lost My Job

I’m no longer at my movie theater job that I’ve been working at for almost two and a half years. Unfortunately, I got terminated two weeks ago today and was worried about income. Because of that, I went into a bit of a depression for the first couple of days; but I knew that I had to pull myself together and start sending out applications ASAP. Another thing that worried me was that I had never been fired from a job before. If I got interviewed for another job in the future, how would I explain why I got terminated from my previous job?

Side note: they have a weird system. You get written up if you get in trouble for something, and each write-up puts you on a step. Once you get on your fourth step, that leads to suspension or termination. I got written up for losing some keys, and that put me on my fourth step. It’s pretty weird to explain. I digress, though.

The day after I lost my job, I sent out a bunch of applications through Indeed since that seemed to be the only job search engine where I had the best luck (I got my movie theater job and my internship through Indeed). The next day, I got an email back from one of the jobs that I applied for asking me to come in for an interview. I was thinking “damn, that was quick,” and how I had to do my absolute best on that interview. It wasn’t a retail job, it was a social media marketing job, which is a little bit related to the field that I want to go in.

I had the interview the next day. I was nervous, but I put on a confident demeanor. I’ve had a mock interview in the past at the career center of the university I graduated from, and I remembered all of the tips that she told me. I answered every question as best as I could, I tried not to appear nervous, and I left the interview feeling pretty confident. It was short, simple, and not as scary as I thought it would be. They told me that I had to complete a practice assessment as soon as I could and time myself on it. Basically, I would be drafting some social media posts for some clients, and they wanted me to time myself. I got home and completed the assessment in an hour and a half, and I thought I did great. The only problem was that I forgot to add pictures! After they pointed that out, I quickly added some cool photos and sent it back. Now I just had to wait for their response.

That same day, I got a call from the general manager of my movie theater job confirming my termination (I was suspended at the time). She told me that I could get my termination appealed, and then emailed me the information on how to do so. Because of my mistake with the practice assessment, I was a little worried about my fate with the new company. I sent the email to the people in charge of appealing my termination at my movie theater job just to be on the safe side. I also prayed that I would get the new job so I wouldn’t have to go back to my old one.

Two days later, I got an email back from the social media marketing job offering me employment! I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to get that email. I kept thinking about how I can finally move on from that movie theater job. No more getting off at 2 in the morning, no more dealing with rude customers, no more standing on my feet for hours (sometimes without a break), no more sweating in the kitchen, no more working on weekends and holidays. I was also excited that I would start having an income again.

I started on Monday, and I drafted some posts during the first two days. On Wednesday and Thursday, I got to post my drafts to all of my 40 something clients’ social media pages. We work from home on Fridays, and I got to “live post,” or post without drafting first, to all of my clients’ pages. I’ve been getting faster as the week went on and my bosses were noticing. I’m so proud of how quickly I’m learning everything. Overall, I’d say I had a pretty successful first week.

All of the bosses are super chill at my new job. There is no dress code, and I love that. This job is also very flexible with everything. People can take a lunch break pretty much whenever they want to, and if we need to stand up and take a breather, we could. We’re allowed to use our phones while we’re in the office, and we can talk all we want to. We listen to music and every Tuesday the office provides lunch for everyone. Previously coming from a super strict working environment, this newly relaxed ambiance is something that I need to get used to.  This is also my first sort of office job, so sitting down and staring at a computer for 7 to 8 hours a day is something else that I have to start getting used to.

In conclusion, I feel so blessed to have been able to get another job within a week of losing my last one. This job is a lot better in every way: I get paid significantly more at this one, I don’t get off super late, the boss is super chill, the flexibility is outstanding, and it’s a calmer atmosphere. I also enjoy how small the staff is; at this job, there’s probably less than 20 people here. The only thing that I’m going to miss at my old job is the people that I worked with.  I had some fantastic co-workers there that felt like family to me.

I think my termination was God’s way of saying “you don’t need to suffer at this place anymore. I have somewhere better for you.” Had I not lost my other job, I don’t think I would have gotten this one. God’s timing was so perfect because my other job was enforcing some new (ridiculous!) rules and I was getting extremely fed up with the place. It’s a little unfortunate that I didn’t get to find out if I was selected for management or not, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I have a bachelor’s degree; it’s time to move on from retail.

Thank you so much for reading.