Day Job Interview: Karen W.

This is the fourth installment in the Day Job Interview Series.

If you're interested in being interviewed, please email me at teapot [at] dailygusto [dot] com.

Karen W., Customer Care Account Executive

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

I work for a jewelry designer, as a Customer Care Account Executive. Customer Care is another fancy name for the Repairs department, so on a day-to-day basis I talk to salespeople who sell our company's jewelry and try to help them expedite their customer's repairs.

2. How long have you worked there?

I started there in September as a temp, but have worked as a full-time, salaried employee since November.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

Yes, although they change depending on if we're in season or on summer hours, but for the most part it's from 8:30 or 9 am to about 6:30 or 7 pm.

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

There are certainly aspects of it that I like well enough � I do enjoy customer service generally, trying to be a problem solver and developing relationships with clients. I've found lately that I like the intensity and the pace; I'm kind of addicted to it actually. But it's not what I want to do long term. I do it currently to pay my bills. There are moments too when I want to tell these salespeople when they get particularly rabid for their customer's bracelet back that it's only jewelry, folks, not curing cancer or anything.

5. What�s the best part of your job?

When I feel like I've solved someone's problem or crossed off a long list of returned voice mails, that general feeling of satisfied accomplishment.

6. What�s the worst part of your job?

When I'm subjected to abuse on the telephone from stressed out salespeople. I had one woman tell me in this excessively sarcastic voice, she wanted to move to New York and take my job because it seemed like I didn't have to do much of anything all day long! Those are the times when you put the person on hold and then mutter, "beeyotch" at the receiver, just to get a little break from it.

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

No, it's a job I fell into while looking for paid writing work after finishing graduate school and have stayed with because it has great benefits, a salary and paid vacations. However, eventually I want to transition into writing about film full time for newspapers, magazines and online. I'd love to be a film critic like J Hoberman about 10 or 15 years down the road, someone who writes regularly about film for a popular outlet but also works on film books and teaches film studies as an adjunct at the college level.

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

Lord, yes. Too much to be certain, but at least two shots of home brewed espresso in the morning and then Diet Coke the rest of the day. In the summer, I drink a fair amount of iced coffee to mix it up a little. I also want to send a shout out to Le Kiosk on First Avenue at Houston, as their lattes are some of the best I�ve had in the city and they often fuel me on my commute.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

Many of the temps employed at the company who I'm friendly with tend to also be artistically minded writers, musicians, actors, artists and recent graduates looking for full time work in New York. But most of the full time employees are either people with customer service and jewelry backgrounds I don't share or are skilled in the manufacturing side of jewelry or some sort of business management. They tend to have families and commute long distances from Jersey or Queens, which isn't what my life is about right now. Everyone that I work with couldn't be nicer though � I�ve been invited to a christening in New Jersey and have had post-work drinks with a few � we just don't have a whole lot in common on a surface level.

10. What�s your favorite work implement/office supply?

My favorite office implements are the hand scanners. I don't really get to use one, but as a tech-minded girl I find them fascinating. On the production side, each of the components used to make a particular piece of jewelry is bar coded and catalogued. Occasionally, I'm called upon to walk an order through the production system and in each of the component departments they use the scanners to move the merchandise from inventory to an order. I love all of the beeping and the regimented order of it as each piece is put together.

11. Do you travel for your job? If so, do you get to go anywhere interesting?

Once every two weeks I attend a morning meeting uptown at our retail location on the Upper East Side, which, while not travel that requires supersonic trains or airplanes, feels like going to a different world. I like our retail location meetings, as I get a bit of break from the telephone ringing, and it�s fun to see the jewelry in its natural habitat, all shiny and new in the cases. I find the Upper East Side a rarified little universe, filled with polished shoppers who expect the utmost service and aren't afraid to throw a fit to get it. It makes me happy not to be working in high end, designer retail every day, now that�s a tough gig.

12. Describe a funny moment at your job, something that illustrates what it�s like to work there.

During my first week as a temp, I spent what seemed like hours on hold with various jewelry stores, calling them to give estimates on repairs or information about an item we were working on. On one store's hold music, rather than cheesy easy listening radio or advertisements for their store, they had helpful factoids about jewelry. I swear at one point the friendly professor voice said, �And the ancients believed, diamonds repel lunatics.� I wrote this little aphorism down on a post-it note, taped it up to my monitor and occasionally remind myself that Diamonds Repel Lunatics really helped me get through those first few months. And surprisingly, I've noticed most of the subway crazies give me a wider berth than before.

Karen W. holds a master of the arts in cinema studies from New York University, a degree that has nothing to do with her Day Job really. But it does justify the amount of time she spends on Cinecultist.com, a blog about her cinephilia.