Thursday, May 31, 2012

Salem, MASS and a round of interviews


Welcome back to the blog. It has been a couple days and a few things have happened that I figure I would share with the world... or at least those individuals that read this blog of mine! 

The last couple of days have been pretty uneventful because they have been full of interviews. Kinda boring but hey, at least we have been blessed to know that people want to meet with us! I think that you all heard about my first experience with the gym called "WOW" and how much I disliked being there. Well, I sent them an email today telling them that it wasn't going to be a good fit for me so I think I'm in the clear on that one. 

Yesterday Teej and I both went on an interview. His was in the morning at this sports marketing firm in a little town called Woburn. (apparently pronounced woo-burn) Anyway, his was at noon and lasted about 20 minutes. I wasn't sure if I should be surprised he came out so quickly or worried. He told me that it went well and that specific interview was more informational. You know, making sure that you are not a crazy person trying to come in and get hired somewhere. Apparently they liked him enough to desire to bring him back for a second one. He said that the next one would be a little longer (approx. 2 hours) and it would be more of a shadowing type interview where he would watch the people work and see if that would be something he is interested in. Unfortunately, he has called twice now to schedule a time to do that and they haven't answered or called back either time so we're not really sure how to take that. Regardless, it seems like a job Teej could be interested in. 

My interview was at 4 that afternoon so I came back and prepared a little bit before heading over to Latitude sports club. We had driven by it on the way to my first interview so I had an idea of where it was. As we were driving by the first time I was immediately impressed of the overall size of the facility. From the outside it looked brand new with big glass windows and several different floors. Needless to say, I was excited to see what this gym was all about. The guy I had been talking with over email named Rusty seemed like a much more legitimate and professional individual so I had high hopes. I walked into the facility and I was amazed at how beautiful and modern it looked. Rusty immediately came down and met me. He was so nice right off the bat (very different then WOW) and started the interview with a tour of their facility. There are 4 floors to the gym with a ton of open space, which is something I LOVE. They had amenities up the wazoo. There were 4 racquetball courts, a big pool at the top floor, 3-4 workout studios for classes, a big track to run around, 4-5 tennis courts, a giant rock wall, a juice bar, 2 saunas, a hot tub, a women's only area, and much more. I was blown away by how great the facility was. I told him that even if I didn't get a job here I just wanted to join because it looked so awesome. 


The interview went well. He asked me SEVERAL questions regarding fitness, which I appreciated. He took an interest in me and what I was about as well as told me a little about himself and how he liked to run the gym. Training seemed like a great fit for me at this specific area. At the end of the interview he told me he was interested and wanted to have me come back for a "workout" interview. This meant that I would come up with a series of exercises and take him through a workout. This would include showing him how to do the exercise correctly, modifications for it, safety, positioning, etc. I was nervous to do that but excited to FINALLY be able to show off some of my skills that I have from NPTI (National Personal Trainer Institute). 

So, I think that brings you up to date prior to today. This morning I had an interview out in Wilmington, MA for this small studio gym called "Get In Shape For Women. (GISFW)" I had never heard of it before but apparently it is VERY popular out here on the east coast. The manager called me yesterday and wanted me to come in and talk with him. GISFW is much different then Latitude in that it is located in a small section of a strip mall. The whole facility is in 1 room and their focus is training 4 people at a time. The nice thing about that job would be that I would be doing group training, which can be fun and I would get designated hours to which I would come in and train. If the clients who signed up for the time slot didn't come in to workout, I would still get paid. That wouldn't be the case at the big gym. GISFW's philosophy is to do 30 minutes of resistance training (weights and things) and then 25 minutes of cardio and that's it. It's all very much the same every time you come in (kind of reminded me of curves) but it's a little more intense then that. The owners were very nice. It was a married couple who owned it and they just had a baby so they were in serious need of some trainers. They told me all about the company and pretty much said, in so many words, that they were desperate for trainers. They had 90 clients coming in a week and only 2 trainers. I was interested by the end so I told them I would come in on Saturday morning and go through how they do a workout, shadow a couple sessions, and then perform my own workout on them to see how I do. It would last a total of 3 hours. The only thing I didn't like was the size of the facility. Latitude was much more up my alley in terms of what they had to offer there (more opportunities and things) but this gym could offer me guaranteed pay and guaranteed hours off the bat. So, at this point I was very conflicted. 


With all that said, I had a lot to think about but not a lot of time. Right after my first interview at GISFW I went straight to my "workout" interview at Latitude. I had put together a circuit for Rusty to do. He wanted me to get his heart rate up but add some weights in there. I came up with 5 exercises to do and was going to have him do that 3 times. The "workout" part went really well. He asked me in the middle of my explanations if I had taught or trained before because I was very good at explaining and hit all the elements I needed to hit. I told him I hadn't and I think he was impressed. He then asked me how to do a basic squat so I showed him how and then I did a modified version that he had never seen before. He took interest in that and said he was going to start doing that with his clients. I felt cool that I showed him how to do something. It was really fun! At the end of the interview, he told me he had to take a look at one more girl tomorrow and would try and let me know by the end of tomorrow what he had decided. Apparently the other girl just went through NPTI as well so she might be doing the same stuff I did. Who knows? Anyway, I think it went well. By the end of the session I was really pumped up and felt like this is where I REALLY wanted to work. I guess we'll wait and see what the Lord has planned for me. I am just grateful for the opportunities to try! 

After the interviews, Teej and I decided to go on a trip to Salem, MASSACHUSETTS. Not Salem, Oregon people! I will admit, it was weird being in Mass and not in Oregon. Teej said he felt like he should know where he is going because he was in Salem but he obviously didn't. We went to this cute little park called Salem Willows Park, which was about 25 minutes away from Danvers. It took us a while to get there though because the Massachusetts road system isn't very good. It seems like it's all one way traffic so it takes longer to get anywhere. We didn't really care though because we weren't on any sort of time crunch. The park was very cute and overlooked the ocean, which is a big reason why we went. There were some old arcades and casinos near the park that we walked by before we decided to check out the park. It was a beautiful walk along the water. 


As we reached the end of the park, there was a neighborhood that you could walk in. Teej loves looking at houses so we decided to walk through that area and look at all the neat homes. We decided they all looked so unique and had their own fun flare to them. We said that we wouldn't mind living in one of those someday. Maybe not in Salem, though! 

As we headed back toward the park we stopped and got some homemade ice cream from this stand near the shops. IT. WAS. PHENOMENAL. I think you can really tell a difference between homemade and not homemade.... and this was definitely homemade. We both got blackraspberry and I got it with vanilla. It was so rich and creamy and FILLING haha... oh yeah, and not very good for you, but whatever! 

We went back to the car after that and decided to drive into downtown Salem to see if we could find the place where the Salem Witch Trials took place. The town itself wasn't very large and so we parked at this small parking garage and walked around a bit seeing what we could find. We found the salem witch trials museum but didn't want to pay to go in so we just took a picture from the outside. Plus, it looked kinda creepy so I figured it was best to stay outside the museum. I think I would have just freaked myself out if I went in. 

Anyway, we walked all around the area and didn't see much at all. The only cool things I saw were a Harry Potter store, a sweet trolley, the graveyard of the people of Salem in the 1600's, and a beautiful old church that they turned into a Boys and Girls Club. Overall, Salem was ok. We didn't love it but we were glad we went.

 

Tomorrow? Off to another interview in Norwell, MA. This is for a kids gym this time which might be kind of cool. Then, off to see the grandparents in New Bedford. Oh, but before that Teej really wants to see Plymouth Rock so I think we will take a detour to see that first before seeing the grandparents. Should be a fun day! 

Sorry for such a long post! Thanks for reading! 

Love to all....

Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth - a stranger, not your own lips. Prov. 27:2

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you are both facing some really promising job opportunities...so exciting!

    ReplyDelete