Well, I took the leap and left Dublin and made my way to beautiful Galway. It's about 2.5 hours west of Dublin on the west coast and I boarded the bus yesterday afternoon and arrived safe and sound. It's a popular destination for tourists and students and reminds me of a Irish-version of my Stratford...but it's a tad bigger in population - approx. 75,0000.
As many had informed me, Galway is a great place to reside in and work but, due to the fact that the economy is still rebuilding itself and it's mainly a summer tourist place, you have to be very open to any type of work and be very proactive in terms of going door-to-door to find work. So, being the determined person that I am, as soon as I checked into my hostel I was out the door within in 5 minutes going place to place handing out CV's. I focused on the pubs, cafes and restaurants first and then today and tomorrow I will focus on the retailers and even the hostels. Seeing I'm from a small town, being very friendly and personable are key personality attributes so even if places weren't hiring, I thanked them for their time and moved onto the next place. Some places even recommended other pubs or restaurants to go to that were hiring which I found very helpful. The pub district was quite confusing so I pretty much walked around in circles but there was literally a pub or cafe within an arms reach it seems. Overall I handed out all 20 CV's I had in my folder.
As I was on my way back to the hostel (once I figured out where I was) my phone rang and the owner of one of the pubs called and asked me to come back as he was out when I handed my CV to the bartender. Note to self: write down the names of the pubs in which you hand your CV out to because you don't sound smart when you don't know which pub they are referring. He was quite friendly and tried his best to give me directions back to where they were located. The funny thing about Irish people is that if something is more than 5 min walk away, they think its 'out of the way' but I assured him I could come back. After walking tracing my steps back to the area things were getting a bit more confusing. Luckily, an older man saw that I was lost and asked if I needed help and after trying to explain where I was to go, he believed the pub I needed to go to was right behind me. He then asked where I was from and why I was here and he was so happy to hear my story. He said one year ago he was in Canada and loved it because the people are much like the Irish. He hugged me goodbye and wished me all the best. :)
I met with the owner of Dail Pub (missing the accent on the 'a'), and we chatted a bit about my serving experience and my marketing experience. He was impressed with my resume and skills and told me I would fit in well at his place. He owned two pubs in the district and said he needed a server right away as one of the girls was moving to Australia on Sunday. He said every Canadian he has ever hired has been great and wanted me to start right away. :) So, I have to go back to the pub around dinnertime tonight and meet with the supervisor but the owner said that he'd pretty much just tell him to hire me. I'm trying not to put my eggs all in one basket but just hoping for the best. A few of the pubs were hiring in the area so we will see if I get any callbacks today.
I also just spoke with the owner of the hostel I'm staying at and they are looking for people at reception. He also said he may need some help with some marketing/promotions but it would be more project based and not full time until the busy season. All I can do is be proactive and hit the pavement everyday looking for work. Some haven't found any work because they wait for people to call them or just search for jobs online but if I've learned anything from the cut-throat world of marketing and living in a small town, you have to get out there and market yourself.
Other than that, I'm just walking around the city a lot, picked up a laptop charger (forgot it in Dublin...oops) and trying to meet as many people as possible. I spoke to a fellow Canadian who works at the front desk yesterday of the hostel who is also doing the same visa program as I am. He's leaving for Scotland next month as he's been here for 8 months already. He said it's actually harder for guys to find jobs than women before I started handing out CV's and when I told him about my interview after I got back he just laughed and shook his head because he tried for a month to find a bartender's position in Galway when he first moved here.
I'm really hoping something works out this week in terms of employment because I just want to get settled into a city soon and I'm praying that city is Galway because I already love it. It just feels like a bit of home to me but we will see what happens.
Tonight I might meet up with a flatmate of mine, Yuki (Japanese if you can't tell). We both had to move out of the room today as there are two large groups here this weekend (I could definitely hear them last night) and so I'm here for another, staying in a different hostel tomorrow night, and then back at this hostel for 7 more nights...like Yuki. I helped her out with her CV today as she's not completely fluent in English and has been here for 2 weeks looking for work but I don't think she's been very proactive. With my picky English writing skills I think we fixed up her CV pretty well.
Well I guess that's it for now. I might venture out soon and take some pictures and drop off a few more CV's. I think I might open a Flickr account to upload all my photos as I'm sure some back home would like to see the beautiful landscape of Ireland. I will have to go back to Dublin eventually to get my luggage that USIT is storing for me and get a residency card. Luckily, I can pop on the bus and do that all in one day likely. I guess I should have gotten a residency card when I was there but I didn't really know what my plans were going to be moving forward.
Until then...thanks for following along and hope everyone is doing well back home. xoxo
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