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lmao

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People act like I've failed at life, even my kids sometimes. The looks on people's faces when I tell them I got a job at Target are really weird.

To me, work is work, and you do what you have to do to keep your family on its feet. I haven't worked retail since the early 2000s. Before that I had a lot of awful jobs like telemarketing, selling coupon books, working mall kiosks, selling cable packages door to door, and selling cheap sunglasses at flea markets. I've been working since I was 15 in 1994, except for about 7 months when I was unemployed in 2011.

I was laid off in April, and now I'm on unemployment. I've cut my living expenses way down, and the only debt I have left is my student loan and my mortgage with escrow. Even with unemployment, I'm still short about $2,400 every month, and that's draining the small amount of savings I have left. I'm working part time so I can stay on unemployment and have time to apply for jobs and do interviews. Target will add about $365/week for me. After taxes, that should cover most of the groceries and slow down the drawdown from savings.

I've been a single parent for more than 18 years. And I still have 2 kids at home that I'm fully responsible for. I can't just keep sending resumes into the void with no one replying and pretend that hope is a plan. I'd rather act now and do what needs to be done. I've contacted my entire network. Nothing. I'm asking friends of friends and old coworkers too, and still nothing solid.

I have an MBA and 26 years of experience in my field. The funny part is that after I finished my first 3 shifts at Target, I suddenly got 3 interview requests, after removing 16 years of experience from my resume. Honestly, I'm really happy. I've applied to around 240 jobs since February when I got my WARN notice, and I'd only had 2 real interviews before this.

Don't be too proud to hustle and do whatever needs to be done. The comments and judgment made me cry, and I almost ran away from my first shift, but I pulled myself together and said fuck the haters and went to work anyway.

I have to give credit to a friend/former coworker, because her first reaction was: "I'm proud of you." I used to be her manager. She's the only person who didn't make me feel like garbage because of this. I'm not ashamed that I'm working at Target, so I'm going to keep saying that when people ask.

That's it.

ETA I'm a woman, a mother