How does the credit default affect a graduate job?

Should I try for a recommendation or look elsewhere for work?

• I am a middle aged man working in the retail industry. I could tell you how I got into this line of work. Part of it was because I left my last full time job to work for a small business that went under. Now I am trying to work my own business and working a second job to supplement my income. I also continue to look for a full time job. One of the questions I am asked is "are there any opportunities to work there full time?" Its complicated. In order to apply for an opportunity within the company, I need a recommendation from a supervisor. I work there on call so my supervisor is the Human Resources Manager. He knows that I have been working closely over the holiday season with one particular department manager and told me to see her for the recommendation. Only trouble is, that department manager is a jerk. She is nasty and mean. All of the sales people hate her. Over the weekend, I had an incident with her in which she stepped on my foot, pinched me, and scratched me over a pricing issue with a customer. It got me so angry I am debating whether to report the incident. I had found out about a pending opportunity at another store owned by the company. But in order to apply for that job, I need a manager's recommendation, which would mean a recommendation from this department manager. Performance wise, this manager has been riding me about my lack of performance. I am not bringing in enough company credit cards. My sales are slacking compared to my co-workers. Because I only work there on call, it is hard for me to get into the groove of selling and it is my first sales job. The customers find that I am helpful and personable but what that means is that I am easily pushed over when it comes to pricing issues and customers take advantage of my good nature. The most successful sales persons in the store are able to turn the liking part into more sales and more credit applications done for them. The store as a whole has been affected by petty office politics. Since working there for three years, I have seen five store managers come and go. When new store managers come on board, department managers are shuffled around to different departments. Several managers have been fired, transferred to jobs at other store locations within the company, or simply quit. I have been shy to ask this department manager for a recommendation to apply for promotions from within the company. Now with the incident that happened over the weekend, I am letting this affect me. When I go to job interviews elsewhere, I do not list that I am working on call at my present job. When I wasn't working at all I was asked "are you currently working?" Now I am asked "is this full time?" Its as if they are asking me to confirm what they already have taken steps to find out. Unlike most companies, my store does not have a hiring freeze. There are opportunities but usually the jobs are filled by people who work at other stores and often the jobs are filled by people off the street who are friends of the managers. I suspect that the managers are using head hunters and getting paid to place these people. That's the rumor. My college degree is in Communications. I thought that working in sales and getting sales experience might lead me to getting into management. Since getting my bachelor's degree, I have worked a series of office jobs doing clerical work and went back to school to get two master's degrees, including my MBA. I make minimum wage and no commissions. If I was to do this full time, its not a job that I dreamed about getting when I was going to college, or even graduate school. At this point, I am simply scouring the job sites like Monster and Indeed and applying for any job that is open to just about anyone and trying to convince the hiring manager that this particular job is what I have always wanted to do all of my life. When I go for interviews, I arrive all dressed up in a suit and tie and usually interview with a hiring manager who is dressed in a tee shirt and jeans and we go into an office that smells like a garage. When I am working in the store, I get through the days working there by cracking jokes. That's because most of the people I work with are constantly laughing at me. For a while, I was living at home and trying to run my small business, trying to save money. But my stepfather convinced my mother to sell the family home and now I am living off of my savings in a one bedroom apartment. I am so poor at this point that I had to get my stepfather to cosign my lease.

• Answer:

  Go to a staffing company. They can work with you and help you find a career in what you want to do. The job market isn't easy now, but you have to pay the rent. Make sure you find a good staffing company to help you.