Well, I'm glad that's done

I got a job and I haven't even graduated yet.

We had our senior field trip yesterday, whereby those of us that are about to graduate take a tour of several salons in town to both get an idea of where we want to work and make possible employment inroads. After cruising through several salons (and cruising is the operative word as most of those places barely offered the time to glance in our direction), I decided to take up the salon manager at SmartStyles on her offer.

A few weeks back I ran into Rhonda, the aforementioned manager, at Walmart (curiously enough, this is also where SmartStyles is located). She basically offered me a job on the spot but I deferred until I was closer to graduation (Not to sound narcissistic, but men in the cosmetology industry are in high demand. I could completely suck at cutting hair, which I am proud to say I don't, and still make money). Hers was not the only job offer that I entertained either as at least one other salon made an offer of employment directly to me. But after looking over my prospects, I decided to take the SmartStyles job for a variety of reasons.

First of all, they came to me. That speaks volumes in terms of sincerity. Rhonda laid it out pure and simple: she wanted me to work there, no questions asked. Most other places practically told me to put up a security deposit before they would even consider interviewing me.

Second, the foot traffic is very, very high. I stopped by there the other day and, at 9 in the morning, there was a line of people waiting. This is a very good thing. High traffic is one of the key ingredients to success in this profession.

Third, and this ties into the previous reason, I stand to make a ton of money. Like most places, SmartStyles works on commission sales. Which, if you are fresh out of school, can be a huge detriment. But since they have enormous traffic (and its on a first come, first served basis), I'm am assured of staying busy. Combine that with my ability to bust out a really nice haircut in about 30 minutes and I will pull in the equivalent of about $30 an hour.

Finally, I can build my clientele. I will own my own barber shop one day and to have any kind of success with my own business I need clients. And it takes about 6 months to a year to build a steady reliable client base. There are some opportunities right now where I could purchase an existing barber shop and make it my own. But I would run the risk of going under before I even got a chance to start because I won't have a large enough client base to support even my most basic expenses. This way, I can build up a hundred or so clients and then have them follow me to my own place.

So, the job search is over and I really didn't even put in that much effort. I signed the paperwork today and will start two days after I graduate. Now, how often do you hear that in the post graduate world?