How Cartoon Network Got Me A Job (Sorta)

The title of this tale will make sense shortly. First let us set up just how I got here.

As many here know, I have been out of work for at least 2 years, from the time my father passed away. My last somewhat meaningful employment opportunity was with the US Census and while it was good money, it was predictably short lived. The last few months have been a process of applying for a retail job and awaiting word to see if I would get a call back. And the people looking to hire have at that point not disappointed me in failing to return said calls. It's a sucky feeling; even if you do have the experience needed to get the job, they will not hire you for unspecidfied reasons. I blame a lack of a college degree, which I now seek to correct soon.

Cut to this January: I get a call from my housing authority rep. The policy that they have is about to be enforced and I'm officially put on notice that if I do not get a job or commit a certain amount of time to do volunteer work, I will be removed from the apartment. Understandably this puts a lot of pressure on me, as I already feel bad enough about my failure to get a job at that point and not doing enough to help with the house expenses, this ball of joy drops on my lap. Swell, they may as well have just punted me in the balls and gotten it over wth. I find myself now splitting time with writing and job searching and it just seemed to get dimmer and dimmer...

Until a couple of weeks ago. I get a call from my Workforce-1 rep that the local Toys R Us is looking for new hires and set me up for an appointment, less than 24 hours after my previous interview with Express, a clothing store, in Brooklyn. The next day, it's a group interview environment and I find myself in an interesting situation, as the manager reveals that the store has one of the hugest turnaround rates in the area. In other words, they have a high standard of work ethics and do not like people slacking off very much. Then came one of the tasks we were given: pitch a product to the HR manager that was evaluating us. And we had 20 minutes to find something.

My philosophy in life when it comes to work is 'stick with what you know' and I know games. And comics. And toys. Oh and movies. But for the moment lets focus on the first. I walked into the Video Game section, scanning my eyes in the bargin bin, looking for any game I had some working knowledge of, which could help me in some way. As I looked in the Wii section I saw Tetris Party and briefly considered using that. And that's when it happened: an old friend caught my eye. Which old friend?



Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL.

With not that many options left, I grabbed it and made my way back to the office, where everyone else has either grabbed diapers, Leapfrog products or random Lego sets. When it came my turn to pitch the product, I fell back on all my knowledge of the game, as well as Cartoon Network trivia and the hours I logged in to playing this rather average game, to really sell it. I even cracked a joke concerning a certain CN classic:

HR Manager: Are there any other shows that are represented?
Me: Just the ones that I mentioned. But there was demand for Ed Edd and Eddy, but the programmers just said "We can't put them in the game, stop bugging us already!"

Just how quickly was I confirmed to get the job? Oh about 2 hours later, give or take.

So, essentially, I am now working for Toys R Us in Northern Blvd because of the fact that I have deep knowledge of a network that has for the last 4 years done a good job pissing us off and I owe some debt to a game that is essentially an average Smash Bros clone. Talk about insane luck.

Of course, now it means not only I will stay at home, but I can also focus on returning to school and get my degree before going to a 4 year school. It also means I can FINALLY get a damn 3DS (I'm still split on the whole Xbox 360 or PS3 thing).

The moral of this, aside from never give up hope? CARTOONS ARE A LIFE SAVER.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc0q5x…