Coolest place to work? Check.

Tonight at 7pm eastern time I embarked on what hopefully will be the coolest employment experience ever. I went to Apple for a hiring seminar. Attending this was an honor in and of itself since they had to accept your resume to come. I arrived around 6:40 and saw around 30 people and thought to myself "alright this is cool". When 7 o'clock rolled around there was a total of 120 people there who were in attendance. I was in my khaki shorts, navy blue tee and rainbows. I was a little intimidated to see people in suits, dresses, etc. but then people came up in normal clothes and I felt a little better.

As we entered the gateway/hallway of Apple employee's cheering us on the night started with a video about employment. Then the hiring manager got up and talked about what it mean to work for Apple. Employees got up and shared testimonies, experiences and why they originally wanted to work for Apple. It was awesome to see such a diverse group of people there in terms of ethnicity, personal styles to even things such as hair color/height.

After a while of introductions and keynote presentations, we broke into smaller groups divided by last name. I was in group "G" which stood for "Garage Band". It was cool because in each group there was two employees. We were given questionnaires to fill out and once that was completed we made a document with our picture, name and 3 fun facts. These were mine:

1. I'm a former gymnast/gymnastics coach
2. I'm in Art School for Graphic Design/Advertising
3. I'm deathly afraid to actually drive through the bank drive throughs for fear of knocking off a mirror.

Once we completed that we printed our pages off and exchanged them with someone in our group. I exchanged with a girl name Amber. Who went to school in Farmville, NC. Where I passed through a few weeks before this which was awesome. It was so cool to be able to talk to someone and know a few things about them just from that piece of paper. She was a Communications major at Longwood University who just graduated. We got to talk to them for about 10 minutes then we got back in our groups and introduced each other. This was awesome. So much fun. It was cool to see the company be really focused on you getting to know the people you could possibly work with. Also just to be around a lot of diverse people knowing we all had one thing in mind. The job. There were people who'd worked on macs their whole life to someone who'd never been in the Apple store before that night.

After all this and a few "hollering" contests, the groups were dismissed. I said my farewells to my group leaders and the manager and ended up talking to a concierge named Lauren for about 10-15 minutes. We talked about the company, small talk, and the like. It was awesome to just be able to talk to someone who worked there for a few minutes to get a feel for what it's like to be employed. I'm looking forward to what happens. Going back to my actual attire for the event, Lauren complimented me on being myself. Standing out and taking it seriously by actually showing who I was. Not just showing up in a suit and TRYING to make a good first impression. She shared her hiring experience and when she went to her interview she showed up in a suit with a briefcase. Later her boss told her that he had a good laugh when she left because he knew that wasn't who she was. She said it was comforting to know that she could've shown up in t-shirt in jeans, she was just too nervous she said hahahaha. It's nice to know that they just want you to be yourself, not someone you're not.

So here's where I go from now. This week I'll get a phone call letting me know one of two things. I either have an interview or not. From there, if I'm successful, I'll have a second and maybe even a third interview. They take their employment seriously and for that I admire them. They said that they've even had someone interview 9 times (I sure hope that's not me!)!
From then, if I get hired, I attend a 3 day training conference and then get store experience. Then I'll hopefully be an employee.

All in all this was a VERY encouraging visit. It was more like a "get to know your new fellow employees" rather than just a seminar. The people are awesome and so is the company. Tonight only made the desire to work for them even greater than before. 

Tall Vanilla Cappuccino and a Coffee Cake please!

So I'm here at Starbucks enjoying my cup of coffee and my cake and I realized something. As I've felt crappy all week with feeling sick, work has been awful, and just the restless few nights I've had, something dawned on me. Last night we were talking about Patience. It was so cool to see all the kids be honest and really inspired me to be honest. I'm not really a patient person. Especially when it comes to things I want. This whole thing with Apple has been a real test of my own patience. For those of you who don't know, I've been applying for a job at Apple since November of 2008. I've turned in 5 applications and had my resume referred 4 times. I had finally given up on it until last saturday I decided to go in and see what kind of headway I could make in terms of getting a job. I went in and the hiring manager wasn't there. I was beyond frustrated in the 20 minutes it took to get home. So after a somewhat "vent" session with my mom, I went upstairs. I decided to talk to the big man upstairs.

After my conversation with God, explaining my frustration, my annoyance, and my sheer lack of any form of patience about it he kind of smacked me in the face. I had realized that it was BEYOND pointless to be impatient. A few things happened after that in terms of activities and then that night I got an email from Apple saying that my resume was chosen and I'm attending a hiring seminar this sunday.

The way that God tests us is uncanny sometimes. I was only reminded of that today in my Art History class. We were talking about a painting where the painter depicted two different stories from the New Testament. The first depiction was when Jesus told the fishers to cast their nets on the other side to catch fish. The next was when Jesus told Peter to have faith and walk to him on the water.

Both of these stories have to do with faith. The fishers were so used to doing things their way that for them to change would be seen as absurd by some. For Peter, it was the decision to trust Jesus and have faith, or drown. Now the fishers caught more fish than ever. But Peter on the other hand had a less successful journey. He was walking on the water and had the slightest bit of doubt and got scared, guess what? We all know, he fell in the water.

I always find it so interesting how sometimes God will let things happen to us in a way that will remind us that he's still in control. A way that we can be at our lowest point, that we realize he's the only thing to bring us back up. Now I know that these are two different extremes in terms of walking on water and getting a job at Apple. But they're based off the same principles. Trust. Have faith. Be patient. Know who's in control. And believe that God's got your best interest in mind. Which he always does.

Rain

I find rain so relaxing. It's raining outside right now and I love it. But it's a quiet rain. One that's not making too much noise or too little. Just the right amount. I think the reason I like rain is because of the fact that I see it as nature's way of cleansing itself. As heat/humidity comes, rain takes all of that nastiness and says "I got your back, let me cool things off for a minute". Now there's also quite a few types of rain. More so what we see in NC is the thunderstorm. Living closer to the coast, than say Colorado, we see a lot of rain especially during the summer/fall transition. Yup you got it, during the middle/tail end of hurricane season. I love it. Nothing is more soothing than hearing rain as you fall asleep. Nothing is more enjoyable than a cup of hot tea and a book on a rainy day, or sitting down and watching a movie with friends.

I think that rain brings back a lot of memories with people for me. It brings back times where I've let the rain control my emotions to when I'm forced to be inside as a kid and be creative when I was younger. I used to hate rain. I used to always go into my parents room when I heard thunder and sleep in their bed. Did that until I was about 8. Then I started to realize the creation that rain is. It really can show the power of God and the might that he has. Also the control he has. In Genesis, God lets rain waters cover the earth as a cleansing agent to what evil came to the world. Utterly terrifying? Yes. Imagine with me for a moment. Every nook, every cranny, filled with water. The Grand Canyon filled. All trenches in the oceans now deeper than they are now. Incredible. Now at a different angle. Every mountain, covered. Every skyscraper, under water. The Sears tower, the Eiffel tower, Mount Everest, all completely submerged in that blue blanket of water. I can only begin to think of what Noah was thinking when the waters started rising. Was it an "I'm sure glad we're all in this boat"? Or was it a "Oh crap."

If you've ever been to a youth group at a contemporary church then you've probably heard of Nooma. Rob Bell has this one Nooma that talks about rain. He begins to talk about how Him and his baby son (at that point) were walking in the woods on a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. Then the storm clouds rolled in. Water poured from every corner. Every blade of grass was soaked. The whole time he was comforting his son. Saying it's okay, we're almost home. That picture of a father comforting his son is so prominent when it rains for me.

Knowing that God's got my back when things get hairy. When thunder rolls in and lightning is striking all around. I can always hear God saying, "I'm here, we're almost home."

First Post

This is the first post on the official "Schindler's List". I must say that blogging is going to be a little weird. I've always kept a journal and have always written down my thoughts. It's been a crazy couple months in the life of Brian Schindler. I've now decided to go to Art School at CPCC (instead of ASU next fall), couldn't be more excited about it that's for sure. I've recently been chosen to attend a meet/greet conference at Apple this sunday. Hopefully I'll get the job. Still helping out with the Junior High at Church At Charlotte and can't wait for the upcoming beach retreat that I planned with Cedric yesterday. All in all things are going great. Who knows, maybe I'll get better at this whole thing.