My New York City Experience Part 1

MY NEW YORK CITY EXPERIENCE: June 3, 2022

I debated making this blog, but when I was reminiscing with my mom the other day, I realized this experience is a true testament to God's timing and how everything happens for a reason. Had this part of my life not happened, it would not have set me up for where I am today. As chaotic as it was and how stressed out I felt the whole time, God had it all under control the whole time.

When I graduated college in 2018 with a degree in Journalism, I was still working at K92. I loved my job, but I was ready to take my degree and try my hand at something in television or something in New York City. Or I could do both! That summer, I applied to dozens of jobs in broadcast, public relations and communications in NYC, and it was a big, fat flub. However, I did get one bite: to be a production assistant at Fox News. Oh, the confidence I had to believe I'd get that job. It was the first weekend of September, and I took the train up to the city for an in-person interview. The first part of the interview was on the phone. It was pretty generic: career aspirations, past experience, etc. I did it in my PJs from the hotel:

The girl on the phone told me that I'd have to take a current events quiz during the interview, so as soon as we hung up, I turned on Fox News. It was during the Kavanaugh hearing, so I paid close attention to what they were talking about. I felt confident I could write an essay about the hearing, so I changed out of my PJs and headed to the Fox News headquarters:

The in-person interview went great! We bonded over our love of UVA (well, moreso my dad's love for UVA), and I felt confident the job was mine. She goes, "Alrighty, well, before you leave, we're going to give you a quick current events quiz."

Y'all.

This "quiz" was 40 questions, fill-in the blank answers, and there was a 20-minute time limit. I knew nothing on the quiz. It was anything from "Name the members of the United Nations" to "What is the capital of Iran?" to showing the outline of a country and asking me to name it. I flunked. It was dreadful. I left so defeated. In fact, I still had a handful of resumes with me so I walked to several of the companies I had applied to online and straight up handed out my resumes to the security officers at the front desks and asked them to get them to the hiring managers. I was desperate, my feet had blisters, and my phone was almost dead. I took a taxi to my hotel and got ready for dinner with a girl I knew who lived there. I rode the train back home the next day. Needless to say, I never heard back from Fox News.

I decided that I was going to move to New York City in November, with or without a job. On October 19, I took the first step in this dream becoming a reality and gave my two-weeks notice to K92. My last day was on November 2, and on November 4, I got an email that a job I had applied to at the SoHo House in NYC wanted to bring me in for an in-person interview...tomorrow morning. The job was to be a club receptionist at their Chelsea location. The best way to describe the SoHo House is that it is a fancy country club for rich New Yorkers and celebrities. My job would be to check membership cards, make reservations and keep things orderly at the front desk. Sure, it wasn't in broadcast, but it was a foot in the door, and I needed something.

So with the interview being the next day at 10 a.m., I hit the road within an hour of getting the email. I was driving to NYC with nowhere to stay and no idea if I was making the right decision. I cried the first hour. I felt like the timing had to be a God thing, but also, was I just settling for this?

Thankfully, I had a friend who lived in Brooklyn who let me crash at her apartment that night. It was pouring down raining the morning of the interview, and it was about a 45-minute commute to get from Brooklyn to Chelsea. I took this pic in the bathroom to show my mom I had made it safe and sound:

As it turned out, I wasn't the only person getting interviewed. There were about 20 of us sitting in the theater room taking turns. It was a two-part interview, and the questions were pretty base-level. I felt really good about it, and they told me we'd be in contact soon.

I headed back to Brooklyn to get my car and drive back to Lynchburg. What a whirlwind. I remember being an hour out from home, and my mom said she would have pot roast waiting for me. I remember feeling sad that I wouldn't get a home-cooked meal for awhile if I moved to New York.

The next day, I received the call: I was hired! But they needed me to start the following Tuesday. Keep in mind, this was one week away, and I didn't have an apartment. I threw caution to the wind and booked an AirBnB for the week starting Monday. I figured I could spend the week finding an apartment, sign the papers by Friday, drive home for the weekend to pack all my stuff in a U-Haul, and then I'd be moved in by Sunday night. As I type that, I am literally shaking my head with how easy I thought that would be. Oh, Young Taylor. If you only knew....

TO BE CONTINUED