Very confused - money, vacation w/ SO, school!

[HeartInTexas]

Hello once again, LFAD. I am extremely confused and probably stressing more than I need to. I am such a knucklehead and embarrassed of this situation. I've asked each of my friends already, and my SO is sleeping so I can't talk to him right now. I'd really like your opinions ASAP due to my interview in the morning (which I'll explain in just one moment).

Okay, so let's hop back to August of this year when my college courses began. I saw this flight to Texas for December and it was pretty cheap, so my SO bought it for me. It's for Dec. 12th-Jan 16th, since hey, I'm a college kid and that's one of my longest vacations. FYI, I do not have a job and I have never had one. All I have are my internships as experience.

But turns out, financial aid didn't have enough info from me. So I spent the past 2 months going in and out of that awful office waiting in an obnoxious line every time. Even now, I still haven't gotten my money for this semester, and I can't apply for book advances or it will kick me out of my classes. I live with my mom who is having financial problems as well, so I've been trying to share what little money I have with her too. I live with her, so my bills are much less than they should be. But still, I got bills to pay!

So, I've been applying for part time jobs all of August in hopes I'd get something that works around my school schedule. Well it came time to pay bills this month and I had no money for them, so I had to close my savings account and use a lot of that this month. So basically, I have no financial aid and no job, so a week or two ago I started applying for full time and listing that I'd have any day available. I was really in a panic and I was getting desperate. I figured I could drop my courses this semester and take them again next semester (I didn't drop them yet, FYI! Just in case...). That way, I could get back on my feet financially and hopefully all of my info would be through by next semester so I could get more financial aid.

Well, an employee at Subway, oddly enough...Sent me a PM on Facebook telling me his boss says I have an interview at 1pm tomorrow (technically today since it's 1am here). I really regret that I wasn't thinking things out, but I immediately replied that I would be there.

So basically, I said yes to an interview knowing that I have a 1 month long vacation in December, and my hair is purple (another thing I wasn't worried about when I got it done back in July since I had no internships or jobs concerning me at the time). But honestly, the employees and boss know I have purple hair, so maybe that's not such a biggy? But the vacation definitely is!

I simply don't know what to do and feel embarrassed that I managed to get myself into this situation. Some people tell me I should just tell the manager everything when I get my interview. Other people say I shouldn't mention it in the interview. Then there's those who tell me I should make up some sort of lie or that I could just simply quit after 2 months. I don't want to be rude to them though.

I really don't want to have to cancel the vacation to see my SO just so I can work at Subway either, especially since there's no refunds. Should I just tell them at the interview? How would I word it? Should I reply to the employee on Facebook that I can't go? How would I word that too? Maybe I could adjust the vacation to 1 week, would that still be a no-go for working at Subway? Then again, I really don't want to shorten my time with my SO.

Thanks to those who read and also those who reply!

[Dezface]

Don't tell them you have a vacation planned and quit. Yeah, it sounds rude. But honestly, those places have a very high turnover rate any way. If you tell them you'll be needing a month off, I doubt they'll hire you. Good luck with whatever you decide to do

[HeartInTexas]

Thank you, Dezface.
Let's say I did decide to not mention the vacation and then quit before I left to Texas...Should it be 2 weeks in advance that I tell them I'm quitting? How exactly do you tell a manager you're quitting? What should you say? Do you call them? Do you need to give them a reason?
Would I have to list it on my resume if I apply to other jobs later? A friend of mine said it'd be a good idea to include it on my resume, even if quitting the job made me look bad, simply because I lack real job experience.

(I'm so ignorant about the real world!).

[rubydissolution]

I've worked for a few major companies at this point, and they appreciate someone who is open and honest about their life. I would tell them you have a planned vacation in December. Because while places like Subway do have a high turnover rate, you will not be able to put them on any job applications you put in after you quit. Bc then it looks like you had a job for a month and quit. That doesn't look good to future employers. You could say, ur visiting family (not technically a lie) for the month. You are a college student, a lot of employers are used to losing their help for a month around the time you are leaving anyway. They tend to take those employees back right after winter break.

[Black_Halloween]

I've worked for a few major companies at this point, and they appreciate someone who is open and honest about their life. I would tell them you have a planned vacation in December. Because while places like Subway do have a high turnover rate, you will not be able to put them on any job applications you put in after you quit. Bc then it looks like you had a job for a month and quit. That doesn't look good to future employers. You could say, ur visiting family (not technically a lie) for the month. You are a college student, a lot of employers are used to losing their help for a month around the time you are leaving anyway. They tend to take those employees back right after winter break.

I agree 100% with this. Honestly what would you do when you come back and you have to start job searching all over again? I've been job searching for over a year (yep, that's right! I've had 5 interviews and NADA!) You couldn't really put Subway on your resume because it'll look flaky that you quit after two months. Just be honest with them and i'm sure they'll work something out for you. As for your hair, i'm sure it won't be a problem at all.

PLEASE do not pass up this opportunity, jobs are so hard to come by these days.

[Haley53]

I've worked for a few major companies at this point, and they appreciate someone who is open and honest about their life. I would tell them you have a planned vacation in December. Because while places like Subway do have a high turnover rate, you will not be able to put them on any job applications you put in after you quit. Bc then it looks like you had a job for a month and quit. That doesn't look good to future employers. You could say, ur visiting family (not technically a lie) for the month. You are a college student, a lot of employers are used to losing their help for a month around the time you are leaving anyway. They tend to take those employees back right after winter break.

I agree with this. I was always taught that you should be straight forward, and the people saying you shouldn't put on your resume are right. Any future employers would likely grill you about it, and, quite frankly, depending on how willing you are to lie, there's going to be very little that is going to look like good reason to have quit after only 2 months. I have heard that you should work somewhere at least several months, and ideally a full year, before putting it down on your resume, otherwise it's a red flag to a potential lack of commitment, which is never the message you want to send.

What makes it tricky is this situation with saying you have availability any time when, in fact, you have classes... Employers should be used to students and I, as ruby suggested, would simply say you had a month visit planned to family between x- and y-dates and have had it planned since z-time ago; you're also a student, so your opportunities to visit are limited. The problem is essentially saying you weren't a student/that you have availability full-time. To respond to that, I would simply explain your situation about financial aid and what times you have classes at currently but you might have to drop them due to the issues the financial aid is having etc. I would be honest about everything, frankly, without admitting that you were careless in applying and without saying "oh, I'm going to visit my boyfriend btw" and hopefully you could secure a job after the holidays when you come back.

[Yellowsilver]

I'd definitely tell the employer that you already have the ticket. Always go with the truth because believe it or not, that could affect in future jobs.
Good luck!

[HeartInTexas]

You don't think it would sound like some sort of sob story that my financial aid hasn't been working out? I'm nervous of sounding like I only want the money. Won't I come off as confused or unsure of what I want out of life and maybe seem like a turn off as an employee? Maybe I'm thinking too deeply about this?

A friend of mine was in high school when he got an interview though. He wrote "Any" for everything like I did. The interviewer was just like, "Don't you have school?" and my friend was instantly embarrassed because it slipped his mind, but still managed to get the job! So I'm going to try to be hopeful and positive...

[Yellowsilver]

Well, you do need the money so I Don't think it will sound like a sob story.
Positive vibes your way!

[Dezface]

Well I'm just going off of my personal experience. I managed a Cold Stone for a couple years and I would definitely not have hired someone who needed a month off. If they quit on me after a couple months, then oh well. You could try telling them when you put in your two weeks(yes, always give notice) that you have an oppurtunity to visit someone that you jus can't pass up. If you frame it right it's possible they would agree to rehire you when you return.

I think the people at Subway know you're working there for the money. No one's life long goal is to make sandwiches. Trust me, I did that too! Lol when I was hiring I wanted people that would show up and do their job, no matter what their motivation.

As far as putting it on your resume, there's pros and cons. The pro being it gives you experience, the con being it will show you quit after a couple months.

[HeartInTexas]

So...Apparently when I arrived, they had me re-fill out the same app that I filled out in the first place to apply...So I had the chance to alter my schedule on the app to my school hours. He questioned me about it, and said he might be able to work around it.

I am thinking I won't get the job though. They're actually over-hiring so that they can move some employees over to the new Subway that's opening soon and then they can train more new employees there. Everyone is getting about 14-20hrs a week, which technically does work around my schedule for school. However, they're not sure about my trip, especially since they are wanting to move the employees to another store to train more people.

Oh well, thank you all so much for helping thus far!