From Two Months of Back Rent to Owning My Own Home
by Julie McNeeley
The best and most nerve wracking thing in a new job or career is the first day of work. There’s so much promise and possibility in the unknown. New goals and hopes of all you wish to accomplish with the uncertainty of what you’ll be able to achieve. Am I cut out for this job? Will I be as good as the people I hear about here? What if I can’t meet the expectations set by the company? All these things went through my head on the first day of the job. “What if?”
I remember my first day very clearly. I walked into the Gilbert building on a Tuesday morning along with 14 other individuals all with the same first-day feeling. We were asked to put on a piece of paper what we hoped to accomplish in this job, what our first goal was. My goal of wanting a new car my have seemed rather simplistic to someone else. But with what I had been through before being what I consider “saved” by GoDaddy, it meant everything to me.
Only a few months before on October 26th 2013, I went to work to discover that the company had shut down the Arizona office. All the employees were greeted with an unemployment packet to fill out and a final check. I filled out all the necessary information in order to receive my benefits but it took 8 long weeks before I was to receive a single cent. I was out of work the entire time and after 4 weeks, I got a $14/hour job to make something. It wasn’t enough to pay my rent for the next month. My car wasn’t working and I had to borrow a car from my dad. He couldn’t help much more but he did what he could by loaning me his 10+ year old car. I had to find a job close by. All factors involved I did the only thing I could do, and I put a title loan on my Dad’s car that he trusted me to put in my name while I made payments to him for the rental of his vehicle. It was only worth $2,000 and on black Friday with no way of paying back this loan, I took out the loan hoping something would work out in my favor. And I’m glad I had the faith, because something did.
On December 9th 2013, I had my interview with GoDaddy. That same week my unemployment for the past 8 weeks came through. I was to start the next month with GoDaddy and had enough from my unemployment to make the payments to the car loan but not much more after catching up on 2 months of rent by this point.
After my first day on January 14th 2014, I felt like there was hope. The staff was incredible. And there was an overwhelming amount of information for me to absorb but I didn’t care. I had a job and I was surrounded by great people. I felt like it was the beginning of something different and amazing. I had no idea where I would be a year down the road or in a couple years but I hoped it would be somewhere amazing.
On March 6th 2014, I walked into the dealership to walk out with my 2014 Ford Escape, the exact vehicle that I had wanted when I had no idea how I could afford it. For the next year I spent every pay period excited for the next and always looking to learn more. In the first year I caught up on debt I owed, which is a really amazing experience and an accomplishment I’m truly proud of.
As I sit at my desk now on July 25th 2016 writing this, I wait for the final paperwork to come through for me to purchase my first home. Here I am buying my own home, completely on my own as a result of the hard work and dedication I feel for this wonderful company. Coming from my last resort of taking a loan out on a borrowed vehicle and being two months behind on rent with no job to being approved for my own home, I can honestly say, GoDaddy has saved me. It’s possible.
Julie is based in Tempe, AZ. She’s one of the phenomenal humans working at GoDaddy. #GoDaddyLife #GoDaddyBrave
