No more procrastinating

Ok, time to get posting. For real. So, one of our lovely ladies has landed herself a job, and I still don't know how she did it yet. I will try to get Lisa back on here ( since I am assuming that she will not be frequenting this blog anymore) and have her give us a lowdown of how she chose her job, and how it's panning out! Exciting!

A woman at my work has been inspiring me to not just look for different work, but to really follow my dreams, no matter how far out they seem. In just a few weeks she has perfected a recipee for vegan peanut butter fudge, and every day she comes in with a new batch for us to try. All she has left to do is get it approved and start selling it on a web site! How cool is that? It all started by her being frustrated at the lack of good vegan fudge. It is so good!

So - I bounced some ideas off her regarding a book that I have wanted to write. I want to write a knitting book, but it is really hard for people that don't knit to imagine that a knitting book would sell. So far, she is one of the few people that thinks I have a good idea. But, she is on her way to a great side business, so she probably understands the frustration I feel. I am sure she heard, "Do vegans eat fudge" or "there aren't many vegans out there, that is a pretty limited market" or "Vegan fudge will taste like crap/rubber". Honestly, and I consider myself a fudge expert - her fudge is awesome. I would totally buy it, and I am not a vegan. So, maybe it just takes getting started for people to take you seriously.

In addition to continuing to look for different work and studying for my licensure exam, I am also slowly writing the first few chapters of a knitting book. I am really starting to get excited as this is not a pattern book, or a humor book, but a really cool book about knitting that I will provide details about elsewhere. I think I have a pretty good market, and I am super-excited. I hope to have the text done by the end of the year. Oh yeah, and a publisher.

Hiatus OK

I'm cool with going on hiatus for a while. I suspect I might post occasionally during the next few months, but it certainly won't be regular.

Update: I read through Parachute but didn't do all the exercises. Now I will go through more thoroughly and do them, and really get into this. I knew I would slack for a while working as a clerk at the Shoppe...it's easy to relax for a while and fall into it...but I knew (I know) that it is not a place to be long term...it's just nice to have a small income to cover the essential bills (and that's about all). I have applied for three openings over the course a few weeks...so we'll see. I would like to find a job some way other than answering ads, like contacting a direct choice...Also, I didn't get the job I had hoped for (DTP of translated text) but I do actually understand why. As much as I'm sure I could learn quickly to pick up the programs I don't know, I realize they wanted someone with more recent experience in more programs that I had. Oh well.

Bad Moderator, no cookie.

Sorry for the lack of posting. 2 more weeks 'till I can move in, hopefully things will calm down by then. I was thinking - maybe the holidays isn't the best time to do this either, do you think we should put the blog on hiatus and start fresh at the New Year? We could look for ideas in the meantime. I think that might be the best option for me right now, not that I care if everyone else wants to blog away, but I am not going to be able to keep up with posting regularly I am afraid until after the season. Sound good? Let me know.

chpt 2: using the Internet for job hunting

(the best thing about this blog and reading Parachute: knowing you're not alone) I know! I can never find anything good on Monster or similar websites. The search thingy that suppose to find a match for you never seems to work, it feels like the only thing I get there is sales rep jobs and that is nothing like what I do or say I want to do.

I did find one job online (the latest one I interviewed for) using Yahoo HotJobs, so we'll see how that pans out. Actually, I found my last job from the same place. (It takes forever though to find something that's a good match, but then how many hundreds of people see that ad too, I wonder how many other applicants they get) But before that I used the MN Women's Press and one time got a job through a friend. Also, I check out MN Council of Nonprofits.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 in What Color is Your Parachute is all about applying for jobs online and how this has changed the way job seekers and employers find one another. I don't know about anyone else, but I often find this process so overwhelming. It is hard to get a good search done, and places like Monster.com rarely have anything available in my field?

Has anyone else had bad/good luck with online job searches? Anyone ever landed a job this way?

Chapter 1

I really did read it! I promise not to be so tardy on future chapters. What I really liked about this chapter is that it helps you to define what you are trying to do. Am I looking for a new career? A similar career? Am I looking to change my life? I found that I am engaging in the life-changing job search. I understand, and am now more comfortable with the fact, that this may take a relatively long time to do. The job search that I am doing is a process, not just a job search. I really want to make sure that before I take the leap to a new career that I am prepared, I know what I am getting into, and that I am choosing a new career because I want to rather than that I just don't want to do what I am now. I am willing to make this life change in career steps as well. For example, I am an administrator for a retirement company. My next step to a drastic career change may be something like an administrator in a non-profit agency, then my ending point would be a social service worker in a non-profit agency. The important thing for me to begin doing is defining my skill set and matching it to my next step.

In addition to this, I would like to expand my contacts to include more social service workers. I think that gaining my licensure will assist me in this, as I will then be able to become a member of professional organizations and take part in more seminars, etc. Reading this book has really helped to calm my anxiety, and quell that voice that screams, "what the heck are you doing with your life, lady??"

hopeful, but reserved

So that job that I applied for as mentioned in my last post called me in for an interview...I decided to try and really prep myself, you know reading books about interviewing and selling yourself etc. So I pulled together a portfolio, had some responses ready and went in. And I was way more prepared than the guy was. I got the feeling that he wasn't comfortable doing interviews and had no idea what to ask or say. So I'm really sure how it went. What they do is very, what's the word, exclusive?, so I think not many people can say they have experience doing that. I am going in next week to see the work flow in progress and "shadow" for a half day; basically it's a way for both of us to see if I can and want to do this or not. All the "others" are positives (pay, location, environment, benefits) so we'll see if the actual work is a positive or a negative.