This latest inspiration is my hope that I can beat the recession with the same level of success as he has enjoyed. Since November 2009, he has worked his way into not one, but three separate companies, each job opportunity moving him closer to his career goals than the last, after much hard work, hundreds of applications, hours of resume writing and rewriting, and a healthy dose of divine intervention.
I left a stable position with a Director title and an office with a view this past Friday. It was a decision that had to be made, and I know I ultimately made the right decision for myself personally and professionally, as well as for the company I left.
What am I doing now? First, contemplating my place as a now "displaced professional" in one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression. I am very curious to see how my attitude and search for a new opportunity goes, given the caterwauling I hear from a number of people my age that go on about their inability to find "meaningful employment." Looking at Travis, it's easy for me to think that "those people" just aren't trying hard enough. In part, I'll use this blog to document my feelings as they change over the course of my search.
Second, I am actually applying for jobs. There are the usual "haunts" for the job search, such as Careerbuilder and Monster.com. However, I'm also looking for non-traditional work, such as per-project small jobs, both for additional income and to keep moving.
That really is the ultimate goal, to keep moving. I think this is the most important thing I can do to ensure that this period of time is successful, instead of becoming a block of days wasted playing World of Warcraft. I have enlisted the help of my iPad to do this by using Evernote to keep track of what I have accomplished in a given day, as well as see where I can add items to keep me moving. I plan to pursue a balance of job searching and project completion. I have SO many things around the home I've been wanting to do. I also want to return to rewarding the completion of my "Needs to get dones" with a game of basketball or a lesson in Spanish via my long-neglected Rosetta Stone software. By time I find a job, I'll be in great shape and able to hablo Espanol!
I think my biggest hangup will be to ensure that I keep on target for the different tasks I assign to myself. When I'm at the house, it's sometimes easy for me to get off target and pursue housework that I know can easily wait for its assigned day. I know I need to breathe-"detox" as one friend so eloquently put it- from the very sudden end of my most recent employment experience. However, I know that if I do not assign action to detox and just sit around brooding instead, I'll have a couple of level 85 raid-ready characters as the only product of my efforts at the end of the month.
So here's to a new road, chapter, or whatever else it should be called. Here's to the challenge of unemployment, and my attempt to meet that challenge with pizzazz.
