Thursday, May 12, 2011

Pretty much everybody knows I'm looking for a job.   Due to a series of unexpected events, I must go back to work.  Not my first choice, being away from my babies, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?  Anyway, we've worked out just about all the details with child care, communting, new budget, etc.  Just one small problem:

I HAVEN'T BEEN HIRED YET!

I started my search back at the very beginning of February.  It's now almost mid May, and I still don't have gainful employment.  It makes a girl question her abilities!  It's been almost 5 years since I've held a traditional job.  Since I was about 6 months pregnant with Curly, I've been lucky enough to be at home, taking care of my family.  Before this job search, I thought I was pretty hirable (in the small niche that I'm qualified to work in)!  I have a good education, strong experience and excellent recommendations.  Apparently, these days, that's not enough. 

My search started out pretty good.  After sending out a ba-zillion resumes, I finally got a call back in March for a couple of interviews.  The first one was with a very large, well know organization for a pretty important local position.  It was a phone interview, and I knew during the conversation that it didn't go very well.  It took them over nine weeks and two email "nudges" for them to tell me they weren't intersted.  Fine.  I can handle that. 

My next interview was with a local chapter of another large organization.  It is a position that I've done before with a similar group, so I'd think I was an easy hire.  I've had 2 interviews with them, the 1st on March 21st and the second about 3 weeks later.  Well, it's May 12th.  Still no word from them.  It's a job that requires A LOT of travel and the salary is low, so I'm not anxious to hear from them too much, but you'd think by now, they'd give me some sort of news. 

The next interview was with a large, internationally known canine membership organization for a position in their foundation.  The interviewer told me at my second visit to their offices that I was their top candidate.  Somehow, I didn't get the job.  My guess is that my salary requirements were too high.  Apparently I'm expected to work for peanuts and warm, fuzzy feelings.  Unfortunately I don't have that luxury anymore. 

The NEXT interview was with a large electric coop for a position doing outreach and public relations.  I've totally done this exact job before and the salary range was perfect.  I REALLY wanted this one, but I have yet to hear back from them.  It's been 2 weeks since the interview, and the lady told me they were going to hire someone quickly.  I'm guessing that one isn't in the cards for me. 

Today I had another phone interview with an non-profit focused on farming.  It seemed to go well, but now I'm thinking my "it went well" gage is broken.  The lady said that she was certain she'd be calling me in the next few days to set up an in-person interview.  We'll see.

So I'm still in the running (as far as I know) for 3 different positions.  And I'm still sending out resume's hopefully someone will want me.

In the mean time, to try and earn some extra $$, I've just started refinishing furniture to a "shabby chic" look to try and resell on FB.  My WONDERFUL friend, who I'll call Red, has been holding my hand through the entire process.  She does this regularly and has been making a tidy little profit on her work.  My first piece should be done tomorrow.  I'll post pics later.  I invested about $50 in materials (many of which can be used on the next project) and I'm hoping to sell it for $100 to $125.  It's a small bed-side table with two drawers.  It had been sitting, broken with a boring finish on it in Curly's room for almost a year now.  I painted it white, and will be distressing the edges and putting an "aging wash" on it.  I also bought new knobs to replace the non-descript handles.  Hopefully someone will buy it and I can get started on another, bigger project and get better at it.  :)  We'll see!

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