One step forward, two steps back...
Back on the job market, I'm overwhelmed with the to do list and decided to attempt documenting my progress here. I had very recently accepted a new full time position as a helpdesk analyst, but made a plethora of what I thought were low-level errors that resulted in my being "not recommended past probationary period" as in "please turn in your badge, keys and bus pass." Did the walk of shame out the door and long bus ride home. This has been a galvanizing experience in that I realized just how much time I wasted in the preceding months. There is always so much to do, but I found that when you are in the middle of a protracted length of unemployment that it becomes harder and harder to prioritize tasks and feel productive. You just have so much apparent time on your hands that everything can be put off until tomorrow. Unfortunately, without the normal need based tasks, you can pretty much just stop living for awhile which is exactly what I did. There were days on end when I didn't leave the house.
I find myself battling myself. Struggling with motivation, being moody and depressed. Lacking confidence. It's a vicious cycle that's really hard to break out of. Somewhere in there, I realized that my health was actually suffering and went to see some practitioners. For the most part, I've cut out sugar and refined carbs from my diet and that alone has helped me stabilize my mood and energy level. I decided to turn my job search on its head and start with socializing first. I'm hoping to god that my Unemployment benefits get approved so that I can start over, after learning from all my initial mistakes. My job just ended last week and thus far, I've attended a job club, applied for half a dozen jobs, scheduled some networking events, requested, scheduled one informational interview with a content manager at Expedia and made a new friend with whom I have a striking number of demographic similarities.
What I find the need to document is my understanding of how to develop that post grad persona and successfully market myself in the "real" world. I left a company that I'd been with for nine years because it could no longer give me what I wanted in my career. I left my last job because it was just a bad environmental fit for my personality. My current challenge is to (finally) take myself seriously in that I have to find the right fit, the right job for me. I have enough experience to know what I don't want to or am no longer capable of doing. The experience that I want is a developmental role where I can not only be myself, but I'm appreciated for what I can bring to the table. Everyone deserves their dream job and the ability to define what that is. That is my challenge.
I find myself battling myself. Struggling with motivation, being moody and depressed. Lacking confidence. It's a vicious cycle that's really hard to break out of. Somewhere in there, I realized that my health was actually suffering and went to see some practitioners. For the most part, I've cut out sugar and refined carbs from my diet and that alone has helped me stabilize my mood and energy level. I decided to turn my job search on its head and start with socializing first. I'm hoping to god that my Unemployment benefits get approved so that I can start over, after learning from all my initial mistakes. My job just ended last week and thus far, I've attended a job club, applied for half a dozen jobs, scheduled some networking events, requested, scheduled one informational interview with a content manager at Expedia and made a new friend with whom I have a striking number of demographic similarities.
What I find the need to document is my understanding of how to develop that post grad persona and successfully market myself in the "real" world. I left a company that I'd been with for nine years because it could no longer give me what I wanted in my career. I left my last job because it was just a bad environmental fit for my personality. My current challenge is to (finally) take myself seriously in that I have to find the right fit, the right job for me. I have enough experience to know what I don't want to or am no longer capable of doing. The experience that I want is a developmental role where I can not only be myself, but I'm appreciated for what I can bring to the table. Everyone deserves their dream job and the ability to define what that is. That is my challenge.