![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Job Hunting Update: No More Begging
Oct. 11th, 2013 01:49 pmI've been job hunting pretty hard for almost four months and I have gotten zero interviews. And I have not even gotten a call-back about temp jobs--that application said that if you are favored they will ask you more information and make you take some tests and they didn't even approach me to do that. So screw it. I have savings.
It's not quite right to say that I'm no longer job hunting. Really, I'm just done trying to talk people into giving me a job. I'm done fervently hoping that I will get the kind of work I want. I'm done with the begging and the suspense and the rejection. Also with collecting unemployment compensation. It was very nice to get paid for job hunting, but I am no longer willing to jump those hoops. (I've almost used it up anyway.)
I will still take work from people who have already made it clear that they want me. So I will take any degree-audit jobs offered (one is still in the works). I will try working for this tax preparation company if they want me. I will ask for more teacher-certification-test-scoring work. And I will even continue checking the UT website daily, but I will apply only for jobs that sound obvious and fun and will stop applying for jobs that are clearly (to me) the type of work I would be good at but either no one there knows me or the work is not all that close after all to what I've been doing.
This decision means a change in my default thinking. Before I was hoping to work until I received my pension, thinking that I could live off savings if necessary. Now I'll be assuming that I'm going to live off my savings, thinking that I would accept jobs if possible. Before I was hoping for the best-case scenario and things were not looking good. Now I'm planning for the worst-case scenario and things can only get better from here. And if they don't, that's okay, too.
Another change is in what to do next. Before, the next thing was to look for a job. Now the next thing is to do well in this tax prep course. And the next thing after that is--still undecided. Exciting!
Since I want to minimize the depletion of my savings, I will try to live lightly. I can't say that I will spurn all luxuries. That's because I'm going on a cruise. (We booked it when they were super cheap after the ship we're taking made the headlines.) Also I just ordered the 13th Gloom Street woot shirt. [I didn't buy it when it first came out because I thought I would wear it only one month out of the year. It's an orange t-shirt with a haunted house on it. I have a weakness for Victorian houses (don't want to own one, but I do like to look at them). And I also love the vulture. And the cat. And the bats. And it has glow-in-the-dark ghosts in it. I have since decided that I would be happy to wear that shirt pretty much any time but Christmas day. And it's discounted this week ($15 + tax instead of $18). So now I will have it.]
But I will be living a lower-cost lifestyle than after I get my pension, which, according to my new point of view, likely won't be for over three more years. For example, when I realized I was going to need another pair of jeans to get me through the winter, I went to the thrift store instead of to LL Bean. (Shockingly, this worked. They have a million pairs of jeans. I was able to eliminate most of them just by seeing how short the zipper was, but I still found nine pair to try on and three pair actually fit, from which I chose the best.)
It's not quite right to say that I'm no longer job hunting. Really, I'm just done trying to talk people into giving me a job. I'm done fervently hoping that I will get the kind of work I want. I'm done with the begging and the suspense and the rejection. Also with collecting unemployment compensation. It was very nice to get paid for job hunting, but I am no longer willing to jump those hoops. (I've almost used it up anyway.)
I will still take work from people who have already made it clear that they want me. So I will take any degree-audit jobs offered (one is still in the works). I will try working for this tax preparation company if they want me. I will ask for more teacher-certification-test-scoring work. And I will even continue checking the UT website daily, but I will apply only for jobs that sound obvious and fun and will stop applying for jobs that are clearly (to me) the type of work I would be good at but either no one there knows me or the work is not all that close after all to what I've been doing.
This decision means a change in my default thinking. Before I was hoping to work until I received my pension, thinking that I could live off savings if necessary. Now I'll be assuming that I'm going to live off my savings, thinking that I would accept jobs if possible. Before I was hoping for the best-case scenario and things were not looking good. Now I'm planning for the worst-case scenario and things can only get better from here. And if they don't, that's okay, too.
Another change is in what to do next. Before, the next thing was to look for a job. Now the next thing is to do well in this tax prep course. And the next thing after that is--still undecided. Exciting!
Since I want to minimize the depletion of my savings, I will try to live lightly. I can't say that I will spurn all luxuries. That's because I'm going on a cruise. (We booked it when they were super cheap after the ship we're taking made the headlines.) Also I just ordered the 13th Gloom Street woot shirt. [I didn't buy it when it first came out because I thought I would wear it only one month out of the year. It's an orange t-shirt with a haunted house on it. I have a weakness for Victorian houses (don't want to own one, but I do like to look at them). And I also love the vulture. And the cat. And the bats. And it has glow-in-the-dark ghosts in it. I have since decided that I would be happy to wear that shirt pretty much any time but Christmas day. And it's discounted this week ($15 + tax instead of $18). So now I will have it.]
But I will be living a lower-cost lifestyle than after I get my pension, which, according to my new point of view, likely won't be for over three more years. For example, when I realized I was going to need another pair of jeans to get me through the winter, I went to the thrift store instead of to LL Bean. (Shockingly, this worked. They have a million pairs of jeans. I was able to eliminate most of them just by seeing how short the zipper was, but I still found nine pair to try on and three pair actually fit, from which I chose the best.)