Job search, ongoing (July 1-Sept 30)

[oak]

Manuel Moe, I am glad my post brought you a little happiness. I hope to live up to your kind words.

Bookending, 1 of 2: Next 48 hours

In the next 48 hours I want to confront/work through two issues:

1. I have a phone meeting with my excellent career counselor. I want to:

a. Discuss how to conduct a job search while depressed/grieving.
b. Come up with a new/refined job search plan, in light of the realities of grieving.

2. Cooking for myself, I am heartily sick of the same-old. I want to have a more varied menu plan.

(Of course, I am extremely grateful to be eating at all: I know many people already don't have enough to eat, and this is before the ghastly eviction crisis is in full swing.)

(I have a few other important, but not quite as important issues to address in the same 48 hours: clarification for a martial arts kata, connecting with my rapidly declining parents, an appointment with the podiatrist. All good things! All things I'm grateful for. And I want to focus on career-counseling and menu planning.)

So this is now Wednesday at noon. At noon Friday I hope to post here that I have:

1. Gotten all my job-search anxieties out to my career counselor
2. Come up with a new job search plan
3. Have a more varied menu plan for the next week
4. Have gotten groceries for said plan

Yikes! I'm scared. Wish me luck!

[manuel_moe_g]

Good luck to you, friend.

[Heatherwantspeace]

Oak, this is a great plan! Being open and honest with your job search counselor will help both of you see where you are.
Putting a new meal into the rotation is a bit of work but pays off big. You've done well already this week with your cleaning/laundry. A new meal will be a real coup!
I'm glad you got out. We all need some normal.

Hey, there's a new The Secret movie out. I'm tempted! I feel like some feel good porridge would go down well now! I read a review that called it Nicholas Sparks adjacent and that made me laugh.

Best of luck with your week.
Heather

[oak]

Thank you Manuel Moe and Heather for your encouragement. And yes, Heather, I also saw the ad for the tempting The Secret movie. Here is my guess: Katie Holmes will play a widow (the first husband has to be tragically dead and never mentioned again in order to make space for the dreamboat to show up in Act II), who is going broke (if Hallmark is any guide, she either owns a struggling bakery or works in something-vaguely-publishing). That covers love and money; to complete The Secret, someone will need to be sick: if it is like a Nicholas Sparks movie, it will include the trope I hate the most: The Dying Girl. Poor Katie will probably have a sick mother. Then, in her moment of most despair, someone will give poor Katie a copy of The Secret (TM), and though she'll resist at first (refusing the call, per Joseph Campell?), she'll grudgingly give it a try. Moments later a dream man will fall out of the sky, and per Chekov, the client briefly shown at the beginning will come through with a career-changing offer. Mark my words!

1. Update to my four stated goals.
2. Plan going forward: applying for jobs vs. "a modern job search".

1. Here were my goals, with the results set off with a "***":

1. Gotten all my job-search anxieties out to my career counselor
***Yes, I got enough of them out to her, until we agreed that while my job search plan is solid and fine, grief/depression are the bottleneck. Ergo, she recommended counseling; I reached out to four counselors late Friday afternoon to inquire about counseling. Updates soon.

2. Come up with a new job search plan
***She stated she is ready, at any time decided by me, to immediately offer job search counseling again as soon as I am ready. Should I get counseling starting in the next week, I'll request short-term counseling, based on CBT or whatever, to help me through the grief process enough to get me conducting a modern job search again.

3. Have a more varied menu plan for the next week
4. Have gotten groceries for said plan
*** I did okay with these! I've completed some fairly good bread pudding, and in a moment of courage, made rouladen (rolled beef). They're in the slow cooker now. I hope to have a more expansive menu at the end of the week.

To summarize, while I seek/get counseling to work through my grief, which is sucking the energy out of a modern job search (build skills, network), I'll continue to apply for all the jobs in my previous field. Doing so is not only no trouble, I very much enjoy it. But If I'm going to compete in a Covid and post-Covid world of work, someday I'll want and need to increase my skills.

But for now I am enough. I'll take this thread up again when I resume a "modern job search". Thanks for listening!

[manuel_moe_g]

Damn impressive stuff.

I have my own troubles with grief. What I am trying now is properly grieving things I lament and injustices, while simultaneously celebrating things I am very grateful for. It is a strange feeling doing both properly at the same time, it is really bending my mind, because I can't see how I can have things to grieve and things to celebrate at the same time, while logically I know it is true that both can be true at the same time. I will keep you posted on my progress.

I am so proud to call you friend, the epitome of the self-actualized man, the highest that a man can strive for.

[oak]

I can't believe it has been 3.5 months since this thread started!

1. The personal/individual
2. The macro: upset and cold
3. Reasons for hope

1. The personal:

I don't have any job offers yet, but I am waiting to hear about some interviews. If I get a good offer, then great! If I don't, then I restart my job search, which is also fine. But for now I'm a bit exhausted, and if I do have to restart, then I won't be starting from zero, like I was in July.

All in all, while I could have done much more and much better over the course of this summer job search, I am pleased overall.

2. The macro

While I hope I am wrong, I can foresee upset during and after the upcoming election.

My two goals, in order, for the rest of 2020: find and start a job, and lay low should the country be shook.

Bad as that could be, with everything I can tell this may be the worst winter since the Great Depression for unemployed people. Between food insecurity and evictions, people could be dying in the street in the cold. I fervently hope I am wrong.

3. Reasons for hope

I have every reason for hope. While a job search is an exhausting experience in the best of times, and these are not the best of times, I can do much to help myself and help others.

If I take up my job search again here in the end of 2020 I'll let you know.

Thank you for listening, and for your advice and encouragement.

[oak]

Hi friends. Though the initial scope of this thread is past, after not receiving any job offers, I am upgrading my job search from active to increasingly-intense.

(Specifically, while office-administration job applying is going fine, I am thinking about trying for coding/web/tech jobs again. There are good to excellent jobs, right this minute, very close to me.)

In practical terms, I want to:

1. Monday spend 45 minutes on coding and 15 minutes on CBT to prepare for said coding.
2. Talk with my counselor Tuesday about effecting CBT as I revamp my job search.
3. Work on my portfolio site.

With your kind indulgence I'll post here at the end of the week with an update. Please send good vibes, as I need them!

[brownblob]

Sending you good vibes Mighty Oak

[manuel_moe_g]

Totally sending you good vibes, too!

[rivergirl]

More good vibes heading your way, Oak.

rg