April 28, 2014

I really am grateful for having access to the Internet (finally) and for all the tools and possibilities that it allows me to take advantage of, especially while so remotely situated searching for a job.

But it also can be incredibly frustrating and sometimes near infuriating because of what it dumps into my inbox with regularity.

This morning there was an article distributed by a top job search site: How a Sense of Optimism can Doom Job Seekers.

Sigh...BIG heavy sigh.

With very few brief dives into self-pity or despair, I have managed to maintain a fairly positive attitude for the past 10 months...confident that my skills, experience and knowledge were such that I would certainly find my next challenge...eventually.

That I would find something that I could call my professional home. 

That is still my hope.

That is still my belief.

I weathered the lean times, when absolutely no visual jobs were opening; through the fall when there were a couple of bright spots that dimmed all too soon; through the end of the calendar year budgeting when everyone tightens their company belts; and into spring where the job market actually seemed to show just the slightest bit of growth...opening a couple of positions in my actual field.

I get it.

I really do.

Don't be OVERLY confident, but be confident enough to get noticed.

Reach out to colleagues for help, but don't make a nuisance of yourself.

Send out your resume as often as possible, but don't seem desperate. 

Be realistic about the time frame, thinking you'll be hired right away is unrealistic. (You should expect to spend three months to a year looking for your next position.)

In today's job market, the success rate of finding work through an ad is only 10 to 15%.

I know all that. I do.

There is a lot of information out there in the ether for someone in my position. 

Much of it is contradictory. You need to sort and sift and read voraciously, recognize when you find the tiny gem of "good advice," (take it) and reject the majority of the rest.

I have scoured articles with titles like:

• Practical and easy tips for the modern job search
• Update your job search strategy and save time
• Don't overlook your soft skills
• 3 Tips that make a difference with your job application
• Strategy of a successful job seeker
• Four essential traits to shine and get hired
• Sneaky job interview "trick" for job seekers
• Building a resume that makes your phone ring

I have learned a great deal about job hunting in the 21st century. Clearly, it is a very different landscape than the last time I left a job, more than eleven years ago. 

But I have never sought out a job before, the job always sought me out. 

So that makes this...very different.

I am a smart woman, but there are some things (in this process) that remain a mystery to me.

I have filled out...in excruciating detail...electronic form after electronic form listing key words (appropriate to my job search), attached resumes, cover letters, written paragraphs describing the position that I am seeking, location and salary details, skills set, talents, expertise...and yet this pops into my inbox this morning:

Defense Munitions Supply chain Management Analyst

Exactly WHICH key word from a 30-year career in visual journalism triggered that alert?

Argh.
.....

I just couldn't resist adding this: 

This job alert came popping into my inbox a day later...with the heading visual journalism jobs for you! The listing?

Counter Narco - Terrorism Police Advisor/Mentor

I'm shaking my head.

.....

On a beautiful day late last week, I accompanied my sister and my niece (her middle daughter) on a little road trip to the Amish General Store. 

We (the niece and I) met my sister at her school (where she is the self-titled "lunch lady") and drove to the Amish Bakery and General store.  

The Bakery parking lot.

 You can actually smell the bakery before you arrive there. They are unceasingly baking bread, donuts, pies, cookies and cakes. 

The dinner rolls are THE best, but they go fast. The only way to score those hot buns is to arrive when the doors open early in the morning.

Freshly baked bread.

The General Store offers a little bit of a lot of things, an eclectic mix. 

What brought me along for the ride were the vanilla beans. 

A modern grocery (or the disdained Walmart) offers them for about $7 or $8 dollars PER bean, sealed in a glass test-tube-like vial.  

The Amish sell them for $1.89 each, take them from a large glass jar that sits behind the counter near the register, and put them into a plastic bag with a twist tie. 

Vanilla Bean.

It's a long way to go for a bean, but worth every mile.

Homemade (the from scratch kind that you stir and stir and stir until your wrists are tired and aching) rice pudding with vanilla bean is on my "To Do" list.

Mmmmmmmm.

Wash with this before going out into nature
 and the mosquitos won't bite.

More country store offerings.

Crystalized ginger.  Twice the quantity for half the price of
the same ginger sold at Whole Foods in Boston.

.....

One good weather day over the weekend meant even more yard work.

We started preparing Mom's "Prairie" for a burn-off.

The "Prairie" is a large swath of yard that is planted in natural grasses and flowers just off the real lawn to the left of the driveway.  

It hasn't been burned off in a couple of years. The burn (just like in nature) allows for new and healthy growth.  Locust trees (or are they Sumac?) have self-planted along with other undesirables (that choke out the desirables) and need to be removed.

The berry bushes have taken over about half of the back "Prairie," not producing much fruit but certainly causing some ferocious scratches if you get anywhere near their long thorny branches. (Trust me on that one...)

Berry bushes.

While Mom worked to clean off her riding lawn mower from the dust and dirt that covered it following our last yard project, I set about raking the perimeter of the "Prairie," to separate it from the lawn a bit for the anticipated burning. 

You start the fire on all four sides, simultaneously, and let it burn to the middle, controlling the fire as it burns.

My brother-in-law had come over to cut down the small pine tree in the front yard at Mom's request. (There were strange, inexplicable patterns on the trunk affecting the growth of the limbs, turning them - along with other parts of the tree - rusty).

The mystery pattern on the tree trunk.

Mom said she wanted to get it down and out of the yard, before what ever was eating it had a chance to spread and eat something else.

I told her that I could do it.

I could cut the branches off with the bow saw one by one, starting at the top and make my way to the bottom, then cut the trunk down in sections.

"Or," she said, "Gil could just go zzzzzip." And she made a loud buzzing sound accompanied by a quick motion of her arms, JUST like a chainsaw cutting the trunk of a tree in one swift, sweeping motion.

And it was...(quickly done) with Gil's chainsaw.

I carried the tree and its branches over to the "Prairie" where we spread the pine branches all around.

Pine branches spread to accelerate the burn.

The Prairie.

Mom said that the pine would burn "hot and fast" and she wanted that strong burn to help take out the berry bushes and tougher parts of the natural growth on the "Prairie."

I had mailed Mom a couple of boxes of mixed wildflowers (a gift from a dear friend's baby shower), specifically for planting on the "Prairie" some time ago, but they remained on a shelf in the dining room.  

We had talked about sprinkling them over the "Prairie" after the burn, where they could quickly sprout and grow for the summer and fall.

Wildflowers.

You can burn on your property after 6 p.m. with a burning permit, which we went to get at Miller's General Store, (actually owned by my niece and her husband) as long as the fire risk is acceptable.

It was posted outside the store when we arrived.

 Moderate.

The time is set at 6 p.m. because generally the wind of the day dies down by 6 p.m. (or after) but that was not the case on that day and our grand plans remain on hold. 

Our best laid plans were set asunder by the wind. 

It would have been perfect timing for the burn and the scattering of seeds...

Rain showers are predicted for the entire week. 

A perfect scenario for post-burn new growth on the old "Prairie."