End of year reflection

In January 2010, I will have been unemployed for 1 year. Crazy. I have had many “almost opportunities” but nothing that panned out. There is so much competition and so many people out of work. It is not enough to just look and apply to a Craigslist or Indeed ad. Networking is what everyone says you need to do; it is who you know and they need to know of an opportunity. Still that may not be enough; I believe timing and luck have a lot to do with it as well. Looking for a job is almost a full time job in itself. Here is some of the stuff I have been doing:

•I volunteer for a non-profit two days a week to network, gain experience and have something on my resume so there isn’t a huge gap of time missing.
•Everyone I meet knows I am unemployed and has my resume.
•Linkedin – I joined the “out of work” and “networking” groups. There are lots of useful articles and smart people that are willing to help you out by giving you leads, revising your resume and cover letters.
•I just recently signed up at a temporary agency.
•My neighborhood has an on-line message board that I have posted my resume to as well. I’m putting it all out there now I’m waiting.

Although I spend a lot of my time devoted to looking for job opportunities I am enjoying my time off because I'm pretty sure, God willing, I won't ever be unemployed like this again. It has been a good year besides job hunting. I took the time to do things I would not have had the time to do:

My husband and I bought platinum badges for SXSW 2009. We had such a blast seeing bands I never heard of that I now love (Gil Mantera & the party dream, Wax Fang). Bands I have wanted to see (Silversun Pickups, Wintersleep, Octopus Project, Tricky, Devo) and a few bands I have seen a lot (Peter Murphy, Echo & the Bunnyman). Of course there were some that well......good for them for getting to play at SXSW but I hope they have other talents and other aspirations. We also did the film portion as well, if you ever get the chance I highly recommend it.

Other things I did this year is I took the opportunity to visit my family on a non holiday basis, I bought a bike to make use of the many many hike and bike trails that Austin and the Hill Country have to offer. I also spent lots of time at the pool this summer and Town Lake. It has been a great fun filled year but I am certainly looking forward to gainful employment and what the New Year has in store for me.