dianaschnuth

I’ve been droning on about aikido a little too much lately, so I suppose I should write about something else already. I’m sitting here at work, with a painfully light workload, so this seems as good a time as any to write a blog entry (via e-mail to myself, of course).

Not that I have anything particularly pressing to blog about, mind you. Most of my “free” time lately has been spent job-hunting, nursing my pulled muscle, or escaping into Civilization IV.

Speaking of the job hunt: I’ve gone through my list, submitted my resume for those jobs I hadn’t yet, followed up on past inquiries, and have started putting the finishing touches on my portfolio. I think I’ve got the portfolio working in all modern browsers, including Firefox 2, Opera 9, Safari for Windows, IE6 and IE7. Granted, there are a few minor display discrepancies: IE6 has an unfortunate space at the bottom of the page which activates the scroll bar, and Opera (or is it Safari?) doesn’t highlight the items in my submenus. Those are minor details, though, and I can deal with the differences for now. Now, I’m going through all my featured projects and including examples and samples and links for each. I plan to have my portfolio complete by the end of next weekend.

In other news of the me, I ordered my very first Little Black Dress™ and a couple pairs of work-friendly Skechers online. I need to get myself down to Lane Bryant and spend a decent amount of money updating my wardrobe, although I feel funny either a.) shopping alone or b.) shopping with Aaron, and I don’t really have any local girlfriends to shop with. What I’d really like to buy is a brown tailored pantsuit to go with my new shoes. (Wow… matching an outfit to a pair of shoes? That sounds unusually girly of me.)

Last time I really went ballistic on clothes shopping, I sorely needed a wardrobe update due to having lost, oh, fifty pounds? Now, though, I’m just tired of wearing the same crap to work all the time. Of course, I should probably hold off on buying work clothes until I get a new job and find out what the dress code is there. I’d hate to update my business casual wardrobe, just to find that I can wear Threadless shirts and jeans to work — or, worse, that I have to go out and purchase an actual professional wardrobe, with multiple suits and accessories.

Also: Aaron and I had an in-depth conversation this weekend about my ability to finish what I start. I am absolutely notorious for starting a project, either coming to a hard part or just getting bored with it, and dropping it for the next Flavor of the Month. Websites, fiction, genealogy research, major cleaning, all have fallen prey to this habit of mine. He was particularly concerned with me finishing my portfolio website before I get involved in something else — namely, instructing marching band for the first time. He reminded me that I don’t do anything by halves — quite like him, now that I think about it. I immerse myself in whatever new project I undertake: genealogy, candle-making, learning SQL, weight-loss, drum corps, aikido, whatever. I don’t just try something or dabble in something. For this reason, I’ve specifically avoided starting any new projects, even though I’ve wanted to work on my fiction and genealogy research in the past months.

I might have to gracefully and humbly bow out of the marching band gig, even though I don’t want to. I can see things that need fixing in the band, things that I might be able to help with, but I don’t know if I should really be dedicating literally an entire evening a week to band, plus a good part of another evening a week to aikido.

I have some time to think it over, though, and to finish my portfolio before the next rehearsal I’m slated to attend. We’ll see how things pan out.

This evening was spent evaluating the state of my job search and determining my next steps. I feel pretty happy about what I accomplished.

I decided that, first and foremost, I needed to update my log of job applications and job solicitations from recruiters. So far, the tally is nineteen total job possibilities. I still need to send in my resume (or apply online) for four of those opportunities. Five jobs on my list were brought to my attention by recruiters or HR reps. (It’s a good thing I updated my Monster resume.)

Next, before I contacted the new folks or followed up with the old, I wanted to finish updating my resume. The LHH workshop was surprisingly helpful, and made me realize that my five-year-old resume was, indeed, horribly out of date, as far as current resume format is concerned. The two-page allowance saved my ass — I was always told to keep your resume to one page, no matter what. So, I’d ended up printing my resume on legal paper, which is not the most accessible of formats for everyone. At any rate, I finished tonight what I’d started last week in the workshop, writing job summaries for my RCC positions and formatting the whole thing in a way that pleases me… as much as a standard, “normal” resume can.

Next on the agenda:

1. Apply for outstanding jobs on my list
2. Schedule follow-ups with recruiters and HR reps
3. Add finishing touches to portfolio, including (but not limited to) videos, shockwave and audio files
4. Post and/or update info on other job sites
5. Search for more jobs online

I have something like 21 working days until my job is eliminated — oh, did I mention that my end date got extended a week? My betters were concerned that Huntington might need specific data from the database, or help moving it to their servers, or Buddha knows what else. So, basically, I’ll be sticking around with Scott, Heather, and Ruth Ann, helping to pack boxes and put out fires and check balances and transactions on Sky’s systems. But I’m OK with that — it gives me one more week to job-search, and gives me a nice, even date of October 1st to give potential employers.

Still, though… one month total to get this going on. I’m not worried, but I’m starting to feel the pinch.

Jobs applied for: 9
Responses received: 3
Contract jobs in hire process: 1

Basically, I’m still officially in the running for a position I applied for back in early May; another company that seemed promising in early May is due for a prodding; and I did get an offer of a part-time contract job back in late June, although I haven’t yet been called in for a contract-signing.

This is the most important thing right now: finding a job. Granted, I have potential severance and retention money coming in September… but I’d rather not have to use it for actual survival in the midst of unemployment.

No worries. No stress (yet). It’s just time to pour it on, and get ready to jump onto the merry-go-round.

(No, I have no idea what that metaphor really alludes to. It just sounded good in my head.)

Long Story Short: I now have a potentially steady stream of part-time web development contract work. I do not yet have a new full-time job.

The Rest Of The Story: It appears that I passed the “task” with flying colors, and went above what the other two or three potential coders had accomplished. Yay for being anal about cross-browser compatibility. I also apparently finished the task faster than the others. According to the seemingly-older (read: my age) partner who totally took charge of the interview, I will get paid for my ten hours of work. How much? That remains to be seen.

I had an entire page of questions ready to ask them, but was stopped short when I realized that this would be a contract job, part-time, max of 20 hours a week, working from home. All my questions about benefits, family leave, PTO, company stability, all went out the window once this became a nice side gig. Granted, it *is* a nice side gig… but I still have to do some follow-ups regarding other possible full-time positions.

(When I do secure a new full-time job, I may request that they withhold extra taxes, too, since my new contract gig won’t be withholding for me.)

If I were a college student and landed this gig, it would be the best thing EVAR. Experience and money doing what I want, and just in my free time! Hell, I probably could have done it during my time working in the computer lab, and no one would have been the wiser. Alas, now I have to pay bills and mortgage and whatnot, and I have not such luxuries with my time and livelihood.

So… more time to maybe hang out at Sky and get my August 10th incentive pay and maybe my September 21st severance. The stress is just a little lessened now, but not entirely gone. I’m not entirely sure how this contract gig will pan out in the long run. I’m hoping for the best, and am still genuinely excited to be a part of this growing and evolving company, but I can’t guarantee that they can give me what I need to pay the bills.