Posts from the “Job Hunt” Category

Plan B(s)

Posted on February 25th, 2013

As we know, I didn’t get the job. I am not an “everything happens for a reason” person, because, well, I don’t think there’s any sort of omniscient/omnipotent being interested in my employment status. (The career services office at my law school doesn’t even care. Why would a sky god?) I do think opportunities arise all the time and one must be open-minded enough to see them and seize them. Not getting this job means my time to write still remains my time to write. The downside is I am tired of The Poverty (TM). I would like to not worry about money, or at least not worry about little things like rent and food and gas money. So I’m trying to make lemonade.…

Categories: Epiphanies, Job Hunt, Writing

Don’t jury-rig elevator doors when you’ve got a bunch of bombs and a forklift nearby.

Posted on February 7th, 2013

Pea has been funny, delightful, maddening, and difficult. She is five going on fifteen. Rarely a day passes where M does not have to say, “You may not speak that way to your mother,” which is annoying in that it happens almost daily, but great in that I come from a family where my parents did not back one another up and it led to all sorts of internecine strife. It’s nice to know he’s got my back. Recently, instead of just making her apologize, I’ve been making her apologize and say she won’t do whatever it was again. Granted, she finds new ways to break rules, but it seems to be helping. Last night, at a birthday dinner for a young lady who…

Categories: General Parenting, Job Hunt, Reading

The anti-résumé, or my personal manifesto

Posted on November 8th, 2012

I enjoyed writing this post, although the more I wrote, the vaguer it became. (So it wasn’t quite as fun as I thought it might be.) It’s not so much as an anti-résumé as a personal manifesto. I don’t know what I think to get out of it, because — in all honesty — I don’t know exactly what it is I want to do. Ideally, I want someone to hire me to think, say, and/or write clever or snarky or brilliant things. Preferably part time, because I still have five-year-old to work my life around. It doesn’t matter to me if that is a law job or a non-law job…or (most likely) if that means I get to wait for my writing ship…

Categories: Job Hunt

Exercises in Utility

Posted on November 7th, 2012

I’ve had “rewrite resume” on my to-do list for a couple of months. Now, my resume is perfectly serviceable. I have a long version and a short version and they were lovingly and carefully formatted and are, I think, error-free. They’ve been vetted. (Admittedly, they never got me a job. That happened through connections.) But oh, they’re so freaking boring. They look like a lot of resumes, and when I was practicing and we were hiring, I read a lot of resumes. I think I read ALL the resumes. And what does mine tell you? I made a bunch of money for somebody (not me) and I know a lot of big words. Oh, and I know the ins-and-outs of civil litigation in a…

Categories: Job Hunt

Name it and claim it?

Posted on May 3rd, 2012

A while back, I made moo.com cards listing the three things I wanted to be doing professionally on them, as opposed to the things I was qualified to do or had already done. It was done late, on a lark (like so many things), but hey, the cards were $20 and it’s moo.com. I love moo.com. On those cards, under my name, I wrote: Writer. Editor. Historian. Because these are the things I love. I write. I have a history project which, if you know me on Facebook or Twitter, you’ve already been bombarded with information about (feel free to “like” the Facebook page, too — shameless plug!). And now I have a job as an editor. Name it and claim it? Positive thinking?…

Categories: Good day, Job Hunt, Writing

Hey, thanks! (A good Monday)

Posted on November 14th, 2011

Those good thoughts worked; I’ve advanced to the next round. It’s a good thing I didn’t think about the last time I had a job interview, because I might have been nervous. (Really: I can’t remember. Maybe 10 years? My last boss offered me a job via text message, after I’d been doing contract work for him for months.) Therapy was good, too. It actually turned out to be a pretty nice day. I wore my new cloche (I actually bought it at my favorite hat store, but couldn’t find a link there). A couple of blocks from the #OccupyPortland site, a Portland Police officer complimented me on it. I picked Pea up from school and we took the streetcar home. One of her…

Categories: General Parenting, Good day, Job Hunt

Think good thoughts?

Posted on November 14th, 2011

Today I have a job interview and a therapy appointment. It’s kind of a toss-up as to which I’m looking forward to the most.

Categories: Job Hunt, Not crazy...yet

Mostly things about my kid, with some work, life, and shoes thrown in for good measure

Posted on November 10th, 2011

Pea and I had lunch today with a Twitter friend, who graduated from the same regional law school a few years after I did, but who ordinarily is across the country. She is funny and a blast to talk to — I had a great time. When I found out she went to one of the talks I did at the law school (on work/life balance, no less), though, I wanted to climb under the table because I was so embarrassed. (I’m sorry: there really is no such thing as work/life balance.) I sent out out a resume a couple of days ago. Today I got a call back. It’s for something part time, but it would be work-at-home and it would be something…

Categories: General Parenting, Good day, Job Hunt

The parent trap

Posted on November 2nd, 2011

I have a plan for returning to the law. I’ve talked about it with M, I’ve talked about it with my therapist. It’s a good plan. It involves my getting up to speed in a different area of the law (specialized plaintiff’s work) and, as Pea starts kindergarten, starting to practice again, probably solo. There are problems with this. Money, for one. It costs a lot to practice in this state (our mandatory malpractice, which must be purchased through the bar, is beyond absurd). It costs a lot for me to not work for ten more months, plus have limited (if any) income while I am building clientele and seeing cases to completion. So, pretty much terrified by the financial side of things, I…

Categories: Job Hunt, Law, Too much to ask?

What I want, what I really, really want

Posted on October 5th, 2011

…is a job share situation, where I’d work about 20 hours a week. Yes, I could go solo. I may just when Pea starts kindergarten (and have been educating myself on an area of law that is underrepresented in these here parts for that reason) but there is a lot of administrative time (not legal practice) involved in being a solo practitioner. Also, I like having legal assistants, because, inter alia, I suck at printing my own envelopes and faxing things. And good legal assistants are expensive for a new solo practitioner. Anyway, just thinking in public.

Categories: Job Hunt, Law