R-ecruiters, R-ejection, R-ejoicing

Words that equate to my life the past month.

I have talked to more recruiters than I ever have in the span of my entire career. I have realized that they are only as busy as the industry is willing to hand them the opportunities. I have learned that they are more cautious in placing their people and are in search for the one individual that fits the requirement to the T. I am wiser to the fact that it isn’t sending your resume in but talking to them that even gets your resume within their vision, given that they receive hundreds of resumes for any given position. It has been explained to me that after reviewing 5-10 resumes, they all begin to look similar.

I can go for pages on rejection. Every morning has started with optimistic anticipation that slowly turns into a progressively slow and depressing day with dwindling emails & news that the position I had applied for is either on hold, or has been filled or does not fit my profile. The past month has taught me to take rejection in my stride and not let it affect my pursuit of the next best opportunity. If anything, it has strengthened my persistence and tenacity. I have learned to believe that every missed opportunity is a step closer to a bigger & better opportunity somewhere down the road. Every failed attempt has prompted me to explore new avenues and open my mind to parallel paths that may someday turn out to be more lucrative and career defining. Thanks to the OH I have explored opportunities that he has been coaxing and pleading with me to do for years now. These rejections have opened my eyes to areas that have always appealed to me but never was considered serious enough to pursue as a career path. I make a mental promise to follow through on these opportunities even after I find the right job.

The eternal glass half full girl in me, has learned to enjoy simple pleasures life has to offer. I have enjoyed being home when the kids leave for school and return home screaming for me and eager to tell me all about their day. I have loved the extra time I have had to work with them on their homework and not having to squeeze it all in after dinner when all of us are exhausted to our bones. I have loved not having to spend hours of my day commuting to work and waiting for the traffic to clear. I have also realized that if I do have to commute when the right opportunity comes my way, it is not that big a deal. Talk about contradictions there I have enjoyed having the time to surf the web and catching up on my favorite blogs. I have had the fun of playing the Wii when the kids are in school, only to taunt them with my higher scores when they return. It’s been fun staying with mom and dad and sharing meals and chatter with them throughout the day. Of course, I have harassed & teased the OH that now I get to cook and clean to earn my living in the house while he brings in the moulah to run the household Regaining the time to enjoy a good book and catching up on my reading list has been awesome the past month. I obviously can’t leave out the simple pleasure and joy that a potential job lead brings each day. Clicking on the job boards each day to find an opportunity that matches my profile has been a high akin to enjoying the taste of a nice glass of wine.

Ending with the last R on a completely different note. R-emembering all those who lost their life on Sept 11, 2001 for no fault of theirs. May their souls rest in peace.

P-ause to smell the flowers

3 weeks of not working and the brain cells have deserted me. I can’t even do the alphabets right. Went straight from O to Q in my series of posts in alphabetical sequence. My admiration and respect for all the SAHMs just increased ten fold because, if nothing else the past 3 weeks have proven to me that I could never me like them.

I have realized that my happiness lies in working, meeting people and doing the daily routine. I have experienced the packed days and now I have been privy to the days that stretch with sending resumes, following-up, networking and I know for a fact that I miss the days of getting up in the morning, whining about missing out on sleep and rushing to work only to finish a busy day & rush back home to cart the kids to their various extra-curricular activities. It didn’t give me much time to stop and enjoy the day and now when I have all the time to sit and enjoy the day, I’ve realized that my mental framework is to be on the run. I enjoy a crazy day and have a little too much pent up energy to spend it all at home.

Maybe, things would have been different had the kids been at home and needed my attention. Now I realize that the kids have their own routine and still need me but only in the evening and during the weekends when I am either helping with their homework, chauffeuring them to classes, running errands for them or simply playing with them.

The one thing that I haven’t missed one bit is the commute to and from work that I have endured for 8 years now. I don’t miss waiting on the highway and wishing each day that I could park along the curb and walk to work just to end the misery of waiting for the traffic to clear. I don’t miss the mad rush back home to be on time to take the kids to the various classes. I hated leaving work early to make an appointment or pick up the kids from school after chess club or media club only to be stuck on the highway due to an earlier accident. You don’t realize how much you hate something until you don’t have to do it anymore. Then you wonder why you endured it for so long when you could have made the attempt to move to a job closer to home. But there is something to say about comfort zone and not wanting to rock the boat unless you are absolutely forced to. It is easier to handle the known devil than to work with the unknown evils, I guess.

Everything that happens though happens for a reason. There are some things I have enjoyed during this hiatus. I have enjoyed the additional time that I have to spend with mom and dad during their stay this summer. I love the walks with mom in the morning with Zoey tagging along. Zoey is the one that has missed out on this luxury due to our careers. When I am working no one has had the time to walk her and she has relied heavily on the swimming pool to get the workout she needs. Now that I have the time, the three girls set off in the morning to enjoy the fresh air and get our fill of enjoying the outdoors while getting our exercise packed in at the same time.

I know that in spite of all these tiny luxuries the heart still craves to be back into the workforce. I promise myself that the day I land myself on the next job, I will take a week before I start to enjoy the time off without the weight on my head. As every one of my friends and family say, this is a short pause before I fall back into my old routine, but the uncertainty of the wait is what is getting to me and adding to my impatience and worry. I know I will eventually find something but it couldn’t come soon enough.

Till then, the wait continues. At least I know what I want now