I’ve never been overly confident when it came to my experience in the work force. I was never the best student and even though I graduated from university, it seemed as though the work force simply passed me by and my studies meant next to nothing. Everybody wanted experienced people but nobody was willing to hire new people in order to give them experience. Where I was one of those inexperienced people without much direction, I took whatever jobs I could find.
I always thought that I had abilities that were not able to appear on my resume; that there were a great many “intangibles” to me that a resume simply couldn’t exploit. All I wanted was a chance to show an employer what I could do and then I’d take the bull by the horns.
I was never content on any particular job. I was never happy. I always wanted to do better. Looking back, I felt that way because I was always trying to impress my dad…though no job I took was ever good enough.
I finally found a decent job with a good company just over five years ago. It was a company that was extremely large, profitable, and not going anywhere any time soon. The job I had with them wasn’t just a job, it was a chance to finally have a potential career. While the money wasn’t the greatest, it was a solid opportunity to work in a location that I could retire in years from now.
Then I decided to marry Sunshine and things changed just a bit.
I’ve made the decision to move to her city; a decision that does not come lightly and was made only after discussing it with my ex-wife and my son to ensure that we could work out a plan that doesn’t affect him very much. The plan is in motion now, as Sunshine has thankfully agreed to spend the rest of her life with me…but as such that means I need to move in order to be with her.
Because I’ve been out of the general work force for over five years, I didn’t have a resume any longer. I’m sure it was deleted during one of my two memory wipes on my old desktop, so starting a brand new resume from scratch seemed like a daunting task.
Thankfully, I was able to obtain my resume from five years ago through my HR department. As such, I began transferring the scanned information onto a new resume template. I had to alter some descriptions and cut down on the “wordiness” of it (I wasn’t as grammatically sound then as I am now), but overall I was pleased with what I ended up with.
Then I took a look at some online job resources and immediately became intimidated all over again.
I’m almost 40 years old and I’m starting life anew. This life is absolutely incredible and I regret NOTHING, but it’s scary to start all over again. I still feel like that 20-something kid who just wanted a chance but didn’t have much on his resume to show for it.
The jobs seem to all be minimum-wage positions or high-end management positions that require years of experience in specific fields. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed when looking at the sites.
But I need to realize that I’m a very smart man, I’m a hard worker, and I’m proficient in a lot of skills. And since nobody wants to pay me exorbitant amounts of money to blog professionally, I need to buck-up and find another job that’s as suitable to my talents as my current position is.
I won’t lie…I’m not only intimidated, but I’m scared. But I’m hoping it’s the fear that drives me to find the job I want so that I’m happy both professionally and financially.
Building a resume at 40…I never thought I’d be doing that. But you know what? It’s an extremely exciting time for me right now and I don’t think I’d have it any other way.
I had an amazing four-day weekend with Sunshine. The Tall Ships had sailed into Halifax and it truly made for an amazing sight. Where the waterfront is one of my favorite places in the entire city, it came as no surprise to me that I ended up down there at least once every day from Thursday thru Sunday.
