Tag Archives: new job

May 16, 2012

The Job Search

By Canadian Bald Guy

When I made the decision to propose to Sunshine, I had already told myself that I would be moving to her city. I had a plan all worked out with my ex-wife and my son and they were both on board. Sure, a lot of things still need to be taken care of on my end of things (primarily the selling of the house), but all of that was going to wait until one thing was done first.

Finding a new job.

I’ve been gainfully employed for the past five years with the same company. It has never been the best-paying job, but the benefits are awesome and it is a very large global company, so the ability to continue working there until I wanted to retire was a very valid option. The decision to leave the job wasn’t an easy one, but it was one that absolutely needed to be made in order for me and Sunshine to be together.

I pretty much had to make my resume from scratch as I lost my saved one on my previous computer (which died a few years ago). I honestly never thought about keeping it updated, which is something I plan on doing as I go forward because you just never know what is going to happen.

Sunshine has a friend who is a Human Resources Director, and she was kind enough to offer to go over my resume and provide some constructive criticism. Let me tell you…she went through that resume with a fine tooth comb. When I first got it back, I thought she had tore it to shreds…and immediately I began wondering what in the world I was going to do. What the heck was I thinking? I’m not good enough to find a decent job in another city; I can’t even write a decent resume!

So after a day of feeling sorry for myself, I took a couple of days to really go over her suggestions and do my best to update things the way they should be. Sure enough, once it was finished and she went over it again, she was really happy with the results. And I have to admit…I’m pretty happy, too. I turned a morale killer into a confidence booster!

At this point I’ve only been actively looking online for jobs since last Friday, but so far I’m pretty happy with how it has gone. I have applied for ten jobs (even a couple that seem to be a bit out of my reach, just in case others feel I’m worth taking a chance on) and I have sent my information in to about a half dozen placement agencies, of which I’ve heard back from two already to let me know they were going to look a bit further into my resume and see what they can do.

I’m still scared to death right now, but it’s not at the prospect of moving or living with Sunshine or even finding a new job. My fear is that once I do start working in a new place, I’m going to fail. The fear of failure is a constant with me and I just don’t want to find myself in a position where I’m overwhelmed or simply mess up.

I spoke with my friend T from Life As A Classroom yesterday afternoon because she’s currently in a similar position of looking for another job while still gainfully employed (i.e. which means there’s no rush, but there’s still pressure to not mess up and take the first things available). She told me that she has the exact same fears of failure but believes that we can find what it is that we’re looking for. She firmly believes that we will both find better jobs that will make us happy. Her rationale is that we’ve each found true love at this stage in our lives, so why should it be out of the question to find a great job, as well?

How right she is.

I turn 40 in September. I never thought that I would be making such huge life changes at this stage in my life…but I am. And while I’m nervous and anxious and scared and excited, the bottom line is that this is simply another chapter in my life. I need to embrace it and make the most out of the experience.

I’ll be working someplace new soon enough. My life has earned this new opportunity to be happy.

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in fears

April 25, 2012

Building The Resume

By Canadian Bald Guy

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.

8 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in fears

September 16, 2010

The Work Transition

By Canadian Bald Guy

I’ve been in my new job now for about two months.  The job itself is 50% boring and 50% really challenging.  It’s a job where a lot of other people rely on me for accuracy so there’s a fair amount of pressure involved.

It’s a job that’s in a completely different part of the building that I’ve been working in for over three years now, so that’s been a major obstacle for me to overcome.

In my previous position, I was seen as a leader.  I’m an extrovert by nature (shocking, I know) who knew what I was doing…a combination that got me noticed (although not always in a good way).  But after being on the company’s United Way committee as a volunteer (my employer raised over $200,000 last year), being voted into the company’s Employee Forum (i.e. representing the concerns of over 1,100 employees to management) not once but twice, and also being asked to emcee two employee recognition events…I was well known within the building and (at the risk of sounding arrogant) pretty well-liked.

The people who I now work with don’t know me very well, so now I’m not only starting over from a job duty perspective, but I’m also starting over from a co-worker relationship standpoint…and that has been pretty tough so far.

I’ll get into more details on Monday, but I think I’ve finally gone from feeling like an outsider to feeling more welcomed by my new peers. I guess thus far I can say that the transition has been successful…and that’s a major relief.

I’m sure you’ve all been through this type of transition, either with a new position within a company or with a new employer all together.  I normally feel a bit uncomfortable at first but try to let my personality win people over.  While it’s been pretty uncomfortable at times, I’m just glad to be able to settle in a bit.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in friends, relationships

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