2011

We're 6 days into 2011 and I've been spending a lot of time thinking about things I would like to accomplish this year. I need to stress though that these are NOT New Year's resolutions. Anyway, here we go:

1. Continue working with my Naturopath. I've been seeing a naturopath for a few weeks, so it's still pretty new but I'd like to continue with that. Over the last three weeks I have noticed an improvement with my stomach. We didn't really change much at all but I think that's key to being able to continue with it. Small changes over a longer time frame. Already he's given me confidence that what is going on with my stomach is NOT okay and that I deserve to have it seen by a specialist who can and will rule out some serious conditions.

2. Travel a bit. Nothing far and wide. The boy can't leave Canada since he doesn't have a passport since he isn't a Canadian citizen, but a mere landed immigrant for the last 30 years. Anyway, so my travel goals will be to visit a friend in Edmonton, a friend in Summerland (hello Wine tours!), and head back to my home of two years, Vancouver. It would also be nice to knock off a destination I haven't ever visited so let's say Montreal. However, should the boy get his passport soon then hopefully we can visit a few american destinations as well. We've talked about Minnesota and Texas (was Texas? or some neighbouring state?). I'd also like to head to California for a wine tour. He's been (pre-passport rules for land border crossings) before but why not go again, right?

3. Find a job that ISNT a contract job. I'd like to work in the same job for more than a pre-determined time frame. This is mostly because I'd like to buy a condo or house next winter and I won't feel comfortable doing that if I don't have a longer term job. I'm hoping I find this job before April, here's hoping!!
3B. Hopefully this job will cross me over into the corporate world because dude, pay in the charity world sucks. I love having a dogooder job, but at some point I'd like to work on the other side (in a do-gooder type role, of course).

4. Continue to be madly in love with my boy.

5. Buy a house (or condo). This is something that is really important to me. I know it probably won't happen before December however, it needs to be on the list now because it is a goal that I am working towards. I don't want anything fancy, preferably something that I can make my own but that isn't a money pit. The boy lives out of town. I drive out there a few days a week. Because of his work, he won't ever move to the city but it's also really not feasible for me to commute every day and I don't want to live with my parents forever so house it is.

6. Continue and hopefully get really really close to paying off my school loans. That would be lovely. And that's the plan. I'll hopefully have the vast majority of it out of the way by year's end. Finally. YAY!!

As you can see, these are all lofty goals. Okay, maybe 4 isn't that lofty. But as such, I don't have room to list off things like "work out more" or "insert other thing here". Not that I won't be doing these things but I think this will be my major list. Maybe in a month or two I'll come up with a more fun list :)

Oh, holidays

I'm currently on a sort of vol-and-told holiday right now. Our office shuts down between Christmas and the new year but we HAVE to use our lieu time or holiday time to fill in the gaps between the various stats. I've been spending my time doing not much of anything other than hanging out with my mom, my nephew, my dog, and my boy (in no particular order).

I've managed to fit in a couple workouts which I hope to continue. I'm not a big person, in fact most consider me quite slim however, I have a very petite structure to go with that so a little extra fat on my thighs looks like a lot more on me than on others. So, I am working on toning up my thighs. Nothing crazy, it's all in the name of good health to be honest. I'm quite happy with my appearance, I just want to firm up a little bit. No biggie :)

Anyway, a job search will be starting up full force in the new year so that should be fun (or not). I'm hoping that many good things will happen this year just like for the last couple years and I know that in order for these good things to happen, I need to work to make them happen so that is my goal. However, I won't be itemizing them at this point. Maybe sometime in the next few days, maybe not. I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions so it wouldn't really be a New Year's Resolution more like a game plan for the year.

I started my new job about two weeks ago. It's been pretty interesting thus far. I've learned some things and I've contributed so that's nice. I'm currently on my second trip in less than two weeks but I don't think I'll have to travel again for awhile. I've been driving a lovely Niss@n @ltim@ which is actually pretty. I'm a G*M girl so I haven't really driven many other types of cars but this one has definitely been pretty awesome. I can say that it is definitely a car that is comfortable on a road trip since I drove it 3.5 hours yesterday and again today.

Last week's trip involved spending a day and a half with my new boss (she lives in a different city) and it was really interesting to get to know her. She also came out to Winnipeg at the beginning of the week and that was great too. She has so much knowledge that I can't wait to see what I can learn from her. Anyway, it was really great to learn that they had interviewed 6 people and that I was head and shoulders above the other candidates. I searched for so long to find the right position for me so to hear that definitely was an ego boost. Some of the other candidates had better resumes than me (better in terms of previous experience not in terms of how well it was written) but just turned out to fall flat I guess when they actually came in to interview. Apparently by the end of the day they knew they were going to hire me. YAY!!!

Ego boosts are so much fun!

Life of Leisure comes to an end

I start my new job tomorrow. That's right. I gots me a job!

I'll be working in a fundraising type role that involves working with special events (hence the attraction). It's a bit different than the events that I've worked for the last few years but I think that it is the right direction for me to go career-wise. There are definitely more opportunities to do this type of work (although, it is still a relatively small field though) so I'm super excited to be starting down this road.

BTW, road trip went well!! We had some hiccups, some pretty big hiccups but for us it was nothing. We just rolled with the punches which is kind of how we roll everywhere else so why wouldn't a road trip be the same I suppose!

Job Search Update!

Last week was definitely a rough week for me professionally. I felt pretty defeated and that's not a great feeling. This week, already, things seem to be going better!!

Last week I found out I didn't get a job that I really truly wanted. I felt pretty down about it but while I was down about it I did some things that I think were pretty important.

1. I signed up for a job search workshop available through Employment M@nitoba. It started today. Not sure how much I'll learn but if I even learn 1 thing that I can do better in my search then I think this will be helpful. I don't have a job so it's not like spending a few days there can hurt. Gets me out and about a bit more so there's a bonus too!

2. I sent out some of what I call "cold emails" kind of like cold calls, but in email form. I sent them to places I'd be interested in working for. I sent out only a few of these and guess what, 2 have already contacted me to meet with me. They don't have jobs available right now but it's still good to meet with them because they could in the future or they may know people that are looking and pass on my name. YAY! They say it's not what you know, it's who you know and that is 100% true. Even more so in my industry.

3. I sent an email to an organization I like about doing some volunteer work for them. It would be good for them and good for me. And they wrote back very interested in having me volunteer with them (that wasn't really a surprise I suppose) but also asking if I'd like to apply for a position that they have open right now!!! I have been on all the job boards and have not seen this job posted anywhere but maybe they only posted it today. Who knows! But it's nice that they are asking me if I'd be interested in applying! Doesn't guarantee me an interview but still! It makes me feel good about myself that they even asked me!!!

4. I met some cool people today at day 1 of workshops. They are all so nice and friendly. None of them are on a similar career path to me but honestly, it's like 15 or 20 people in a room and there are about 15 to 20 career paths going on. Very diverse group of people. It'll be interested to see what I can learn from them. And to see what will be refreshed in my memory!

5. I'm going to a To@stmasters group tonight. I'm just going to check them out. See if they are the right group for me (ie: to see if I'm comfortable) and I'll go from there. I'd like to work on my public speaking skills and from what I hear, this is THE way to do it. So here's hoping.

6. I think I had other things that are exciting but I can't think of them right now. Oh well!!

Winter is on it's way out here in the Peg and that's a good good thing. I feel like with Spring will come some great opportunities and I'm feeling really good about it all. (Hopefully I'm not sitting here typing the same thing about summer! haha oi!)

It's funny that when I'm frustrated with my job search, that I end up missing Vancouver. Because in Vancouver I had a job. And money. And now I don't really have either.

However, I try to stay as positive as possible. Something will come at some point for me. And until then I'll keep plugging away and sending off my resume and seeing what happens. I'm going to meet with some employment centre that is supposed to help me in my job search. We'll see how much they can do for me. I've already been told numerous times that my resume is AMAZING and that I interview very very well so where the heck am I supposed to improve things? Why am I always number 2 and not number 1. I wish I was number 10 just so that there would be obvious things for me to work on. A big part of my problem is that I don't look my age. I'm about to turn 26 and I could pass for a high school student. And that's with dolling myself up and dressing rather professionally. So what exactly am I supposed to do. Sigh.

Hopefully this place will have answers for me :)

Playing the waiting game kind of....sucks. To be blunt. I'm currently without employ. It's alright I guess, since I'm on the lovely EI and living with my parents who while they kind of drive me crazy at least living with them doesn't put me in the poor house. However, I have never ever been without work for so long in my life. It has been 5 months. 5 months. I'm hoping something comes up soon, I really am. But I do not want to compromise on this job search. I want a job that has meaning, value, and that I can love. And that pays okay. Doesn't have to pay tons but I'm 3 years out of university with my lovely bachelors degree and 4 years of work experience in my field. I'm not going to settle for something that doesn't adequately utilize my talents and pays what a newbie fresh out of uni gets...unless the job is FANTASTIC and shows tons of potential.

I guess that means I will compromise. Just not on what the actual work is I suppose.

I should point out that the first three months of my job search did not result in much of anything because hello, end of the year is an AWFUL time to be looking for a job. No one is hiring, not for professional talent at least. In a way, it's like I've only been looking for two months (even though trust me, I was still scouring the job postings DAILY back in Oct, Nov, Dec. It was just kind of pointless because there wasn't much out there).

Things are looking up. I've been learning valuable lessons with regards to networking. Most recently I learned that when you move back to a city, it's important that people see you in person to understand that you are back. A few emails back and forth apparently isn't enough because it's easy to forget about you since hey, you've been gone a couple years. Now that I know that, I am trying to make sure I'm physically out there more. As well, I plan on emailing certain contacts on a regular basis to make sure I stay top of mind. I just have to figure out what that interval is. I'm going to work with a job search company, not one of those job placement agencies but an organization that reviews your resume, helps with interview techniques etc. I'm finding that when I go on interviews I am making a good impression, they like me, but I'm always top 2 or 3 so I'm hoping that they can help me be #1. We'll see how that goes.

Wish me luck!

Elle