New Opportunities

After the dry spell, a small deluge.

Today four friends forwarded three job leads to me. Two of them are church-related, and one of those is with an Episcopal organization. The third would take me back into the field I worked in when I was employed at Pitney Bowes. A couple of people who have been my sounding boards through this period of unemployment have noted that I talk about my time with Pitney Bowes a lot. So it may be worth pursuing that third lead.

Tomorrow I'll sit down take a closer look at the job descriptions. One of them isn't particularly interesting, even though I have the skills to do the job. While I am anxious to find new employment, I also don't want to get myself into a job that I don't particularly like.

This morning my Outplacement Coach and I began the process of putting together a search plan. Late in the game? Not really. It's still less than 110 days that I've been unemployed; less than 3 1/2 months. And for the first time in my professional life, I'm working with a Coach and not a firm or corporate consultant. It's a very different process. I find myself looking forward to my sessions and always feel more positive about things when we're done.

It is possible that I will find a position before I actually complete this coaching process. But what I'm developing now is a long-range plan. We've even talked about the NEXT job during this process.

I also have a couple of projects I'm working on for organizations I belong to. They're concrete. They have short term goals and objectives. They provide me with the opportunity to create some structure to my days during this time of upheaval and uncertainty. Not to mention that they look good on the resume.

Onward.