Things have taken an upward swing on the job front. After about 3 weeks of applying to mass amounts of jobs online, I met with Willamette's Alumni Advisor and career counselor who advised me to stop applying to mass amounts of jobs online and start networking with people.
She told me about a Willamette grad of '84, who ran around the Seattle corporate world and ran job-seeking conferences now and then promoting her "100 cups of coffee" theory. Don't try to Google it - you'll only get bloggers prowling for men. But the theory is kind of the same. If you network with enough people and put yourself out there, eventually something good will come along. In the job scenario it's a bit more like a pyramid scheme. You grab coffee and network with 100 people, and those 100 people keep you in mind in the future, or start mentioning you to their hiring manager when open positions come along, and pretty soon you have people approaching you about jobs, instead of the other way around.
I decided 100 cups was a little daunting, so Paul, my friend and pro-Bono career counselor (yes, getting me a job is for the public good!) helped me break it down into more manageable weekly and monthly goals. It soon because Project: 50 Cups and the rules bent a little. I've been meeting with people face-to-face, but more often than not the conversation happens gradually over the phone or through a series of emails. And it's been working. I started talking to friends, neighbors, Linked-In connections, and some old connections from other jobs, and they've been connecting me with other good people to talk to, and lately I've been getting job postings sent to me. I'm on my 26th contact and I've been seeing some good results this week. I've had a few calls for interviews and I'm starting to see things turn around.
I recently started temping as an Office Assistant in a small furniture distribution company in Tigard. I'm enjoying having something to do everyday (and I think Bryann enjoys me not moping around the house all day, still unchanged and un-showered when he gets home, feeling sorry for myself.) I'll be honest, the computer was quickly becoming my nemesis, so I'm glad to be out of the house and making myself useful. Things have started to pick up, so I'm optimistic that something more long-term will happen soon.
