Still no J.O.B. and I think it really is ridiculous

I was recently offered a job for 8 dollars an hour. Now let me say I make well over 8 dollars an hour working from home. It was also a part time job that required me to go in every day five days a week. With the way gas prices are, I can tell you that is not happening.

I normally make from $30 to $65 an hour. I don’t work full time, so don’t get excited, but if I wanted to work more I could. This month I have pretty much worked full time, but it can get kind of hectic because when you have your own business you also have to do things that aren’t billable hours to maintain. Also, as a stay at home mom who happens to work from home I have other issues to take care of too, like housework, laundry and dinner.

The flexibility is great, but my youngest daughter is graduating in May and I wanted something different to add to my life. I just happened to want to get a job that offered health insurance, that involved teaching, or helping people, something that felt good, and to do something new. I like what I am doing, if I could get health insurance I’d like it a whole lot more, and probably would not even consider getting a job at this point. After the last couple of weeks I am not even sure I will apply for local jobs anymore. It feels like people want your talents, but they want you free.

I am so frustrated with people who want to hire a college graduate, seem to love my resume, and then give me some lame excuse about not wanting to hire me due to:

• Not enough experience
• You own your own business

These are bogus reasons to not offer me the job. Now, listen, I’m not the type of person to hype myself up. I do pretty well during interviews and I can tell when I don’t. I can tell when I do too. I know when they like me, and then I can tell when I have bombed for some reason.

I get it, personalities clash, everyone is not going to like me. But I can tell you this, my having a business does not limit my ability to work for someone else. Having a business does not mean I lack experience. A third point is most of the jobs I apply for have sub-par pay to start with, but offer something else I like, but I assume they’ll pay more than 8 dollars an hour when they have a long list of requirements, including a degree.

That something else might be that it involves one or all of the following:

• Teaching People
• Helping People
• Marketing
• Writing
• Editing

But, having said that, I am NOT going to work for 8 dollars an hour. I MIGHT consider  a salary of $35,000 or so if there is insurance involved, and maybe I might go a tiny bit lower at a college or university that has many opportunities that transcend money. Unfortunately, I’m not independently wealthy, so I have to earn money no matter whether I am doing what I love, or not. I’m at the point in my life that I’m either going to do what I love, enjoy and get paid a living wage at, or I’m simply not going to do it.

If no one hires me that’s fine, I can keep doing what I’m doing, which I will do anyway, but let me tell you, they’re missing out. I am smart, and I care about my  jobs as if I own the place. I would do my all for any place I agreed to work.  I simply ask for fair treatment and there, I think is the entire problem.

See, I worked for an architect in town a few years back and for reasons I won’t go into, I quit. I quit because I was not being treated nicely at all. In my opinion it was a very abusive situation and I had to leave. So that in a nutshell is probably what prevents me from getting jobs… they are afraid that if they treat me badly I will quit.  After all, I have my own business. Well gee, don’t interview me then. Don’t waste my time on an interview. Check references before you interview someone. Read the entire resume, check it out, then call for an interview.

I’m sure they can hire some good people, but I can promise that they won’t have as wide a range of talents as I have. I can also assure you that if they have a college degree and take an 8 dollar an hour job, they’re not going to be there long. You get what you pay for! If someone quit their job and you found out about it, ask the person. You might be shocked at why they quit. Maybe something bad happened to them.

Oh yea, if you want so much experience pay more.

Didn’t update for a while but here it is

Okay didn’t get any of the jobs I wanted, not even my dream job. But boy did I have fun at the interview. They put us up in a hotel, I did a presentation. I felt good about everything but I didn’t get the job. That’s that.

In the meantime my Mother and Father in law have given us some land to build a house on so it all works out because moving would kind of suck, though I would have done it for my dream job. Now the plan is to rock my business like I have been doing and I am still going to apply for adjunct jobs locally, and “dream” jobs that come up locally. But, I’m really super focused on my business right now which is why I haven’t been focused on this blog. I fear that I waited too long to have the dream job at a college, but I already have a dream job here at home with my business Barry Publishing. Some may wonder, if it’s so dreamy why are you looking for a different job?

Great question! But I never planned to give up my business. I was going to do both. AND there is what the problem probably is. People can tell I love my business and they figure they can’t count on me. Now I can promise you that I would not quit a dream job if I got it, at least not for the next 10 years or more, my husband and I have a lot of catching up to do after he was laid off and works for 1/4 his former income. We’re not getting any younger. But the thing is, I am pretty sure if my husband had all my degrees he’d be getting a job paying higher than me and he in fact does have a job paying higher than the jobs I apply for… because he did not take work off for raising kids, he does not own a business. He’s a man, I honestly believe it’s different for them.

Until I prove myself wrong, I’m going to believe this.

So now the plan is to do the following:

• Work on my business
• Write my book about becoming a Virtual Assistant
• Work on advancing healthcare for all
• Apply only for local jobs that I REALLY, REALLY want just keep on, keeping on. I also have to be completely honest here and say that if not for the healthcare issue, I wouldn’t be looking for jobs with healthcare. Instead I might volunteer and teach that way. Who knows.

Keep bitching about the mommy gap and trying to find ways around it for women and mothers everywhere.

 

Updates: Dream Job, and Mommy Stuff

I didn’t get the local community college job. I got two decline letters from that school since I applied for and interviewed for two jobs there. I got a second interview for the full time good paying job. I didn’t get it. I was not sad because of the fact that I am interviewing for my dream job on Jan 12, 2012.

See, sometime during my graduate school experience I realized that I wanted to be an Instructional Designer. It’s amazing how well instructional design fits in with my personality and my experience as a ghost writer. See, I don’t write novels, I am basically a technical writer. Ghost writer is just the term that is used within my group of work at home moms. As an Internet marketer I have learned to use the keyword terms that are most popular.

This is why I get so many hits on my writing website, and why I get hired by so many strangers. I use the right keywords and get the right visitors. But really, I’m a technical writer… and, yes, I don’t get credit because the buyer gets all rights including the right to put their name as the author.

I write a lot of “How To” articles with screen shots. Sometimes I even make videos my voice included or sometimes silent for the buyer to add in their voice via a script I write. It just depends on what the client wants and is comfortable with. I also market myself as a Virtual Assistant which means I literally do anything that has to do with “content” for my client from writing it, to producing it, to editing video, to closed captioning video, to uploading it all to the web, and more. If it has to do with content and the net I do it.

My dream job basically involves using technology to create lessons with information I extract from subject matter experts in a form that can be used in online learning. I would be in my own office, maybe 8 hours a day, alone, with no interaction from others except when I am talking to subject matter experts or when I am in meetings. I’ll be designing and creating about 10 complete courses per semester. What fun!

Currently, I’m working very hard on my presentation for my final interview at the dream job location! YES! I passed my first interview. But, yet once again they are only checking my references now, right before I go into my interview. I’m telling you, if I were in charge of interviewing I’d check references before I talked to anyone. It’s very nerve wracking. I think that I can explain my past, and look forward to my future now that I know the situation is exactly what I thought it was. What I see as perfectly good reasons for leaving jobs in the past is seen as “job hopping”. I look unreliable. If only they knew that I’m more dedicated to this than I’ve been to anything in my life other than parenting and my girls are grown! This job or not, I will be an instructional designer.

I will dedicate 20 or more years of my life to this career with the same enthusiasm I gave to my girls. The plan I developed in the post below is taking form already. I am going to give it my all in the face to face interview which is actually an entire day long! If I am not hired, then the plan is implemented. I will also go back to graduate school and get the degree from K-STATE in academic advising. That might help me get my foot in the door since I have noticed that some of the jobs for ID’s are multifaceted requiring other duties aside from the ID job. If that doesn’t work I’ll go ahead and get the ID degree from Emporia State although I think my Interactive Tech degree from UA and my experience should be good enough. Even if it’s not, I will leave no stone unturned to pursue this dream. My dream school and my dream job will happen.

I am really loving this feeling I have. It took me 45 years to realize what I wanted to be when I grow up! This is the first time I am glad I went to college later in life, the first time I don’t feel like I missed the boat! Because, without doing everything exactly the way I did I would not be prepared for a job like this. So mommy gap, be damned. This is going to happen.

I’m going to faint…………dream job….

Okay so it’s just a phone interview next week, but still, they’re calling ME from my resume and application and cover letter. ME.  Yea, my dream school, my dream job……. Okay it’s not near my best friend Cindy in Kansas, but it’s still the very job I want, that I plan to get even more education for if needed….. and they are calling me for a phone interview next week!

ALSO: A little birdy told me that my references that I listed ARE being called. Finally! That’s completely awesome. Now, I just need to breath in and out, and think clearly and realize that I deserve these jobs that I apply for. Maybe not more than someone else, not saying that, but as much as someone else, even if I did choose to work from home for 25 years and “try out” some jobs before I figured out what I want to do. But, now that I know, nothing is going to stop me.

Getting INTERVIEWS is probably equal to more than half the battle. I usually, when I want to, interview well…. so wow, I’m really excited again and the roller coaster is kind of fun and exciting.

My Plan to break the glass ceiling?

A client of mine, who is a small business expert, recently helped me deal with the issue of employers crossing me off their list for ridiculous reasons.

Most employers realize that supervisors move on to other jobs and that keeping track of them might not happen. It’s one reason why you provide a list of professional references. These are people who have given permission to be called to talk about you. Plus, it’s far more important to talk to those I work with NOW — because, I am far more educated, far more experienced, and well just a completely different person now in every way.

I used to have to put my kids first for instance, now they’re all grown, married or otherwise on their own! I’m FREE! One reason I could not keep the daycare job was because of my kids. There are no school busses to school from where I live.

When you work at a daycare you cannot just leave at 3 to transport kids, and you have to be there prior to 8am. (Sure, say you can hire someone all you want but until you’ve tried to hire someone you have no room to question, believe me I did hire people, and I did try to get help! But if you’re only earning 1800 a month or less after taxes, insurance, etc.. it’s hard to afford help!)

I am a successful business owner, I am highly educated. I deserve a great position with a lot of responsibility — and I will get it eventually, or I’ll just have a more successful business.

Here is my plan to escape the Mommy Gap:

 

• Volunteer at both of my college alumni associations locally
• Teach at some courses Osher lifelong learning center – Volunteer
• Get more active in the chamber which I TELL OTHERS TO DO (LOL)
• Finish my dang Virtual Assistant course that I have been working on forever
• Redo the course at online marketing for the offline business to include QR codes and to be more professional (I did it for school) and truly market it.
• Only apply for jobs at community colleges and Universities that I REALLY WANT one day a week (right now I do it continuously when I am not writing and I lost my focus)
• Build a great portfolio of courses: the VA course, the online marketing course and anything else I can think of that I can teach
• Keep writing and working for the clients I love only (this job search made me weed out clients that aren’t dependable, don’t pay on time, and are super-duper picky in a bad way and want to talk 4 hrs on the phone without charge)

 

One of two things will happen:

 

1. I’ll keep making more money every year like I have been (my income for this year is 12 percent over my income from last year)
2. I’ll get an advising job that involves teaching and helping at a community college or University — which I don’t care if it’s full time, or part time.*

So, it’ll all work out. It’s kind of good to learn about what is “out there” though.

 

*If it’s part time it has to be local.

 

Can’t talk to direct supervisors

I got a call today from one of the directors of a job I applied for. Apparently, instead of calling the professional references I listed, they’re calling all my former employers, specifically supervisors some of which are defunct.

They are angry and upset that they can’t get these supervisors. OKAY why are they calling them, I’ve had my own business for years, why aren’t they calling the professional references I listed who are clients of mine that I have had longer than a year? Apparently I can’t get a job if 1) a business went under 2) my supervisor doesn’t work there anymore and 3) the supervisor won’t return calls and 4) an audio phone system picks up requiring the caller to choose a number.

These are reasons not to hire a new person. It doesn’t matter if the person has a Graduate degree, interviewed well, tested well, and has a successful business with perfectly great references to call who would talk to them, they just want to talk to people I obviously didn’t want to work with anymore. I bet this system makes it really hard for people who worked for businesses that went under. Most people do not keep in touch with former supervisors when they stopped working there anymore. If you’re friends with your supervisor, perhaps you keep track of them, but most of us aren’t friends with our supervisors, if we were we would not have quit our job to work for ourselves.

This process makes me feel sad for the employers who will likely hire someone who has no work ethic but is rather robotic in their endeavors since they probably kept jobs for years and years that they hated because they could not envision another way to earn money. Let’s be honest here, I quit those other jobs because they sucked! They offered no challenge, no real supervision, and no upward mobility and lousy pay & benefits.

While I don’t have benefits now, I don’t feel like slitting my wrists. I want a job that requires intelligence and thought, and to work with people who respect my intelligence and thoughts. The way some of these organizations go about determining whether you’re right for the job or not seems a little wrong headed to me. Why ask for a list of references if you’re not going to call those? Sure, call the old work places, but ALSO call the list of references that you asked the applicant to supply.

I am SO GLAD that this is just a dream of mine and not a NEED. I can make money anytime I want, online, from home, in my jammies just fine thank you very much!

 

PS. There was one job that I loved, but there were issues I can’t name. I would have and often did work from sun up till sun down happily there…. I STILL miss that job. (it was a preschool)

Decided not to fill the position

Okay the Iola Kansas Job is out. They decided not to fill the position. I am not sure what to think about that!  I’m almost done with this stupid job search. I really want a job at a college but it’s so frustrating. I am going to end this post and write about the next frustrating experience that just happened today!