Category: job search

A first for me…

I try to theme my posts here and Mondays are the first day of the work week so my theme has been firsts. But in a first for me, I have nothing today. Nothing is jumping out at me as a first in history, nothing is happening that is a first for me and really, I’m just a little out of sorts today.

So how about some random thoughts?

  • I’m planning to get outside and walk today for the first time since Thanksgiving. Maybe that’s why I’m out of sorts? I haven’t had any real exercise in 2 weeks!
  • I have a new recipe for Christmas this year that seems to be a hit with my former co-workers judging by their reaction to trying them on Friday, Want to try yourself? Put mini Nilla wafers flat side up on a cookie sheet. Top with a Rolo candy and put into a 250 degree oven for 2-3 minutes. Take out of the oven and top with another Nilla wafer squishing down to make a little sandwich. Allow to cool completely and dip in chocolate. I’m told it tastes like a Twix – but I don’t like caramel so I’ll never know!
  • On this date in 1948, the first woman US army officer not in the medical corps was sworn in. That’s a good first!
  • Just tried an online random thought generator – I got this: Don’t let anyone ever dull your sparkle. Words to live by! And maybe exactly what I needed this morning.

Want to try the random thought generator yourself? Give it a whirl at https://www.bestrandoms.com/random-thoughts

First Rejection

My resume is updated and I started applying for new jobs last week. And promptly got my first rejection note. Oddly enough, it didn’t really bother me. The role was one I could have done well, but it wasn’t really my dream job. And really, I don’t know that I should settle for just “a new job.”

At this point in my career, I really hope I don’t need to settle. I want to work at a company that really values their employees and where I can use my experience/skills to make a difference. I am good at what I do – although at times like these, it isn’t always easy to remember.

I’m reading a book titled YOU are a BADASS: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. I cannot recommend it enough. I’m not usually a self-help book kind of person – but this book is really helping me put some things about myself into perspective. I’ve never been good at self-promoting but maybe that needs to change.

For all of you that I have worked with in the past and have sent me messages over the last couple of weeks – even when we haven’t spoken in FOREVER, I cannot tell you how much I have appreciated hearing from you. The sympathy and encouragement are overwhelming – thank you!

And last but not least – if you work in HR or know someone who does, know that the rejection notes are the nicest thing you can do for an applicant if you won’t be moving forward with them. Ghosting your applicants just leaves them hanging. The roller coaster of emotions your applicants are going through is hard enough – so send the note so they know where they stand OK?

Thursday Throwback

Part of processing being laid off last week has had me thinking about when I was at my happiest in my career. The thinking being, to shake off the sadness over the Walgreens lay off and find what makes me happy again.

I think my happiest years career-wise were the years I spent at Midas. Big brand – tiny marketing department. It was my first client-side job and while I was hired because of my media and field marketing experience, the tiny size of the marketing team let me get involved in almost all aspects of marketing. Boundary lines between roles and even departments in the company were blurry. There weren’t silos.

Even though Midas wasn’t always a well managed corporation during my tenure, in the later years under our last CEO, we flourished. We got serious about focus, used hard data to guide decisions and put our franchisees/customers first. And it really paid off with 8 straight quarters of amazing growth. Maybe it paid off too well since it resulted in the company being bought out – but I’m thinking I need to get back to that kind of place. Encouragement for out of the box thinking, no silos, customer first. Now I just need to figure out if that kind of place still exists – and how to get my foot in the door when I find it!

It’s To Do Tuesday!

I’m making to-do lists today. I love to make lists to keep me organized – and I love ticking off completed items even more! There is usually a post-it note with the day’s list of things to do stuck to my desk right by the keyboard. But what about days like today when everything is a bit overwhelming?

Well apparently, I’m not the only one that loves lists – I did a quick Google search on to-do lists and got over 25 BILLION results! Visual lists, priority lists, shareable lists – you name it, there’s a template or a process for it. But I’m not going to recommend anything – you do you and find what works. I like a post-it note – or several post-its for different task groups but that might not work for everyone.

Here’s a few interesting links if you want to switch up your to-do list game:

Now please excuse me – I have a list to make of all the things I need to get in order to start my job search. And a grocery list for Thanksgiving. And a Christmas list! Gotta run!

WELCOME BACK!

Yup – it’s been a LONG time since I’ve written anything here. What can I say? Life happened. I changed jobs, we had a pandemic and I was just so busy with other things that I just let Learn-or-Do fade into the background. But last week, life happened again – I lost my job in a large corporate layoff at Walgreens and so Learning and Doing has become very important again.

So today, before do the knee-jerk thing of just madly starting to apply to any job that sounds vaguely interesting, I’m taking a beat. I’m going to breathe, give my emotions a little time to settle (because this was so unexpected and left my old team in a such a hard place) and then carefully consider what I want to do.

There was a time when I though Lebron James was arrogant when he talked about where he wanted to take his services when he left the Cleveland Chevaliers, but I get it now. See you all tomorrow!