Current Job: Finding a Job

Today I sent out my 11th resume since the job hunt began.

I gave myself the summer off after moving to Squamish, with the promise that I would begin the hunt on September 1.  While last winter's sabbatical and travels had certainly aided in the unwinding process required after nearly 15 years with the same large corporate entity, the last few of which were spent simultaneously as a muzzled hamster (on a perpetually speeding-up wheel) and a frog (in a perpetually heating-up cauldron of hot water), the self-managed moving had rewound some of the unwinding.  Plus I was in a spectacularly huge new playground.

After an equally-spectacular hot and dry summer - which, among other great things about this place, meant putting off having to buy a lawnmower to cut the grass since the grass stopped growing, the entire summer's worth of rain began falling on Aug.28.  Over 200mm of rain in one week.  The average for August is about 30mm; Aug.31 alone saw over 80mm.  Hard sun, hard rain - I like it..

So I started - few days early - the time-consuming, brain-numbing, eye-crossing uphill climb of getting my resume up to date.  And creating a LinkedIn account (my friends assured me it was NOT like facebook if you didn't t let it be).  I hadn't done much with the resume for ten years, and I soon learned styles had changed, content had changed, layout had changed.  Colin saw my old resume and said "wow, that is so 80's!".  Not likely - I was in grade school in the 80's.  But I got the point.

WorkBC Squamish - #302, 37989 Cleveland Ave (thanks Google streetview)

At one point while meandering around the streets of downtown Squamish, I had noticed the WorkBC Job Centre sign.  Nice place in the new "Sea-to-Sky-style" building, and I acquired some good tips:

• the work centre compiles Squamish and Sea-to-Sky area jobs weekly from a number of websites into a one-stop-shopping list - available online or in print at the centre
• opportunities for engineers are limited-to-none - networking will be key (ugh.)
• Squamish Chamber of Commerce hosts regular "After 5" Business Socials which are an after-work open house for local business people to mingle - keep an eye on the Chamber of Commerce events to see when the next one is scheduled (advance sign-up required)
• plenty of up-to-date materials available to read about resume-writing, cover letters, interviews, etc. - I spent an afternoon there reading the centre's copy of Jane Foss's book "Ridiculously Awesome Resume" in parallel with editing a general draft of mine (0 job offers so far - blame me, or Jane??)

Networking.  Hard work, so not my style.  I attended an After 5 event in November, and instead of coming away battered and bruised by all the confident people who hit me for saying something dumb, or nothing at all, I had interesting conversations, drank some wine, and got a contact and invitation to send in a resume.  That's more than I had before.

I also sampled many of Squamish's coffee-shop satellite offices while writing and researching, including at the top of the gondola (combined with a hike or run).  A change of scenery from my own desk, plus I gained another contact as well.  The Adventure Centre and top-of-gondola tie for favourite.

Top of Sea-to-Sky Gondola - Sep.17, quietly just me, my pack and the rain

Top of Sea-to-Sky Gondola - Oct.6

Top of Sea-to-Sky Gondola - Dec.9, with a roasty fire going

So, 11 resumes since Aug.27...  And 10 meetings / phone interviews / networking events, some related to the resumes, some not...

That's roughly one resume and one meeting every two weeks, a couple of each a month.
Keeping in mind that each resume requires time to taylor it to the job, research the business, and create a cover letter.  And I'm being picky - I want to do something with my good skills, not something that will help me improve my bad ones, or one that involves a big portion of things I don't like.  Yeah, I'm OK with that for now.

"Find Job work" checked off today's to-do list.  I welcome any further suggestions.

Time to go for a run now, then off to the climbing gym.