Gee, I forgot I had this blog and it was interesting to get back on here and see where I was in August, 2009. An update: I've been babysitting since August, 2009 and now I have 18 steady clients, about 25 *wonderful* children and earn enough to make ends meet. And I've made friends with many of the parents.
I've lived in my neighborhood for 31 years and because I just went out to work every day, I never knew any of my neighbors sans the guys across the street. That always made me feel some sort of void. Through babysitting, I've made so many friends within walking distance, that it is rare I go through the neighborhood without stopping to chat with someone. I finally feel like I belong here. So I'm taking my house off the market.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The full working circle
Ah, the current employment situation - and you are out of work. You sink so low that you look for postings on Craigslist. There you find some legitimate postings and you apply, but you hear nothing back. If YOU post that you are looking for a position, your mailbox fills up with so much spam and false leads, that were you to be paid for the time spent deleting them, you would be rich.
Then there are sites like Monster.com, etc. Post your resume, you apply for positions and wait for the calls to come in....and wait and wait. I started to think about the void into which one drops resumes and job applications. It is extremely rare that you hear back from a company when you apply for a job unless YOU are the ONE they were looking for! Understandably in this day and age, companies receive so many applications for one position that they have no time to respond to all those who will be turned down. You start to believe that there is something really negative in your background that everyone knows but you. I've spent entire days filling out applications on line and there is a tendency to get really down in the dumps and feel inept over the situation.
So I started to think in a more creative light; how can I make a job for myself? I tried several things. Being an artist, I thought I’d sell my art. I quickly found out that people aren’t buying art in these times; they are buying things like shoes for their children and food. I build furniture, but people aren’t willing to pay the price of custom furniture – at least not enough for me to cover the cost of materials and labor – when Ikea is around and refinishing “found” furniture is en vogue.
Then there was baby-sitting, which was my very first occupation while still in high school. It turns out that was the “ah-ha”. I posted on neighborhood newsgroups in my area and I was inundated with inquiries and, indeed, I started working the very next day. Good references, one of the oldest residents in the neighborhood, get paid to take a walk through the park and play with all the latest toys kids own these days. Sounds dreamy. Well, it’s not. It has nothing to do with the kids crying and dribbling and squirming and bouncing off the walls. It’s the parents, who are generally great parents but they tend to see a baby-sitter as available and disposable on a moment’s notice. One couple asked me to come and watch their children during their dinner hour so they could have quiet meals. One couple asked me to sit on Sunday morning so they could go to church. It turns out that after parents have the children they seem to want so badly, they find that kids actually infringe on their life-styles. Who would have thought? But I have to say that if one can stand firm on the scheduling (and you need to have lots of folks interested in your services to do that), it sure beats signing up to be a secret shopper or earning points for money on line. So I guess I’ve come full circle.
Then there are sites like Monster.com, etc. Post your resume, you apply for positions and wait for the calls to come in....and wait and wait. I started to think about the void into which one drops resumes and job applications. It is extremely rare that you hear back from a company when you apply for a job unless YOU are the ONE they were looking for! Understandably in this day and age, companies receive so many applications for one position that they have no time to respond to all those who will be turned down. You start to believe that there is something really negative in your background that everyone knows but you. I've spent entire days filling out applications on line and there is a tendency to get really down in the dumps and feel inept over the situation.
So I started to think in a more creative light; how can I make a job for myself? I tried several things. Being an artist, I thought I’d sell my art. I quickly found out that people aren’t buying art in these times; they are buying things like shoes for their children and food. I build furniture, but people aren’t willing to pay the price of custom furniture – at least not enough for me to cover the cost of materials and labor – when Ikea is around and refinishing “found” furniture is en vogue.
Then there was baby-sitting, which was my very first occupation while still in high school. It turns out that was the “ah-ha”. I posted on neighborhood newsgroups in my area and I was inundated with inquiries and, indeed, I started working the very next day. Good references, one of the oldest residents in the neighborhood, get paid to take a walk through the park and play with all the latest toys kids own these days. Sounds dreamy. Well, it’s not. It has nothing to do with the kids crying and dribbling and squirming and bouncing off the walls. It’s the parents, who are generally great parents but they tend to see a baby-sitter as available and disposable on a moment’s notice. One couple asked me to come and watch their children during their dinner hour so they could have quiet meals. One couple asked me to sit on Sunday morning so they could go to church. It turns out that after parents have the children they seem to want so badly, they find that kids actually infringe on their life-styles. Who would have thought? But I have to say that if one can stand firm on the scheduling (and you need to have lots of folks interested in your services to do that), it sure beats signing up to be a secret shopper or earning points for money on line. So I guess I’ve come full circle.
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