Sunday, October 7, 2012

How to get a job

So it's come down to this. Gotta get get---gotta get get --get a job! (thanks to the BEP) I just retired and was, may I say, so happy! Free to do and go and be and think. Then I realized: I need structure. My day is moving too rapidly along, so, so rapidly. I'm also not monetarily structured either.

I'm sewing madly in preparation for Fall Farmers Market, which will open in two weeks. My sales bring some extra money, but not the kind of money a full-time, regular job will bring.

Finding a job is a little tedious. I signed up with several online job networks and saw a couple of interesting positions in Washington and Oregon, but, hey, I'm not planning on moving! So then began a daily grind. Look, examine, dismiss, keep looking.

What is it I would like to do? Yes, that IS the question. Try something new. I interviewed on the telephone for a field rep position. The job required traveling all over North Louisiana. Too much wear and tear on my car. Worse, I have a sleepiness problem when driving, especially long distances.

Maybe register with one of the temp agencies? At least, I would have a variety of jobs over a period of time. Maybe later...

So, what about what I know? What about as substitute in public schools? I subbed over a period of two years when I first retired. Had some fun jobs and not so fun. Maybe later...

Or, look, there are three library openings. Let me apply for one and see how it goes!!l Do I know enough to apply? Let's make a list of accomplishments, then a list of things that could be done in this new setting. Walk in prepared. Dress for success.

More to come on this topic....
Several days after the first interview for school librarian:
Here are my impressions:
1. I wasn't mentally prepared for a committee of three to interview me. Should have been, but wasn't. I had to mentally adjust in about three seconds.
2. The principal acted shocked to learn I was retired. Why? It is in my resume. I thought at that moment I might as well pick up my things and leave the interview...
3.  Out of several questions, I was asked two questions for which I could only offer sketchy answers, but had the know-how to teach myself the content. The principal called me out on one: "You haven't answered the question."
4. In verbalizing the interview I see that I did not do well, but I also see that this job is probably not for me.
5. As soon as I get my "not for us" letter, I'll apply for the next job.

Cry, shout, be disappointed, get over it. Move on to the next. No big deal.
More to come on this topic...

Yep, got that letter and sent out an app for the next one: librarian at the school where I spent 25 years in the classroom. It's a 50-50 proposition whether I'm invited to an interview. Left that school nine years ago with a huge misunderstanding. The librarian position came open for one year (librarian on sabbatical). I applied, the principal basically read me the riot act because my last year saw me late so many times. She was sure that my (creative) disorganization would disrupt the librarian's ascetic neatness.  I left that interview thinking that hell would freeze over before I got that job. Waited all summer. No call. Interviewed at another school and was offered the librarian's job. The next day the first principal called (this was two weeks before school began) and offered me that job. I had to refuse. Later, I learned that she was dangerously infuriated with me. Yes, very unfair over all. 

So, I've waited a week for an interview call, which, apparently will not come. I was hoping that the principal had forgotten her anger. Really, how is it fair to keep a candidate dangling for a summer? Apparently, she had planned to hire me, but how could I know that after her scathing interview.

So, in sadness, on to the next library opening. ...

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A favorite souvenir

A favorite souvenir
These are my two girls from Ireland!

Judy's shared items

Books on my very ambitious TBR list (*denotes read)

  • *Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox
  • The Odd Women by George Gissing
  • The Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson
  • How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell
  • The Cod Tale by Mark Kurlansky
  • In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
  • *Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
  • Dag Hammarskjold by Elizabeth Rider Montgomery
  • The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet by Rabbi Michael L. Munk
  • Children of Strangers by Lyle Saxon
  • Spiritual Writings by Flannery O'Connor
  • Nightmares and Visions: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Grotesque by Gilbert H. Muller
  • The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor
  • Flannery O'Connor's South by Robert Coles
  • Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
  • Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrissey
  • *Vincent de Paul by Margaret Ann Hubbard
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
  • A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
  • Readicide by Kelly Gallagher
  • *Ruined by Paula Morris
  • Say You're Not One of Them by Uwem Akpan
  • Wandering Star by J.M.G. Le Clezio
  • Silence by Shusaku Endo
  • *The Assault by Harry Mulisch
  • Kari's Saga by Robert Jansson
  • *The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal
  • Western Skies by Joseph Conrad
  • *The Giver by Lois Lowery
  • *Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski

School Library Journal - NeverEndingSearch

Imperium

Imperium
A semester course in one book about the Soviet Union. Click on image for my review.