Unemployment Day 13

So I was continuing to think "What kind of company would hire someone like me?" Again, I'm not an expert in anything but I have experience in a lot of different things. I guess you could label me as a Financial Technologist? an Informational Analyst? Who knows. All I know is that I approach every professional opportunity as that, an opportunity; an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to grow, an opportunity to expand my horizons, but most of all an opportunity to become a professional at something. I may have not taken the path that my parents wanted. I'm not in the medical profession, I'm not a lawyer. So what the heck am I? I like to think of myself as a "logician?" If that is even a word. I like to apply logic to my responsibilities and tasks. How can I make things better? How can I get things completed? How can I make things more efficient? How can I quantify results and provide reasoning for them?

I went on indeed.com to see what kind of positions they would suggest for me. As I thought, the spectrum was broad, project manager, financial analyst, systems implementation specialist, reporting manager. It sounded like my resume, all over the place. But with the 10 years of working experience I had, there was no position that utilized all of my experience. What to do? I decided to not stress out about it. I contacted some head hunters and let them worry about it.

I decided I was going to enjoy my time off, play as much golf as possible, see what I could fix at home, expand my culinary repertoire (I learned how to cook risotto), figure out how to be a better husband and catch up with some old friends. This is when I realized how important maintaining relationships are.

Since I've worked at many different companies during my career, I've been able to meet a lot of different people in a multitude of different industries. I actually know a lot of people. And a lot of those people know what I am capable of. Then I started looking back at my past positions and how I got them.

My first job out of college was through a fraternity brother that I pledged with. I had no experience in the position, but since he vouched for me, I was hired. The next company I moved to was a client of mine from my first job. After that, a coworker from my first company who has become one of my best friends, referred me to a position with Kaiser. After Kaiser, a recruiter actually found me a position where the hiring manager ended up being a high school classmate. While he wasn't able to hire me, he did refer me to another position with the company which I did get hired for. I started to see a trend. This has provided me with a sense of comfort. My "network" has my back. It's a great feeling. I have quite a few people looking out for me.

This brings me back to the job hunt. Last week I had nothing. No leads, no interesting positions, recruiters weren't calling, things looked bleak. This week, 2 recruiters called me for opportunities that were hiring immediately and they really liked my resume. And, AND, one of my old friends from Helio (who I just played golf with today) told me that he is hiring for a new position he created and he wants me to interview for it IMMEDIATELY. Seriously? While I'm not a very religious person, I must say, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

So, to summarize, I love my friends.