So I did what I could to save every penny in preparation for both and enjoyed the journey. My week in Arizona with my sister, our friends, and riding a horse with no name in the desert (true story!) was exactly what I needed to center myself for my return, and subsequent joblessness.
Interestingly, I had anticipated finding a job quickly and yet the weeks went by with resume writing, agency referrals, and interviews to no avail. This was strange for me as I have never had an issue with finding a job before. But then I have become pickier too... and so, it seems, has potential employers. If I want to make anything beyond $16 an hour it seems I now need a degree... even a certificate will often suffice. It doesn't matter than I have fifteen years experience... just that I have a piece of paper saying I have a clue. Even more annoying, I noticed that I would likely double my income, given the experience I currently have, with that piece of paper. Interesting indeed.
Frustrated, I looked at my options. I had four. Take a possible hit in pay to take a job I am vastly overqualified for by dumbing down my resume to get the job, go back to retail (which my kids have made VERY clear they don't want because of the crazt hours), keep applying and hope I eventually get hired, or go back to school. Hmm, what to do.
So being me, I chose two of the four. I will not dumb down anything, so option one was out. I had a long talk with my daughter and she felt very strongly about the importance of spending time with me, so option two was out. That left school and continued job searching.
While keeping this in mind, I looked at what I loved/excelled at and what I was willing to do to achieve a job that I loved/excelled at. After a lot of research and thought I looked into a business degree and found the perfect option. Athabasca University has an MBA program in which you can PLAR (meaning, you can use your life experience towards the degree). I called their admission office and was not only welcomed warmly, I was told that with my experience, not only did I not need to PLAR for admission to the MBA program (meaning I have the equivalent of a bachelors degree from experience), I could most likely challenge several of the courses in the program itself to shorten the time it took to achieve my degree. Most importantly, I can do it all via distance learning at my own pace and can work it around a full-time position. I applied for the MBA program, applied for a student loan for tuition the next day. I was quickly accepted into the program and am waiting to hear about the student loan. If approved, I will be starting in May!
Next up was finding a job while I work on my degree. I sat down and figured out exactly how much income I needed to cover just living expenses. Though I am not planning to reduce my income in order to find employment, I felt this was an important thing to know as I would rather have a less demanding job that paid a bit less than to have a job that interfered with school. My priorities are my kids (always) and my education (right now). I then went to two of my friends who do a lot of HR in their positions, and asked them to critique my resume. Finally, I added two key people to my references who were gracious enough to support me in this. Newly armed, I again struck out full force with my job hunting and am very excited about the new possibilities, given my new focus.
Last week brought a very promising position which I am fine-tuning my resume to. The position doesn't close for a bit, so I won't have an answer soon, but I am excited about this opportunity. I will continue my search in other areas as well, wish me luck!
