There's a First for Everything

I mentioned a while back that I was going to try dipping my toe back in the tepid pool of the employed. I applied for a job that in many ways would have been perfect for me. I could use my experience in doing stuff I know how to do while making a worthwhile contribution to the organization - but I wouldn't be tethered to the loooong working days and high stress of the corporate world. A match made in heaven. But, alas, I was turned down.

I have to admit it was kind of a weird feeling. I can't remember the last time I didn't get a job. In the way, way back when I was first looking for a job after graduating college, there were probably a few jobs that I interviewed for that I didn't get. I can't remember the rejection, so I must have chosen to erase those from my memory.

History (my personal version) is I got my first job fairly quickly, lied my way effectively in to the second (OF COURSE I have been doing exactly what the job entails choke choke choke) and from then on I just moved along. Even when we moved across country I got the first job I interviewed for. Stayed with them for the next 15 years. The next job they came for me. The next job the same. But this time....

I have a big fat resume. And, that's what's likely going to be a little problematic. How do you move backwards? I am not interested in the many houred work days. I am not interested in the titles. What I am interested in is just being able to use the skills that I have in a work experience that allows me to spend a little time outside of this full time job they call Motherhood.

Conversely, the boys still need me at home (all of them). But, man a little extra moola might come in handy for this proposed home renovation (not to mention giving me a little pin money of my own). And, a little stepping outside into the real world has an obvious allure.

The other day I went downtown to have lunch with an old colleague. I stepped in to the world of "people with purpose" - everyone dressed for work, checking their PDAs obsessively for messages about things that they were doing in the business venue. I check my blackberry for information as to whether basketball practice will still go on in the rain. A different fruit altogether.

But for now, I will lick my not too terribly wounded ego and think about the pros and cons of starting a job search in earnest. What I want is for the perfect opportunity to fall in to my lap. Unrealistic, but it's still what I want. You know: Phone rings. Person on the other end, knows you or has heard of you and has the perfect job for you paying you an outrageously generous salary for doing exactly what you love to do.

It could happen. Couldn't it?