Within the last twenty-four hours, I've gotten two job interviews set up in the next week and half! I'm still searching and applying for positions that interest me and that I believe I have a shot at getting at least an initial interview. I'm doing online courses to learn more about project management and I'm trying to find the best ways to learn more about project management as a discipline. I'm pretty confident that project management as a career is the direction I want to go, so it is now a matter of learning as much as I can both on the job (when I get one) and through learning more about project management outside of work.
This is definitely an interesting place for me to be in and I am oddly not as worried about my prospects as I thought I would be. I know that my job search may take time, but I also know that I will eventually be successful.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Other Big Thing in My Life Right Now
I thought I would also post about the other big thing in my life right now. I’ve begun training for the 2009 Walt Disney World Marathon in January. Actually, I’ll be running both the Half-Marathon on Saturday, January 10 and then the Marathon on Sunday, January 11. This is called the Goofy Challenge and means that I’ll be running 39.3 miles over two days (while at Walt Disney World, so I’ll be walking a bit before and after the races, too!).
I’ve done the Marathon twice before, in 2007 and 2008, and enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to do both races next year. The training shouldn’t be too much harder than in previous years. I read somewhere to treat doing the Goofy Challenge as doing three half-marathons in two days. That way you can handle it better. (I should point out that I’m not fast, not at all, but I finish my races and I finish them running, so I figure I can do the Goofy. My times just won’t be all that quick.)
Because I’m doing the Goofy Challenge, I decided to try doing base training before starting my marathon training. Base training, as the name implies, helps develop a base fitness level for your race training. This article at Runner's World, Build Your Best Training Base, by Scott Douglas, helped me plan my base training program. Even though I started the program this week, I feel like it has helped me already. I’ve gotten out all three days so far this week that I was supposed to run and I’ll go out tomorrow for my long run (only 45 minutes and I’m usually just getting warmed up after 45 minutes). Once I start cross-training or lifting on the off days, I believe I’ll really start seeing and feeling the benefits of base training.
I’ve done the Marathon twice before, in 2007 and 2008, and enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to do both races next year. The training shouldn’t be too much harder than in previous years. I read somewhere to treat doing the Goofy Challenge as doing three half-marathons in two days. That way you can handle it better. (I should point out that I’m not fast, not at all, but I finish my races and I finish them running, so I figure I can do the Goofy. My times just won’t be all that quick.)
Because I’m doing the Goofy Challenge, I decided to try doing base training before starting my marathon training. Base training, as the name implies, helps develop a base fitness level for your race training. This article at Runner's World, Build Your Best Training Base, by Scott Douglas, helped me plan my base training program. Even though I started the program this week, I feel like it has helped me already. I’ve gotten out all three days so far this week that I was supposed to run and I’ll go out tomorrow for my long run (only 45 minutes and I’m usually just getting warmed up after 45 minutes). Once I start cross-training or lifting on the off days, I believe I’ll really start seeing and feeling the benefits of base training.
Still at it
Well at least I'm updating within the month!
So I didn't intend to go this long between posts. I have found myself surprisingly busy with my job search, yet also with a variety of other things. One piece of advice I’ve always heard about job searching is that you shouldn’t get distracted by other things, such as projects around the house, etc. This is good advice. I haven’t gotten too bogged down by other things yet, but focusing on the job search all day is tough. I try to spend a good part of the day in the job search, but it can be tough.
I’ve decided to focus a lot of my search and networking efforts with a very large national retailer based here (not the one I used to work for). I think I would fit in very well at this company and I hope to be able to get into it either directly or as a contractor. We’ll see how it goes. I’m also continuing to look at other opportunities and in reality, anything that looks good will be just fine with me.
So I didn't intend to go this long between posts. I have found myself surprisingly busy with my job search, yet also with a variety of other things. One piece of advice I’ve always heard about job searching is that you shouldn’t get distracted by other things, such as projects around the house, etc. This is good advice. I haven’t gotten too bogged down by other things yet, but focusing on the job search all day is tough. I try to spend a good part of the day in the job search, but it can be tough.
I’ve decided to focus a lot of my search and networking efforts with a very large national retailer based here (not the one I used to work for). I think I would fit in very well at this company and I hope to be able to get into it either directly or as a contractor. We’ll see how it goes. I’m also continuing to look at other opportunities and in reality, anything that looks good will be just fine with me.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Strange how things change so quickly
My first post was done in a bit of a funk, not sure what was going to happen with our job searches or what the future would be like. The next day was more of the same, looking for jobs, trying to figure out how to maximize the possibilities. Wondering what would happen and how long it would take. Then on Day 3 of our combined search, my wife gets an offer at the company where she works for a position that she really wanted. So, obviously, she accepted the position. Now comes the strange part of the last two weeks.
My wife had said that if she got an offer soon after I had left my job, we would take a quick trip to Walt Disney World. So rather than try to do job searching, I spend the day working with my wife and her mother (both of my in-laws also came on the trip) to get hotel rooms and reservations on the flight we usually take to Orlando on Sun Country airlines to go down last Wednesday and come back this past Sunday, a nice 5-day trip that would give us a bit of a break before my wife started her new job.
Last Monday and Tuesday, I got ready for the trip and did some searching. Then last Wednesday morning, at far too early an hour, we went to the airport and started our trip, which was fantastic.
Sunday afternoon, we returned tired, but happy. My wife started her new job yesterday and I re-started my job search. So far, it's going all right. I'm a little out of practice and I need to get back into networking mode quickly, but I'm confident that I'll find a job sooner rather than later.
My wife had said that if she got an offer soon after I had left my job, we would take a quick trip to Walt Disney World. So rather than try to do job searching, I spend the day working with my wife and her mother (both of my in-laws also came on the trip) to get hotel rooms and reservations on the flight we usually take to Orlando on Sun Country airlines to go down last Wednesday and come back this past Sunday, a nice 5-day trip that would give us a bit of a break before my wife started her new job.
Last Monday and Tuesday, I got ready for the trip and did some searching. Then last Wednesday morning, at far too early an hour, we went to the airport and started our trip, which was fantastic.
Sunday afternoon, we returned tired, but happy. My wife started her new job yesterday and I re-started my job search. So far, it's going all right. I'm a little out of practice and I need to get back into networking mode quickly, but I'm confident that I'll find a job sooner rather than later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)