Cricket, Cricket, Ring

You would think that being unemployed and staying home would be a treat. There's just so much liesure time to walk the dogs, read Harry Potter, get some exercise, and do errands during the day when the stores aren't crowded. Actually, in the words of the controversial character Borat ... NOT!!!! Not true at all.

Job hunting takes a lot of time -- searching all the websites for current openings in my field; writing, and rewriting, and modifying my resume and cover letter for each position; calling industry contacts to see if they have heard of any openings or know of anyone whose looking for help. At this point, if I'm even unemployed long enough to collect on my unemployment claim, I will feel like I've definitely earned that money. I'm not saying that I've been productive every minute of every day, but it amazes me that after one whole entire week of being home, I have not been able to get to a single load of laundry done, haven't walked the dogs once (poor puppies) or exercised at all for that matter, and haven't had the time to put together a meal plan that lasts longer than what's for dinner tonight? And forget doing errands during the day. I'm tied to the house during normal business hours for fear of leaving and missing a phone call from a potential employer. So, surprising to say, after my first full week of unemployment, I'm actually glad it's the weekend so I can have a bit of a break!

To sum up the search so far, I had one interview on Monday with a colleague of my previous' boss. Went well, is a possibility, but I'm kind of hoping to get away from Broker Leasing and see if I can steer more toward Commercial Banking since that will offer a lot more stability and opportunities for advancement, not to mention better benefits. In the last week I have found and applied for 5 such jobs in the immediate vicinity that I am highly qualified for and am excited about.

I have found in the past when job hunting, that it takes a week or two from when I start sending out applications to start getting calls back. And usually when I get a call that almost always leads to an interview which almost always leads to an offer. But still, there is that initial week of silence that is always a little bit deafening and makes you start to doubt yourself, start to panic a little about the job market, start to waffle on your salary. At the end of the first week, even after carrying the cordless phone all over the house with me so that I wouldn't miss hearing a phone call, 5pm on Friday rolled around and still had not heard from anyone. Now don't get me wrong, I got plenty of phone calls. It's amazing how many calls you get from people when they know you are home during the day, and lots of support too from people who had just heard the news. Just no calls from any of the potential employers I was looking forward to hearing from.

So last night Don and I settled into our chairs to watch the finale of Supernatural Season Two. And what do you know, 6:00 p.m. rolls around and the phone rings. Don and I both sighed, not in the mood for personal calls and annoyed by the interruption to our nice relaxing evening. When I went to pick up the phone, I noticed that I did not recognize the local phone number on the caller ID. When I answered it, a nice lady introduced herself as an HR recruiter for a bank that I recently submitted my resume to! She was working a little bit late on this Friday evening and had just received my resume and thought it was worth trying to catch me before she went home.

We had a very nice chat about the position. It sounds like I am exactly what they are looking for and they are exactly what I am looking for. It is a Commercial Loan Administrative Assistant position in my salary range with the opportunity to grow into some Underwriting responsibilities. Perfect! The only bummer about the position, and this is a pretty big bummer, is that though their offices are in Sherman Oaks right now, they are going to be moving to Glendale soon. Doh! Well, that is farther than I wanted to go but the farthest that I am willing to go. Too bad they are not staying here though! Anyway, I will be interviewing with them next week. There are still a couple of similar positions in the direct vicinity. If they offer the same salary and the same opportunities those would obviously be preferable. And it always helps for salary negotiations when you already have an offer on the table. So it looks like things are moving in the right direction. And I'm going to enjoy a nice, well deserved weekend.