Skip to main content

48 Days to the Work You Love: Chapter 7 Questions


Chapter 7: Finding Your Unique Path

1. Are some job markets more secure than others? "Keep in mind the transition we have had from 'production work' to 'knowledge work'." I'm glad Miller put this into words. Sometimes it seems to me it would be so much easier to go to work on a factory line, put in your 8 hours a day, and go home. I go to work at the preschool, put in my 6.5 hours, go home, and think about the preschool while I'm home. I lesson plan; I screen story books; I brainstorm ways to help one kid enter into play while simultaneously brainstorming ways to redirect another child's too-active play. My job is emotionally exhausting. Miller writes, "[As a knowledge worker] your tools of the trade are largely between your two ears." As an early childhood educator, my tools are also in my heart. Miller goes on: "Thus your skills are much more transferable than those of production workers." My skills transferable? I'll have to think on that one some more. None of this goes to answer the question, however. Are some job markets more secure than others? At this time in our economic history, I don't think any job market is secure. There.

2. What are the best places to look for new opportunities in today’s workplace? Well, I got my new job by applying to an ad on Craigslist, but Miller claims that "Fewer than 1 percent of job seekers actually get a position from responding to an Internet ad." Other ways to not get a position include answering an ad in the paper, using a headhunter, and answering an ad in a trade journal. I'm applying for a second job at Bookman's. I marched in there one day with my peeps and asked at the trade desk who's responsible for hiring. The nice clerk gave me an application and told me to have fun with my cover letter. I'll show you when I'm done.

3. What are the biggest mistakes you’ve made in the past in looking for new positions? Not looking. Staying too long in a position that long ago lost its appeal and utility.

4. How do you feel about “promoting” yourself? Very hard for me to do. We're not supposed to toot our own horns. Identifying strengths feels like bragging. I'm far more comfortable enumerating my weaknesses. Miller says finding a new position is basically a sales job and the product is yourself. And he recommends making phone calls. I hate making phone calls.

5. How do you know when to change jobs or careers? When the oppression at the current position becomes simply too much to bear, and the desire to drive my car into a tree is stronger than my desire to drive my car to work.

6. How should we apply the principles found in Colossians 3:23–24 as workers in this day and time? "(23) Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, (24) since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." I believe that the Lord Christ dwells within me, so the satisfaction I receive from working with all my heart at whatever I do serves my self and my Lord. Trouble is, I'm no longer working with all my heart when I'm at the preschool, and I use my current personal transitions as an excuse. My God-given abilities are taking backseat to the real-life tribulations I'm experiencing. I wonder how subtle a shift in thinking (feeling?) is required to bring my heart back to my work. To bring my heart back to anything, for that matter.

*sigh*

Comments

auntie m said…
I read your posts and identify with them more than you could ever know. Sometimes I feel like I wrote them if I was a good writer and could write like you.

Popular posts from this blog

doesn't take much

This afternoon I went to Starbucks. I don't go often because they're spendy and they've monopolized the coffee business and most of the time I just want black coffee. Part of our Thanksgiving tradition, though, is going to Mom's Target and Starbucks on Black Friday. This year we made it to Target but not to Starbucks, nor did we make it to Starbucks on Saturday, as we said we would on the way to the Deer Valley Goodwill. I have a gift card smoldering in my pocket so today, after buying spray paint and water marbles at JoAnn, I pulled up to the drive-thru at Starbucks. Usually I get some kind of blended iced vanilla chai thing. At the orderboard I was distracted by all the holiday drinks and opted for a white chocolate peppermint mocha, grande. One thing I will say for Starbucks: the employees are always uber-friendly. After ordering from the chirpy counterperson I pulled forward slightly, plugged in my ipod, and started a game of solitaire while listening to the White S...

memory

thrifting: getting good again

The Sunday before Halloween I scored this vintage Fisher Price Barn at Saver's for $2.99. When I was a kid I had this barn, and played with it all the time. At that age I was convinced my dad could fix anything, and I can't remember if it was the Fisher Price Barn or the Weebles Cottage that he fixed up for me, numerous times, beyond any reasonable expectation. Jack's interpretation of how the barn should look on the inside. Retro sticker, clue to the life of the previous owner. I should also mention that I recently found another similar Fisher Price vintage barn at Goodwill, but they had it priced at $19.99! At Goodwill! Crazy. That same thrifting day at Saver's I bought this repro Kewpie for $7.99, which is, for me, quite a lot to dish out for one item. Again, I had a similar one when I was younger, but mine wore yellow/peach flowered coveralls. I remember once learning that Kewpie is a boy, and trying to reconcile that with my own conception of Kewpie as a girl. Clea...