Note to Self: Give Advice That You Would Listen To

Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash

I’ve used my blog to highlight the challenges I’ve faced during my never-ending job search. Since 2018, I have tried to return to my former career in higher education administration.

It has not been without its struggles.

• I’ve been a finalist for almost a dozen jobs in the last four years. The toughest part is that I have seen some of those positions re-open soon after the person hired left within a year or two.
• I had to leave my professional associations because the out-of-pocket costs were too much after a year or two of self-funding my memberships.
• I couldn’t attend professional development out of state because I couldn't afford the travel.
• And I lost many of my professional network due to people leaving the region or the field.

It felt like I had to start over from scratch.

But with some reflection, that was not the case at all.

Relying on Your Strengths

In order to make the most sense of my current situation, I did what I could do on my own: I wrote.

• I wrote about my pain and struggles to be unemployed as a way to make sense of the root causes and impacts.
• I wrote about how to…