Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

This is a short update post on the job search. Yes indeedy, I've been very fortunate that the job search is over after months of pushing really hard to network with friends and friends of friends, and being clear on what I was looking for.  A company has agreed to hire a stay-at-home-mom - me Alas, I had to give up on my requirement for part-time work, my pipe dream of working 8:30 am - 3:00 pm.  There really wasn't a part-time job that was sufficiently interesting for me to make the effort to go to an office, so I am back working full-time.  Challenging and demanding work too, so for those of you who are contemplating going back to work after being out of the workforce for some time, I'll share my experiences. In the meantime, this explains why I've been so delinquent in posting to my blog.  More later.

On which I have a few ideas.  As my husband keeps telling me, I won't get a job by spending hours in front of the computer submitting applications to online job postings.  The best use of any job-seeker's time is spent talking to friends and acquaintances and letting them know that you are looking for a job and what your skills and interests are. So here is what I found tricky about networking: How hard to push?  Working parents are busy, so if I asked a friend, who is a working parent, about a position I had seen at their company, do I ask a second time? How soon after? And what if there is another position - do I talk about that too?  If that friend is very enthusiastic about getting more information for me on a post then I hear nothing, what then?  Is it realistic to think they'll get back to me?  I find it difficult to broach the topic again.  I might ask a second time but for me there is no third time. What do I trade in return? In the net...

This post is about how we carry things around with us that we may not even realise, so even though I will be talking about my job search, it is really about what my search revealed about the emotional baggage I was carrying with me. When I first came to the US from my little Caribbean island, I stuck with working for big companies (and by big, I mean internationally-recognized names). When I started my job search this time around, I started in the same place - looking at big companies. This, even though I learnt so much and made so many friends from the only small company I've worked for in town - NetQoS, the best small company I could find at the time.  I still went back to look into big companies.  Now why is that? It has taken me many, many years to figure it out, but I had an epiphany this time around.  The bottom line is when my parents and my family ask me where I work, I want to be able to say a name that they recognize. I want them to be proud of me, and they...

That was the first question that friends asked when I told them I was going back to work. The simple answer is that we would have to make choices that we are not prepared to, in order for me to stay at home. And what choices would those be? Well, it really boils down to just one - private school for Lucas. If we put Lucas back into public school (or homeschool), I can continue to stay at home.  So, even if I could see myself surviving 1 year of homeschooling Lucas, what about the following year and the year after that?  And what about Liam?  Good grief - there is only so much stress I can handle.  Besides, I can imagine that after homeschooling, public school will become less and less appealing in terms of challenge.  So, homeschooling would be indefinite and I've already said enough on public school. Why did I stay home in the first place? When we first made to decision for me to stay home, it was borne of necessity - Liam was getting s...