So here's an update. I've got an interview for a "director of communications and marketing" position with a not-for-profit organization. My first in a pretty long time. I think they are going to want someone in the office full-time, but I am excited, and terrified, about exploring the possibilities. Wish me luck (on Friday morning) in my new "professional looking, interview appropriate, and goes nicely with my black pants from Banana Republic" jacket.
I spent this morning at the Starbucks in
Cherry Creek drafting a couple of cover letters, and sending my resume into cyberspace. Thank you
Andrew Hudson for your fabulous PR jobs list. I am checking it & others out every couple of days. But after spending more on a grande 1/2 skim, 1/2 soy decaf extra hot latte (what, thats high maintenance?) and a mixed berry muffin than one of the part-time jobs that caught my interest is offering to pay, I decided to was time to go across the street and check out the offerings at
West Elm. Great; I could spend an entire year's paycheck from the aforementioned job in a matter of four minutes here. Time to forget about jobs - and rugs and lamps, go get Adina from pre-school, and move on.
Part-time work that is stimulating and challenging, offers flexible scheduling, and provides fair compensation. Whats a mom to do ????????????????????????????????????
So we know that the way work has worked just doesn't work for many of today's educated and experienced women. Sure, there are notable companies that have risen to the occasion and created opportunities for us to off-ramp and on-ramp at different stages of our careers, and made flextime work arrangements more available. Still, too many women looking for any schedule other than full time, Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, are faced with having to accept positions beneath their skill sets, and/or with ridiculously low pay.
HOW CAN WE PUT OUR EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE TO WORK AND MEET THE NEEDS OF OUR FAMILIES, AND OURSELVES, AT THE SAME TIME?
In the Denver Post a few days ago,
Dave Maney proclaimed that "full-time, 9-to-5 work is a relic of the pre-Internet days." According to Maney, companies no longer need to buy into the very expensive idea that work is best accomplished by organizing people to show up together at the same office or factory at the same time five days a week for a specific amount of pay and benefits. Because the internet allows work tasks to get accomplished in so many ways - freelancing websites, software-based office automation, contract workers, foreign call centers, Indian IT help desks, virtual receptionists, etc., Maney, quoting policy expert Andrei Cherny, says we are at the beginning of "Individual Age Economics" or the "Individual Economy."
According to Maney this means we have to compete; big time. That we have no choice but to become small, focused free agents who can market the hell out of ourselves. Scary? Maybe. But isn't it also a great opportunity, and motivator, for moms looking to re-enter the workforce after taking time out to care for their families. Those jobs we haven't done in years; its possible that many of them aren't going to be here much longer anyway. The Individual Economy will require individual initiative; creativity and innovation. Aren't these exactly the skills that we've honed while raising our children?
I'm looking. And I'm thinking about it.
How about you?
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