The week has flown by and something very exciting happened! I mentioned that the group we were facilitating the workshops for were new to the counsellor (and me by default) and she was great. I'm not sure how anyone else would handle this experience but I joined in, fully. I played both sides, learner and leader, and she was very supportive.
The workshops were on resumes and cover letters the first day and interview skills the second day. I did the same work the participants were asked to do and was vocal about what I discovered and its relevance to my own work search. They were surprised when I told them I was volunteering and not getting paid to be there but in my opinion it was great role-modelling. Sometimes these sessions (I've attended a few) are full of questions like "does this really work?" And "how is this going to work for me?" I was able to answer these from a current view and they seemed to find it helpful.
On the day I was in office the manager told me she would like me to interview for their upcoming position!! I didn't realize they were that close to actually getting the position! She booked me in for Tuesday and I can hardly believe this has moved along so quickly.
Now I have to address something else. I have been using Indeed and Canada job bank to look for positions and I always look at my home town. I also look in the local paper each week. I never saw an advertisement for this position and if they're already setting up interviews, I have to wonder how I missed it. I made my decision near the end of March so I was already focusing my job search back then; now we're into May.
I'm not sure if I can offer a more perfect example of what Bolles ("What Color is Your Parachute") said about the untapped opportunities available outside of advertised vacancies. While it's certainly a possibility that I could have volunteered and they did not have a position, I still had a plan for that. I volunteered to learn. What I was planning to do with that was look into the possibility of developing a workshop on my own and marketing it. I still had a plan even if there hadn't been a position and I learned a lot from the four days I spent with the two groups. The first thing I learned is that I did know a lot but some things had changed. I will be doing a resume tip blog next because I did learn something about career changers and why you should change up your resume if you are one.
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