Unemployment: The Beginning, Yet Not

As of February 29, 2016, I became unemployed. For the second time since I graduated from university in 2013. Before you think this doesn't apply to you, I'm 40.  I'm also a mother of four and a spouse of a person who is also unemployed.  We live in Alberta and you may have heard that our economy is in the dumps.  (That's the PC way of putting it).

My husband was in the oilfield, has been since he was 17.  I wasn't.  Never have been, never will be (manual labour is so not my thing).   I'm a people person.  I'm also a people-helper person.  I'm not in healthcare or social work or teaching.. Could be, but none of those are really my thing either.

I have a patchwork quilt of a resume. I have been employed in the private sector and in government, in management and non-management positions, front-line and back of house; I've been a waitress, sales manager, event coordinator, weigh-scale person, load checker person, trainer, presenter, retail manager, file clerk... You get the picture.  I've done a lot of things.

When I became unemployed for the second time in three years, I decided I needed to pursue a career. I have a line on my resume about being (or becoming) a "subject-matter expert" but that really only applied to a few positions I've held; the few positions I really excelled at.

So when I became unemployed I took stock of my experience and decided to pursue something I really enjoyed.  I decided I wanted to become a career counsellor.  As luck would have it, I'd already been introduced to the field.   While I was in university, I had a part-time job as a post-secondary ambassador which meant that I helped others look at what careers they wanted to pursue and the education they needed to get there.

I have learned a lot over the time I've been looking for satisfying work and I figured I would blog about it this time.  The dates are out of whack with posting because I didn't want to post until I had found what I was looking for.  SPOILER ALERT, if you're reading this, I have.

I've booked myself in for a career-planning workshop even though I think I know what I want to do.  If you are in Alberta, you can find available sessions and registration information Here.  I have a lot of helpful hints coming for the job search and I hope you find something useful in the next posts.  Here's to finding that "just right for you" job!