Unemployment: Success!!

The manager called me at 3:30 pm to offer me the position!!  Even though I had been 90% certain that I would be offered a job, when the second interview came up, I was only about 30% sure.  I wondered if I had done something wrong, strayed off my path in some way; I doubted myself.  Let's face it, when you hear "you were not the successful candidate" or don't even hear back, doubt can creep up on you.  However, I no longer have to wonder, so let's recap;

February 29: My last day of work
March 24, 25 & 27: I attended a career planning workshop.
March 25: I borrowed "What Color is Your Parachute?" (Richard N. Bolles) from the library.
April 7: First information interview with a Career Planning Facilitator.
April 8: I order career counselling books from Amazon to keep learning.
April 11: Asked manager at career and employment agency if I could volunteer.
April 18: Talked with career counsellor at my kids' school about volunteering.
April 29: Received the go ahead from career and employment agency, scheduled volunteer hours for the full next week.
May 2 &3: Went out to workshops as a volunteer; participated fully in facilitating :)
May 4: Sat with career coaches in the office.  Manager tells me she would like me to interview for a position they have coming up.  Interview is scheduled for May 10.
May 5 & 6: Attended workshops.
May 10: First interview.
May 20: Second interview requested.
May 26: Second interview.
May 30: Job offer.

It certainly wasn't an overnight success.  One of the concerns I'd had after the second interview was requested was that I had spent a lot of time on this one endeavour.  What if it hadn't worked out?  What was the plan?  My plan was to get as much information as I could (which I did, handily, during the week I volunteered) and then I was going to design my own workshop and market it to someone else.  Plan A was what I just mentioned; Plan B was to volunteer at the school, Plan C  was to go back to school if still unemployed at the end of August.  Plan D was that either the school or the career and employment agency would have a job for me.  I actually didn't bank on Plan D.

Let me also reiterate what Bolles says in his book; People who use the following methods of job search, by:
"Looking for employer's job postings on the Internet"; Success rate: 4%
"Posting or mailing out your resume to employers"; Success rate: 7%
"Answering local newspaper ads"; Success rate: 5-24% (because, local)
"Private employment agencies or search firms"; Success rate: 5-28%
"Answering ads in professional or trade journals, appropriate to your field"; Success rate: 7%
"Job Clubs"; Success rate: around 10%
"State or federal employment office"; Success rate: 14%
"Going to places where employers pick up workers"; Success rate: 22% (for short-term employment)
"Asking for job leads (from friends, family members, connections)"; Success rate: about 35%
"Knocking on the door of any employer, office, or manufacturing plant"; Success rate: 47%
"Using the Yellow Pages (to call prospective employers and ask for a meeting)"; Success rate: 65%
"The Parachute Approach (combining reaching out to contacts, information interviews, networking etc); Success rate: 86%.

I've done most of these, but my tactic to find this job was solely The Parachute Approach.  Can I say that I got lucky?  I believe so, yes.  I mean, what were the odds that they would have a job at the ready?  But I can say this for certain: if I Had not taken the risk of going after what I wanted, reaching out to contacts I had made, the job wouldn't be mine now.  The last time I was looking for work I wrote a tweet that said: "Looking for a job now is different than the old days.  It's not like you have to leave your house; or put on pants".  Well, I was wrong; leave your house... and for goodness sakes, wear pants.