Still jobless and fancy free

Still jobless and fancy free

This is just a quick update on what’s happening in the BlogRodentSphere. (Yes, I take my “branding” too seriously, sometimes!)

I’ve been unemployed since November 9. However, by God’s grace and the help of friends, Jennifer and I have not suffered from a loss of income. In fact, I’ve only drawn one week’s worth of unemployment checks. We’ve managed to keep busy with enough freelance work that we’ve been able to make our dreaded mortgage-payments (good that now we can imbrex Alpha to make the process of buying home easier) and other sundry bills relatively on-time. We’re without health-insurance, though, so we are praying none of us fall ill.

I’ve had several interesting and fun interviews. None of them were high-pressure (with the possible exception of the church interview), and I felt instant rapport with everyone I’ve interviewed with:

Most of these organizations are looking for project managers of one stripe or another and so far, I’m still having conversations with four of them. The remainder didn’t pan out for various reasons, none of them my fault, I hope. For example, the church wanted a webmaster to take over their flagging website — but they really needed a network administrator to take over their entire tech infrastructure, which wasn’t me. Magnet Street realized they needed a programmer/developer to handle their growth instead of a project guy, and Tyndale realized they didn’t really need to fill their position after all, and they redistributed the workload in-house. Everybody in every interview has been very supportive and helpful.

But, still, so far, no work. I do have three hopefuls on the docket, all of them still involving lengthy commutes of 20–40 miles.

Hopefully, this time next week, I’ll be able to blog that I’m hired, and I’ll share some of the lessons I learned after 17 years of not having had to look for work, and suddenly finding myself without regular pay.

Meanwhile, if you have need of an experienced generalist in technology, feel free to hire me! (See my professional work history at my LinkedIN profile.) Contact me, and I’ll send you my resumé along with references.

[tags]Awana, BlogRodent, Career, Christianity Today International, Employment, Job, McDonald’s, Resume, Tyndale, Work, McDonald’s[/tags]

5 thoughts on “Still jobless and fancy free

  1. Marc V

    Praise God for this particular journey you are going through! I pray that when you are feeling low you lean on Him even more and let Him bear your burden. I know that when I have been “between jobs” (more than I care to admit) the Lord has supplied to me beyond my needs.

    When I saw Tyndale listed I also thought of Thomas Nelson. The CEO has a blog and it is a great read:

    He seems like he would be a good guy to work for, but my skills would not help out a publisher since I’m a manufacturing kind of guy. They’re looking for a Sr. Java developer, but I don’t know if that’s your cup of beans.

  2. Kerry Jacoby

    I just discovered your blog while roaming around looking for statistical info on A/G.

    Coincidentally, my husband, a system administrator, has been unemployed for 19 months. Although I have a PhD and a published book, I am also apparently unemployable in any meaningful sense, having raised children for 12 years.

    But I am writing not to scare you, but to encourage you. In all this time, God has never left us nor forsaken us. We have had moments of doubt, and scaled back our expenses a great deal. But the hand of God has moved mightily, whether through the often-surprise generosity of our church family, or the generous support of our earthly family, or totally unexpected favor from agencies, utilities, tax collectors, and others in position to make bad things get better.

    The Lord will be with you, as long as you are with Him. No matter what it looks like, no matter where it goes, if you are trusting in Him, you are in the right place.

    When all this started I determined I would not leave my husband, commit suicide, or give up on God. So far, I have neither done any of those things, nor regretted the decision to stand.

    Let not your heart be troubled. He is sovereign, and He has a plan. Just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t better than anything we CAN see — or ask or imagine.

    Bless you for blessing my Internet time this morning,

    —Kerry Jacoby, in Lafayette, IN

  3. Jim Turner

    Rich,

    I would be happy to put you into my stable of possible hires for professional blogging. I get companies all the time looking for bright and witty writers to advocate for their company. In fact we have had some of our bloggers go on to be communication specialists. Let me know.

    Jim

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