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February 23, 2006

The Ideal Job

I woke this morning to the peaceful stillness and soothing beauty of a three-inch snowfall. It is still snowing lightly. Normally, I would eat my breakfast while staring out the window, or go for a walk with my camera. But no amount of snow can soothe my frustrated soul this morning. I haven't even eaten yet (which might be part of the problem, I suppose). I have been job-hunting.

My search for the ideal job - or at least something that pays what I've been accustomed to the past few years and doesn't bore me to tears - is in the eighth fruitless month. I have many talents: writing, editing, desktop publishing and design, project coordination, event planning, and administration; and I had a well-paid job that used all of my skills and kept me challenged to the point where I got used to switching project focus every fifteen minutes. When I was unexpectedly laid off in July thanks to a lack of project funding for the not-for-profit I worked for (thank you, federal politickers), I tried to look at this as an opportunity to advance my writing, rather than administrative, career.

That seemed to be my best option in order to continue working from home, particularly since admin jobs in Kamloops are scarce and the few advertised are entry-level with horrifyingly low wages. However, I'm not a technical writer, have no interest in online marketing, and can't quite bring myself to attempt to make a fortune writing brainless romances for the world's largest publishing company, Harlequin. And it's been years since I envisioned publishing a volume of poetry. Yes, I'm still hoping to finish (and publish!) my speculative fiction novel. If you know a wealthy philanthropist willing to fund a haunting story about independence, love and betrayal in a fantasy time and place that echoes the historical settings and conflicts of Afganistan and Uzbekistan during Tamerlane and Babur the Tiger, let me know!

In the meantime, I've applied for the occasional admin job to crop up in Kamloops (the college job I was crossing my fingers about starts March 7th and after 4 weeks they haven't called so I guess that's a no), and several writing gigs in Vancouver. I've recently discovered Craigslist, which is a much better resource for these kinds of jobs than the HRSDC Job Bank and other online postings. But there's really very little out there to apply to, especially given my need to telecommute for a Vancouver position. Not knowing anyone in Kamloops aside from the dozen or so retirees that make up my neighbourhood doesn't help. The employment centre's answer was to cold call. "Cold" is right - it makes me shiver just thinking about it. She suggested walking into the mayor's office and asking whom to talk to about project management positions. (She had no suggestions, of course, for writing jobs, and completely ignored that aspect of my abilities. Can't really fault her for that.) If there were publishers in this town I could cold call at, I'd be there. I love Poplar Road, but I can't suppress the awareness that if we still lived in Vancouver I'd be employed by now. Sigh.

To alleviate my frustration I thought I'd list some of my ideal jobs, in case a potential employer happens to Google one of the following phrases. I may not know anyone in Kamloops, but you people know me, so help me out, here...

Anita's Ideal Jobs:

Writer: fiction or non-fiction, ghost-writing, copy-writing, marketing & promotions, magazine articles, newsletters, essays, resumes, web pages. I've even written song lyrics. I will finish my novel, but right now I'm talking about paid writing positions.

Personal Assistant to an Author: I'd love to be the person who assists an established author by researching content, communicating with agents and/or publishers, proof-reading, substantive editing or simply constructive criticism, word-processing, and taking care of the administrivia that goes on in the background. Many of the authors I love to read (particularly mystery novelists) give credit to their assistants in the creation of their books. Where do they find these people, and how do I get a job like that?!

Editor: not so much proof-reading, except in the case of directly assisting an author as above, but after 6 years of creative writing workshops followed by 6 years working for an education publisher, I'm an excellent substantive editor with a talent for presenting criticism in a way that inspires, rather than offends, the writer. After taking the SFU Book Publishing Workshop I envisioned working as an editor in a publishing house (did lots of cold calling back then to no avail), but now of course I'd rather work on contract where I can choose the projects and type of writing I work on, and work primarily from home.

Project Administrator: this was my latest title at my former job. On the surface, not so much an ideal job, but that particular position entailed a variety of jobs I'd be happy to combine again: writing, editing and layout of promotional text for brochures, websites, conference packages, and periodicals; writing text for educational publications; writing correspondence; proof-reading and layout of publications, proposals, technical papers, etc; coordinating people, events, printing, marketing, distribution; managing staff and working with clients and the general public. Sometimes the minutae and the extreme multi-tasking (ie being interrupted every 5 minutes) got irritating, and days when it was more administrivia and less writing I got bored; but, on the whole, it was a great job. A long way away from "executive assistant" which seems to be the highest level of admin job available around here. At half the wage I made as Project Administrator. Jobs like that just don't come up often. It was serendipity that got me that position. I need some of that again.

Event Coordinator: this is a relatively low-paying job for which I have no formal education, just hands-on experience and this picture in my mind that doing it full time could be fun. My experiences have been much better with business meetings, symposia and conferences than with weddings - those of you who saw me take over Pam's wedding 24 hours before the I Dos and avoid impending disaster at the cost of my sanity might say steer clear - but that was only a nightmare for me, not for the bride, and only because of the last minute situation and the fact that the florist ran off with my purse. (I can laugh, so how bad was it really?) Someone who hires a professional to organize her wedding doesn't usually wait until the day before to decide she needs help. Anyway, likelihood of becoming an Event Coordinator is less than 30%: there's only one company in town doing it, and the wages probably aren't worth actually getting whatever certification is required for it. So it's just one of those things I know I can do extremely well but will probably only do within my next Project Administrator position. As for weddings, I attended and in some way, large or small, helped out at 15 weddings in 5 years. Among my friends there aren't a whole lot of single folks left! I hope to orchestrate a very memorable house-warming / un-wedding for Richard and I here next summer, but that will likely be it for my event planning in the near future.

Professional Organizer: this would be an awesome job for me. My favourite show on HGTV is "Neat", in which organizing queen Helen Buttigieg goes into people's homes to help them purge an overabundance of stuff, organize their daily lives, and put systems in place so they can stay organized. Helen is remarkable (compared to, say, the organizers showcased on "Mission: Organization") because she has a background in psychology and always identifies the subconscious emotional reasons why people hold onto stuff. I don't have that psychology education, nor a professional organizer's certificate, but I am a neat freak and an expert organizer of spaces with an eye for design. And I'm contagious: I recently reformed my pack-rat baby sister, who had, among other things, ten years' worth of recycled yoghurt containers and other food packaging overflowing in her craft cupboard, into a purging fiend. Again, this is probably something I'll do for fun when the opportunity asserts itself (Pam is an example again, astonished when I arrived early for brunch on Monday and insisted on helping her re-organize and put away the contents of her pantry cupboard rather than go out with all of it still sitting on her kitchen floor). I'm just not ready to go back to school and re-train in something with such limited opportunities here in booneyland. (But if someone hired me, I'd do it in a second!)

That's the top 5. Were I just out of high school and willing to train in anything (as opposed to turning 34 this year with 9 years of post-secondary and 15 years of work experience), I might add interior designer, landscape designer, or graphic designer to my ideal job list. But I didn't go those routes after high school, I trained as an artist and then a writer, and worked as an administrator, so that's what I'm searching for. Ultimately, if I could finish my novel, and find a publisher who'd print it AND pay for me to write another, I'd be a full-time, I mean 24-7, novelist and poet, and that would make me the happiest person on earth. At least until the next case of writer's block. But as my friends Allyson, writer-turned-pastry chef, and Al, writer-turned-real estate agent, could tell you, writer's block is the least of one's problems when looking to do this to pay a mortgage and put dinner on the table.

So there it is, my friends: it's down to word of mouth. It always comes back to who you know. Thanks for getting the word out.

Posted by anita at 10:57 AM | Comments (1)

February 18, 2006

Rumours of Spring?

Although the gorgeous sunshine had some of us convinced Spring was around the corner this week, the temperature is dropping to –15 overnight and I hope I haven't doomed my just-pruned rose bushes to an untimely death. The bucket of lily bulbs I took out so optimistically is back in the garage again until there are no ice crystals showing in the soil. Brrrr. But babies have their own sense of timing, and on Poplar Road we have had new arrivals for several weeks now. A half-dozen kids are gamboling around the woods already, and Jonathan received two orphaned minature lambs – dove grey with charcoal spots – which after 10 days of bottle feeding are gaily racing each other around the yard and getting underfoot. The thick laces on my Sorel boots are a favourite chew toy for the lambs and kids. The kid I am holding in one of the following photos (Sparkles, I think it is) managed to twist herself around and get a mouthful of Allyson's hair when it was her turn for a cuddle.

But what drew us out in the icy wind on the 15th was the news that Cama Llama finally had her baby. This little girl has her mother's colouring and her father Supper's friendly nature. Thanks to Jonathan's careful handling during the birth and Cama's familiarity with all of us, this little one is happy to get close enough for a pat and investigate whomever she pleases while her proud mama looks on. Jonathan will keep this baby for a pet because she's the last offspring of Supper who died last summer, so he's encouraging human attachments in a way he doesn't normally. I think he's feeling more sentimental because 10-month-old Buckaroo (a.k.a. Billy the Kid), the only truly friendly – rather than greedy – goat in the herd, favourite of his grandchildren, died two weeks ago due to collapsed lungs in an accident in the hay feeder. The hobby farm is income for Jonathan, a business to hear him talk, but he loves all his animals and he's lost a few favourites to unfortunate events this year. I guess that's life on a farm. Having Cama's new baby arrive now makes all the difference. I'm going to visit a lot next week so the little one gets used to me. Jonathan even said I could name her. Naming is tough, though – suggestions, anyone? The photos inside the barn are when she's only an hour old, and the sunny ones are the next afternoon. She's fuzzier, but baby llamas don't put on the weight quickly the way kids and lambs do, so she'll be a gangly thing for quite a while. I'm sure she'll be the star of many a blog post this spring. Thanks to Allyson for the photos.

Posted by anita at 1:00 AM | Comments (1)