9.

9. Keep trying

Place: My apartment - working from home
Time: 12:30pm

I had a phone interview today and it was wonderful. I've been applying for jobs and interviewing over the last few months and, let me tell you, job hunting has got to be one of the most frustrating experiences you can go through in life.  I've constantly felt less than adequate for jobs I know I can do in my sleep.

I had a phone interview back in July which was an hour and twenty minutes (really! a phone interview!) and I figured it would be a quick 20-30 minute chat, but the HR coordinator, who was only a couple of years older than I am, really stuck it to me. I could tell that if I wanted this job I was going to really have to 'drink the kool aid' so to speak even just for this phone interview and I just could not do it. I'm not going to flat out lie and pretend to be excited when the position is very different then what was posted. I felt very uncomfortable after and had to decompress for awhile. Whether an interview goes well or horrible, I really don't think you should walk away feeling like the person interviewing you went out of their way to make you fumble.

I've let the whole process get the best of me at times which I'm not proud of, but I need to keep trying and growing. I'm not a game player by nature when it comes to work, but I've really learned to put my game face on and start interviewing right back. I want my next job to be a better fit for me and I'm going to make sure they know what I want.

9 down, 356 to go.

6.

6. Admit that you had a rough patch.

Time: 5:28 pm
Place: My apartment, the couch, watching The Devil Wears Prada

I had a shitty summer at work. So shitty that I would be regularly crying at my desk and wishing I could just quit. Obviously, just quitting my job isn't an option. I was chosen for a meeting with new senior leadership and it seems like some pretty incredible changes are coming. He said 'before you decide to leave, give me 6 months to change this place around.' I made no promises to stay, but I'm definitely feeling more hopeful. The situation I was put in over the summer wasn't my fault and there was very little I could do to rectify it (I'm good, but I'm not good enough to do the work cut out for 2 people who decided to go on leave at the same time).

6 down, 359 to go.

2.

2. Speak up

Time: 7:35 am
Place: Home office

I had noticed this week at work that I'd been having a hard time keeping up. Fortunately, in my line of work the numbers don't lie. I pulled the inventory and I had double the amount of work as other team members. I asked my boss if we could discuss some re-balancing as I'd been struggling to keep up. He took it really well and rebalanced everything. I feel like I can enjoy the weekend more because I'm going to be walking into a much less stressful work situation on Monday.

Here's to speaking up!

2 days down, 363 days to go.