Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

One of the parting gifts from my last company was some meetings with a career transition consultant at Lee Hecht Harrison. I started with the orientation meeting last week. Wow did I learn a lot. It was both enlightening and discouraging at the same time.

Statistic after statistic about how people find jobs, and how long it takes to find a job -- over 2 months of 32 hours of job hunting a week, not including time spent searching online...most people spend about 5 hours a week job hunting (raises my hand "guilty as charged") and "wonder why it takes so long." Three books full of 200+ pages of career transition counsel; online courses; seminars in person. Huge databases online of other people's resumes, info about different cities, companies, industries, etc.

I came away unsure whether to be supercharged to jump fullspeed ahead into the job hunting process, or to be amazed that I ever found a job in the first place. Only 2-5% of people find jobs by applying directly to job postings? They estimate 80-88% find jobs through people they know. Really? Did I just get incredibly lucky with my job hunting in the past? Maybe I did. If I count all the jobs I had in high school, I would be about 50/50 in finding openings through people and just applying to listings. I'm even luckier if you only consider the more skilled positions I've held. The question is, will that luck hold, or do one of you lucky readers happen to know the person who knows the person who is going to hire me next?

Needless to say, I spent a little more time job hunting/researching this week. I was also impressed that there is such a thing as linkedIn, a site connecting professionals to one another. Basically a "facebook" or "myspace" for working professionals. How did I miss this? In a room of ten people, how was I one of the few that hadn't heard of it? What else is there I'm behind the times in?

Wayne spent a lot of time documenting his projects, both recent and past. He's not quite finished, but most of the documentation is in place (pictures and video included, fun). I got to help by practicing my css a bit so the html wasn't quite as painful for him to write.

Wayne took the opportunity this week (now that ATC is done and he can breathe again) to head up to SFMoMA to see a great exhibit called The Art of Participation: 1950 to now. He came home insisting it is a must see before the exhibit ends in February, so we'll take a day trip sometime soon as a family to check it out. Anyone else in the area, take note. And if you want to come with us when we go, let us know. The lecture series he attended Friday at Berkeley wasn't quite as fulfilling an experience as the SFMoMA trip, but he did enjoy it [And due to that trip, I was able to get in for free to a lot of the lectures and exhibit at the SFMoMA].

Paela kept busy this week as well, of course. She's figured out the sign for "outside": walk over to the door; if shoes/socks are in sight, attempt to put them on; stand next to the door and do the sign for outside over and over until dense momma and daddy put two and two together. She got over her fever with an extremely healthy appetite early in the week, and spent the rest of the week trying to get us to take her outside, or playing outside when she succeeded. And now she has a cold. Coincidence? They always tell me it is, and yet it's always right after we spent a bunch of time outside that the colds start. Hmm. Maybe I just forget about the outside time that doesn't lead to a cold because it...doesn't? It is hard, after all, to notice things that *don't* seem to have an impact. She also loved Friday when she and I rode the lightrail (aka "train") from downtown home again. She would point to each passing train excitedly and do the sign for "train" over and over. I wonder if she understood me when I kept telling her we were on a train. She also loved the "where's the duck" game during bathtime so much she had to practice trying to say duck ("DU! DU! DU!"). Wayne and I are loving these early communication attempts -- can you tell?

Oh and the election was this week! That was a noteworthy day, to be sure. You were all there for that, of course. But note to future selfs: it was a fun election to participate in.