The Black Casebook

I'm going to post about a few things I learned during the stretch between 
when I resigned from teachingand I started work at the new job. This is 
pure self-indulgence on my part, but maybe it will either help someone else 
or someone will find something to relate to. If not, then just ignore.

The first thing I learned was patience.

I tried to work at all times to be finding a job. What I discovered, however, 
is that when you do that, you often just find yourself checking the same 
things over and over. If you’re working hard, you just have to let things 
happen. And it’s normally not on your time. Your time is not everybody 
else’s time. Everyone has their own problems to deal with, and 
you are not anyone’s top priority.

That said, unless you’re expecting them to think of you all the time, 
people will actually think of you more often than you’d expect. It was 
always a happy surprise when I would get an email or a text from 
someone who had a new possibility for me, or someone who had 
thought of me when they heard about an opportunity. This is the payoff 
of networking, which I’ll talk about on another day.

While I was interviewing, I had all kinds of them. One very early 
interview I had was with a marketing company, and everyone in 
there was in their 20’s. They were really eager to hire me, but it became 
apparent that I was being hired to be a dad figure. I would have had 
fun doing that job, but I didn’t really want to be constantly reeling 
everyone back in. I had spent enough time doing that for the past 18 
years.

Another interview was with an online learning university. The wanted 
to do a virtual interview, so we set up the time, I got all prepared, 
studied up on them, and everything. I sat down at my laptop at my 
dining room table, and...nothing. I gave it ten minutes, then I tried 
calling them, and I was told that they had tried to get through to me 
but that I ignored them. In my opinion, I felt like they were being kind of
rude. Of course it was a little disappointing, but it also told me that 
I did not want to work for this university in the capacity.

It took a number of interviews before the just right one came along. 
The one that I think of as baby bear’s porridge. The people seemed 
happy, the atmosphere was a positive one, and everyone seemed 
to get along. They asked me questions, and while they did it, they 
smiled. I felt very comfortable asking them questions. I had found 
a company that wasn’t looking for someone with all the skills already 
in place; they were looking for a personality that was willing to learn 
and that could get along with the other people in the office.

As a fifth grade teacher, every year when it came time for the kids’ 
BizTown interviews, I always gave the kids some tips on interviewing. 
I told them that if anyone asked them if they thought they would be 
the right person for a job, always say yes. Even if they don’t think they 
will be the best person for the job, they should always say yes. I tell 
them that best case scenario, they succeed, finding that they had the 
ability all along.

Worst case scenario, they fail. But at least then they would know more 
about the position than they did going in. Experience is experience.

Lastly, do your best to enjoy the process. That is an ambitious thing for 
me to say, because there were days I definitely did not enjoy myself. I 
did learn, however, to enjoy the little things--the entirety of baseball 
games, the strings of TV shows I had never watched as I sat at my 
laptop, and doing some cooking. I had days where I would have 
absolutely nothing planned for the whole day, which was a first. 

The fact is, if you keep at it and keep working hard, you never know 
when everything is going to work out just right.