The author of this blog is off on a summer adventure, but will return to a more active blogging practice in September.
Seen driving from Seattle to Portland last month: the Failing Pedestrian Bridge. Well, I know I feel safe crossing a major highway on that!
Oh, and the consignment store that I pointed out would have a name change issue on its hands? Today, I noticed a big sign in front of the store’s sign advertising a sale. The name had been shortened to, “Oops!” To quote a John Mahoney character, “There’s never an egg timer around when you need it.”
Again, if you see any great names while I’m off exploring the wilds of Minnesota, feel free to either comment or email me with them. I’ll process them and share them in September.
Posted by Rebecca as Naming at 6:34 PM EDT
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Recently, I quit my day job to pursue other ventures in other locations. Ideally, I have planned to work for myself, but I understand that I may not be able to sustain myself for a while so I’ve been searching for a job to occupy my time while I work on building up my business.
I have so far applied at a couple of places with the same thought running through my head. I have only two references, one of whom I haven’t seen in nine years. While I’m sure he’ll still give me a glowing recommendation, he can’t give a potential employer a clear picture of the person I am today.
I’ve been mulling over the people I am in touch with currently and the jobs I’ve held in the past few years. I have worked for the same business for the past two years, and I worked for a single business for two years before that. The earlier business is on my list of references. The one I just quit working for informed me that they cannot give references because they’re afraid of being sued. My supervisor, however, agreed to be a personal reference. This is all well and good, but most places want professional references.
Over the past few years, I have also been a volunteer and an active member of a nonprofit group. The thought has now occurred to me to add supervisors and peers from both settings to my reference list. I’m still working on gathering references from this group of people, but they were an untapped resource in my quest to get on with my life.
The morals of my story: keep your references recent. Keep up with them. Don’t forget your volunteer work as you are compiling your references.
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers at 8:00 PM EDT
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