I’ve long strived to be polite in my interactions with others. I do it because I think it makes experiences more enjoyable for all parties concerned, and because I see no reason to be rude.

I suppose somewhere in the back of my mind, I also feel I’m role modelling good behavior for my students in the hopes they’ll become better people than me.

Showing good manners is nothing more than showing respect for the person you’re talking or working with. It leaves a favorable impression on the other person, and can often go far to soothe a tense situation. It can attract people to you, the right kind of people, the people you’d likely describe as the type of people you want to work with.

In short, manners matter.

Posted by Rebecca as Networking at 7:40 AM EDT

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I decided to check out the new site Climber.com over the weekend. Unlike other job search sites, it’s intended for those who aren’t looking for a job to connect with their dream job, to climb up from where they currently are at the moment.

While I’m not terribly confident in the purpose, I find their set-up interesting. There’s a place to upload your resume, but you only reach it after you’ve gone through all of the site’s hoops. (I’m in the process of updating mine, so it’s not up yet.) The hoops include filling out a questionnaire that creates your “career fingerprint”, which I think means it suggests what your ideal career looks like. You also get to list your dream companies, words that you feel describe you, and skills that might impress a potential employer.

With my unusual background and skill combination, I haven’t been matched to any companies yet, but I’ll definitely be interested to see what happens as the site grows.

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 1:20 PM EDT

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It’s written to target librarians, but this article is a great source of ideas how to get yourself known in the Web 2.0 world. Most of it just seems to be common sense: learn the ins and outs of social media, stand out, make your content available to rip-mix-burn.

In a Web 2.0 world, it’s really all about putting yourself out there, chatting with people, and putting your own unique spin on things. It’s about letting people get to know you, and letting them discover what value you bring to the party. In some ways, it’s more authentic than other means of promoting yourself.

Once I finish this restructuring, I’m hoping to finally apply some Web 2.0 marketing to my online presence.

Posted by Rebecca as Freelancing, Entrepreneurship, Networking at 8:09 AM EDT

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You practice interviewing, right? If you’re looking to change jobs, then this is an essential step right next to updating your resume.

While you’re preparing for the usual questions, why not prepare to shine in your responses?

The interview is honestly the best chance you have to win over a person at the company, and you want to put your best foot forward. Be engaging. Be curious. Be assertive. Be forward-thinking. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 7:19 AM EDT

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“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.”- Mark Twain

I don’t know if I agree that courage is resistance to fear, but I do like the thought that it is the mastery of fear.

If we acknowledge fear, but assert our mastery over it, then we can do so much more than if we try to ignore the fact that we’re afraid.

The fine line between courage and cowardice is knowing you’re afraid and being willing to do something about it.

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 8:08 AM EDT

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My career path has been on my mind a lot lately, and I think it’s because I know I need to get back on the horse, so to speak.

When I first started out on what would become my first career  path, I was a freshman at the University of Colorado. My astronomy class was meeting at Fiske Planetarium for the first time, and I was excited. It wasn’t the fact that I would be get to look at projected stars that had me energized that afternoon (not entirely, at least); it was learning that the planetarium employed student interns and volunteers. I wasn’t qualified to be an intern, but I think I volunteered on my out of the planetarium that day. It became my second home over the next year.

I spent days running shows, giving star talks, and helping to build and install new shows. I was learning anything they threw at me, and loving every minute of it.

Eventually, I left CU for a small university in Texas. My uncle gave the information for the Texas State Aquarium’s volunteer recruiting fair, and I quickly found myself spending a couple mornings a week welcoming school groups to the museum and splitting them off into various activities. This position was short-lived as my teacher prep program became more field-based, but I quickly fell in with the education department of another nearby museum.

I think this was where it truly dawned on me that I wanted to become a museum educator. I taught in the first grade program, but when they weren’t in the museum, I was working on developing a series of workshops for Girl Scouts to earn various badges through the museum. I spent my mornings wandering through the museum and doing research, before sitting down in the xeriscape garden to write dowen ideas and shape them into activities. Before long, I realized that developing lesson plans and units were my favorite part of the teacher prep program, too.

This passion served me well during my student teaching, when I volunteered to run two performing arts workshops at my school. I had them planned out quickly, and the kids had a ball with them.

Fulfilling my own professional plans, I went to grad school pursuing a degree in museum science. The department was housed in the university’s museum, and we all worked in various departments. I went to the education department, where I was put to work immediately on developing the workshops for the second event of the school year. I sat in a dark office filled with dusty astronomy books, and I researched and wrote and had a wonderful time. I was positive I had found my calling.

Unfortunately, my calling didn’t seem to agree. Before I was even through with my thesis, museum after museum was rejecting me because they felt I was overqualified. I’ll admit it, I was crushed. I even tried taking the approach that I would just find myself in something not related to museums or education at all…so I became an editor at an education publishing house.

Right idea, wrong falcon.

This turned out to be a horrible mistake, and I soon found myself in a far corner of the country holding down two part-time teaching jobs and a substitute gig. I still teach in a tutoring center part time trying to make math make sense to my students.

I had to return to my past to find myself again. I am looking toward what I loved about that past as I try to find my future. I still want to sit in that dark office surrounded by dusty books doing research and developing educational programming. I think I may have figured out where I should try to land next, but I have no clue how to get there. (I’m always looking for helpful pointers, though.)
Let this be an inspiration to you. If you aren’t happy now, look to your past and think about those times you were happy. What were you engaged in? What kinds of activities did you feel really drawn to? Find the answers to those questions, and then build your own career changes around them. You may surprise yourself with who you really are.

Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers at 7:50 AM EDT

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I’m a big fan of Curt Rosengren’s work, but I think this article actually sums up identifying career passion on more of a layman’s level.

How do you pick a career path? You find the work that makes you happy. You find the work that gets you out of bed without much effort. It may not be what you’re best at, but it’s what gets you drooling. It’s what draws your attention when you’re minding your own business.

Think about what you’re drawn to, and then pursue it.

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 7:42 AM EST

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I’m looking to rework my resume this week so I can start organizing a basic portfolio that supports it. Apparently, I’m not the only one with resume revising on the brain, because articles have been popping up all over the place this week.

Or perhaps it’s a cosmic signal that i need to shake mine up and get it out into the world again.

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 7:33 AM EST

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