It's time to leave the nest (again) by Kim

Recently I was approached by a colleague whom I worked with in my prior life. He's tired of working for the man and has a great idea for starting up a new company - he just needs someone to market it (that would be me) and help provide a non-engineering view of how to structure and package it (also me). We met last weekend and I'm not going to lie - I'm pretty excited about the potential. I'm also surprisingly giddy at the prospect of getting in front of customers and doing what I'm pretty damn good at. Not to mention it would feel pretty stinking good to truly contribute financially to our household.

Then, while discussing this with Honey, he got a somewhat hurt expression and says "well if you're going to go out and market in the industry, I'd rather you sell for me" - (amazing what a little competition will do). Of course this leads to the question of whether we could work effectively together....but that's another blog post.

And so I've been obsessively contemplating what it is that I want to do now. Di's had a great opportunity to get back into the work place over the past months - and while there have definitely been challenges- it appears that she's thoroughly enjoying reestablishing that part of herself that isn't wife or mom and I'll admit it, I'm envious of that. Don't get me wrong, I've got a great life and I love the flexibility that I now have to try things out but at a certain point I'm just spinning my wheels - it's time for me to put on my big girl pants and fully commit to a course of action! So I'll be making lists, looking at the family logistics and weighing various possibilities over the weekend but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be opting for the opportunities that get me out of the home office and back in front of clients...stay tuned.

Snow Days

As many of you know, the East Coast is stuck in a huge "weather" situation.  Being in Atlanta, this is extremely difficult, as we are not used to snow and ice, and the whole city sort of shuts down.  We have now been stuck home for 3 days, school cancelled, meetings postponed, appointments re-scheduled.  While the kids and I have had a great time playing in the snow, sledding, and snuggling next to the fire, I am ready for them to go back to school!  I have things to do!!

So, tell me, what do you do, when you can't do your absolute best?  When the inclement weather makes you miss a deadline, or keeps you out of the office?  Do you just apologize and move on?  I spoke with one of my friends, a working mom, who has also been stuck at home, missing work, playing in the snow with her kids and not getting anything done.  She hasn't been into the office all week, but neither has anyone else.  This, she says, helps her to reconcile the guilty feelings.  She is also one of the only people I know who does not have a work issued laptop computer.  (wonder if she'll get one after this snow-storm?!)

But, what happens when you're the only one who is missing the deadlines, meetings, and work, due to a sick child or other child-related responsibility?  In a discussion that I recently had with several of my married, working mommy friends, they said that this responsibility usually falls to them, and NOT their spouses.  Their husbands just say, "Sorry, I have to work".  Hmmm... definitely something to think about, and probably something to discuss with the husband before going back to work....

"Step away from the cabinets, Ma'am!" by Kim

Diane's post brought back the agony that I went through when I had to redo my resume this past summer - by the time that it was all said and done I think that the whole thing took me well over a month. My previous resume was LONG gone on the hard drive of a long gone computer; fortunately the resume that landed me the life-changing job in Asia had been written by Sue Campbell, a wonderful resume writer who is infinitely more organized than I. I asked her to email me a copy and *poof*, there it was in my inbox. I opened it, looked at it, closed it and went to clean out my bathroom cabinets. :)

A couple of days (weeks) went by and I opened it again and started the process of adding the past 3 years of experience. But even with a model right in front of me (of my own resume no less), I couldn't spend more than 10 minutes without getting frustrated and walking away from it. Finally, with input from Husband, family, and friends I had enough *stuff* to fill out the questionnaire that Sue had sent me and quickly dropped it back in her lap to make me sound fabulous!

All told it took me about a month to get to that point - it's silly as I sit here thinking about it now but the paralyzation was vividly, painfully real at the time and now it's time to update it again, sigh. Writing this blog and getting to talk with all sorts of other women facing similar challenges has been incredibly cathartic for me - it's great to know I'm not alone, I mean I'm sorry for them and all but....you know what I mean.

We'll be talking with Sue this week to get some input and practical advice for rewriting, recreating, or just freshening up your resume. In the meantime, if you want to start some forward momentum or can't stand the idea of cleaning out those bathroom cabinets again, here are a couple ideas to get you moving:

1. Start small - just a rough list of all of your personal qualities (both good and "challenging") that you can think of. Don't forget to incorporate the items from your career in MomWorld that Diane identified in "Thoughts for the Interview". Now...ask husbands, friends, family members - only people who will be honest but not brutal. Live with your list for a couple of days - add to it but don't take anything off, we tend to edit ourselves way too much. It's your opportunity to brag, do it!

2. At the same time, especially if you're starting from scratch, start working on a VERY simple timeline of your career - dates, places, titles. It seems excessively easy but after a couple of years at home, I'm lucky if I can recall what I had for dinner last Tuesday, much less where I was and what I was doing in 1998.

3. Once you've identified the places/times that you worked, start sketching out the details of the jobs and responsibilities that you held while there. Again, this is the very simple 65,000 foot view of things, the bare bones.

Our expert, Sue Campbell of 1st-Writer, will give us some pointers on how to get from here to there later in the week, so we can start to pull all of this together.

We're going to do this together in baby steps, so....get off your ass, leave those cabinets alone, and get started!

So... where do we go from here?? by Diane

Ditto Kim!! Just as glad as I was to find that I wasn't the only one who wished to get back into the workforce, I think we were both stymied on where to start. "What do you want to do with your life?" echoes in my mind every morning when I wake up. As powerful and successful as I used to be before I left the workforce, and as wonderful as I am at being a stay-at-home (SAH), it is still difficult to answer that question.

I recently accompanied my husband on a long weekend business conference. In the evenings, the company would have us all out for cocktails and then dinner. I was surprised by how much fun it was to talk to people about the business again. I was actually able to hold a conversation about something other than homework and head lice epidemics at school! Phew, I really am an adult after all!

Going on that trip, while I know that there is still a lot that I have to do, find that old PC with my resume, for one, I finally figured out what I want to do.... I want to ROCK!!