Job Searching

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I went into this most recent job search having a pretty targeted idea of what I wanted to be doing. This made the process much harder, but also a lot easier knowing that I wasn't  hunting for just any job. Knowing generally what it is that you want to be doing is always a plus. I also realized that there were things about work environment, type of company, etc. that also helped direct my job search. I knew that I wanted to go back to the private side of business. My non-profit stint really had been for the experience (oh, and an experience it was!) but not with the long term in mind, and I knew that going in. I wanted to see HR not only from the private side,  but also see how it changed when you worked at a non-profit. I also knew that with DC being only a means to an end as far as my geographical location, I figured I should try out the non-profit world while I was in the thick of it all. Lucky for me, not only did I get the non-profit flavor I was looking for, but I also got to touch on HR related to the public sector as well. These different lenses of business and HR were exactly what I had been hoping to experience. 

All combined, it was good. I had all these different lenses in which to see HR and business from. I felt like I spoke a lot of "languages" after having to bounce between different people and different projects. I knew going back to the private sector now would allow me to do something different. HR is never (or rarely) seen as any sort of profit generator for a company. Now, as an HR person...I totally disagree, but I can also see how this school of thought has been developed and how it will be hard to break away from. I wanted to try my hand in being a piece of an organization that was viewed differently than just overhead. I wanted to offer expertise, insight and knowledge to generate a value to my organization and to other organizations. I loved that idea of working with a variety of clients. Getting to tackle a variety of issues and constantly having to rethink and modify my knowledge to fit their needs.

My job search took awhile. I was picky, focused, and not willing to compromise on what I wanted. I felt like one of those couples on house hunters where the host has to give them the "Your wish list...yea...it is a bit too long" pep talk. But, I am stubborn like no other and I stuck with my laundry list of desires. 

It's not easy, this whole "being an adult" thing. You have to walk a very thin line of what is best and what is necessary. Paying rent and having food in the fridge is important, but doing something that makes you feel like you are growing and is interesting to you, is really important too. Job searching is like anything else. 

It is hard, until it is easier. 

Living in a world where you are constantly inundated with information, status updates, updated titles on linkedin. It is hard to know if you are making the right choices for yourself. Feeling steady on your own two feet can sometimes feel like you are a new born giraffe with splayed legs. 

Like everything, it comes together, and when it does, it feels oh so good. 

So if your looks, thinking about looking, or just started a new job. Remember, it all works out. If you want to take some sorority logic to heart: "Just trust the process" (and remember that writing a good cover letter is going to be the golden approach!). 

HR Learnings

I took an into to psych course in college ( one of those classes that 700 people took each quarter) and I remembered really enjoying it.

Well, while studying for my PHR I found this section on principles of human behavior. It went a little something like this:

All behavior is caused. People have a reason for doing what they do.
All behavior is directed toward achieving a goal. People do things to accomplish something. Behavior is not just random.

 

It was a very stark reminder that people do things and with thinking about them. They make decisions. It may be decisions I don't like, or it may be a decision that hurts me. I have zero control over the decisions people make. What I do have control over is:

• My own decision about how to react.
  
• Based on other people's decisions, do I want them to remain a part of my life.
• And while judgement is not something I should do, I can decide to not agree and I'm allowed to be hurt.

It can be jarring to realize that all those behaviors that people have exhibited did have an intention. It can open a world of wounds and a long list of questions that force you to make some tough decisions. The beauty of it all?

You are making your own decisions.

Which means you can do that whatever you like.

No rules. Just the awareness that your behavior is never random. So be nice.

 

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I Changed My Name

To include the letters:

PHR!!!

I passed!!

It feels so good to know I can packing up the study modules and don't need to spend my evenings taking practice tests, making flash cards and wondering if I know the historical cases for employment law.

Such a relief and a huge accomplishment to check off my list of professional accomplishments!

Thanks to everyone that send me all their good thoughts and prayers on Saturday! You are all the best in supporting me and making me feel like I can rock a test even when I don't believe it myself.

This is What Studying Looks Like

Or not....

I am scheduled to take my PHR Exam tomorrow morning and my confidence is certainly a little shaky at this moment. I took the day off from work to get some final studying in, and after 6 or so hours of studying I am in a need of a quick little break.

Bullet points seem like the only way I can think right now ( thanks to my copious amounts of reading notes) so here are some bullets of thoughts.

- Music dictates so much of my mood and thoughts. A little country like this afternoon and I am day dreaming of Idaho and how much longer till I can live somewhere that feels more like home. Hopefully passing this test will open the doors for me to new jobs, and in somewhere were I don't feel so disjointed all the time.

- It is hard to not get disappointed by people, and I undoubtedly know I do my fair share of disappointing people. There are just some things that hurt. A emotional slap across your face when a friend treats you a certain way...ya know what I mean? I always try to hope that things can be mended and I try to keep in mind that relations, of all kinds, are riddled with let downs, a need for hard work and commitment to each other.

  - Some funny ( and true) thoughts on why one is not married here.

In all seriousness... This is something I like from Tracy's article:

"The bottom line is that marriage is just a long-term opportunity to practice loving someone even when they don't deserve it. Because most of the time, your messy, farting, macaroni-and-cheese eating man will not be doing what you want him to. But as you give him love anyway -- because you have made up your mind to transform yourself into a person who is practicing being kind, deep, virtuous, truthful, giving, and most of all, accepting of your own dear self -- you will find that you will experience the very thing you wanted all along:

Love."

- I am seeing some long time family friends who are in DC visiting and I am excited to be surrounded by familiar people the night before I take this beast of a test! Wish me luck! I'm back to the books and the pages and pages of bulleted notes.

A Student Again

I have had a few things running through my head that I have thought "Yup, I should do that" over the past year. As I am sure you can tell, one has been taking my GMATs, another has been thinking about those next steps in my career, next steps in my personal life and then on a smaller scale...taking my PHR (Professional in Human Resources) exam.


After a lot of drama to get enrolled and some funding to take the prep course. I was finally enrolled as of Wednesday evening into a class through Catholic University. Thursday night I had my first class in the series of nine classes that are an aggressive overview of the broad topic areas in HR that are covered on the PHR exam.

As you can see, I have a lot of reading/studying/memorizing over the next 2 months! My class goes until the end of April and I need to commit to a test date so I am locked in to take the exam in May or June! Fingers crossed that I pass and get my three letters!

Gush. Relish. Bask.

So this twitter, tweet, bleep, burp, whateveriammostrecentlyaddictedtointhesocialmedia world....is amazing.

So you all know this guy:

image:via wikipedia and can we say....SO Yum!

Or you should. Or I won't be friends with you anymore. Anyways---he is adorable. His wife--lucky lucky lucky. And they have a new baby. And he got emotional when he won. Basically--I adore.

ANYWAYS. I tweet, he tweets, we all tweet. And he mentioned catching up with his sister. So me...I check out his sister's twitter. AND she is an HR person!!!!! O.M.G. . I tweet at her or whatever it is called.

She tweets back.


I feel special.


Yes I nerd out on HR. Yes I adore RB. And now....I adore his sister.


Check it:

And to be fair- Lori made my day.



Update

Can anyone believe I have been at my new job for over a month now? Really? Where has time gone?!? Obviously I can say that the new job is going very well and I am settling in nicely to the new role, new environment and new co-workers. (I still get a little misty eyed thinking about my old co-workers) But overall I know I made the right decision and I am very happy with where things are going.

I suddenly just lost blogging steam ( I have been horrible at exercising my blogging creativity for awhile now!) so we are going to switch to some bullets.

• I am loving my window. I had no idea that some rays of sunshine could really lift my mood like they do!
• My work schedule is different. I think I am much more in a morning routine and the "evening" routine is yet to be figured out, but I have been getting home earlier, squeezing in some jazzercise with Erin and managing to walk home a lot more to save some money and burn some extra calories.
• I am finding out just how shy I can feel and be! I know it always takes me a little why to open up to people and be my outgoing self to get to know them. Basically I need to get on this ASAP since everyone is super nice...I am just super shy. Shocking huh?
• What lady now has an iPhone and a super cute KS polka dot case? That's right...this one! I exercised some self control for a few days and then today....it all went out the window.
• My wardrobe does not quite meet expectations right now. While I am holding my own with what is on hand I never really took note of how casual and youthful my wardrobe actually was. This weekend we purchased a new all purpose black dress, a black and white tailored skirt, black flats, and nice jeans for "casual" Friday. I still have a lot of work to do to getting me looking like the part but we are making progress.
• I think the one thing I can say I really enjoy at this point is that each day I am constantly reminded of people's gratitude and how I am really an integral part of the group and my position has real meaning.

Hopefully things will keep moving along in this positive direction because I am really excited for what the future holds in this new position.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

This has been a blog I have been  anxiously/nervously/eagerly/regretfully/sadly/enthusiastically/amazingly/andeveryotheremotionyoucanpossiblyimagine
waiting to write.

After a lot of thought (and tears) I have made the decision to move on to a different organization and leave my current job.

I am still in shock when I write that or tell people.

My job has been such a big part of my life for the past two and half years. I can easily say that without my job there is no way I would have survived the transition to the East Coast. Through it I have met some wonderful friends that I know will extend into my life far past this short time that I worked with them. I feel that I invested a lot in the position- received my first promotion and also learned the ropes of a "real job".
But change is inevitable and it was time to make a change that was best for me. I had someone describe that my grief and sadness with leaving my job is much like breaking up with your first love. You know deep down it probably isn't going to work out. But first love is blind and innocent, and you almost think it can do no wrong. So there has been some realities, and with finding a job that I think I can grow in and learn a lot from- I knew it was finally time to say goodbye to my first work-love.

I am still working in a somewhat HR related role- but focusing on some different areas and getting rid of some of the aspects I did not enjoy previously. I pray it will be a good fit. I start Monday and I am nervous like a little kid on the first day of school. It is strange to know you will have to re-learn and re-train on so much. And I sit and think "I hope they like me"- just like when I was 12 years old. Some emotions and fears just never change.

I will leave it at that. I am scared/excited/nervous/anxious and just clinging to the truth that I nothing in my life has led me anywhere that has turned out horribly. Granted I have had my fair share of 'backpeddling' moments, but overall I have been provided for and very blessed, and I am sure this change and decision will fall into that category as well.

Thank you to everyone who helped me through the decision, the process and the emotions. I owe you all for your constant support and patience with my indecisive nature. You are all the best people I could ever ask for in my life.

SHRMing 2010

I am alive...well I think I am. I have had very little inspiration to post here in awhile and I chalk it up to work and the weather. It is so HOT here in DC. Today it was 100 degrees and even a low humidity factor of 46% was just a bit too much for me. This kind of heat makes me pretty cranky and tired, I lose my appetite and pretty much threaten anything that makes my walk to work any longer than it must be.

At work I feel like I am doing three jobs: My bosses (as well as I can possibly do that), mine (which is taking the backseat) and primarily a teacher/babysitter/intern coordinator. I am really stressed that I am not juggling things effectively and something is really going to blow up in my face, which has my stress levels working overtime. Despite the stress and nerves, I am loving the experience Times where you feel frantic and like you are just fumbling to stay afloat are the times where I feel I learn the most and become a more effective professional. However...they are stressful, and that takes it out of me. Hence the lack of bloggage.

Well on to San Diego and SHRM 2010 (Society for Human Resource Management) Annual Conference. It was amazing. I not only had a spectacular time in San Diego, but I learned so much and really felt like I re-sparked my passion for HR and was given that boost of "what you do matters" which can get lost very easily in the shuffle of day to day work. 

Highpoints: Al Gore (enough said), Forbes ( I can't believe so many people walked out!), Marcus Buckingham (hilarious and inspirational) and many of my sessions were highly informational regarding health care reform, recruiting and retention, legal and compliance issues and professional development. To summarize the conference...I came back with a I Heart HR shirt...

Forbes

I stayed at the Se San Diego which was a great hotel and since the weather was nice (by nice I mean almost cold) I really enjoyed my morning walk down to the convention center. The bed was also one of my most comfortable things I have ever laid my body on. The curtains in the room were stunning...I had to take pictures:

Delish bed with the curtains

You can see my hotel in the back to middle right with the big red "Se" on the side of it.

My first night after the conference I headed to the Fish Market at the suggestion of SaraMarie to have some West Coast/Best Coast seafood. It was delish!!

I was on a ferry a few days later and this is the Fish Market from the water.

I also made it to a Padres game which was really fun to see. The last time I was in San Diego I got to take a tour of the ball park but didn't get to see a game so it was fun to be back at Petco Park. Unfortunately it was so cold I couldn't make it past the 8th inning due to my lack of appropriate clothing and I had to retreat back to my room to turn on the heat (?!?!)

I did a "Eat to Meet" evening where I met up with some other people from the conference (there were 11,000 people from all over the globe in attendance) and went to an over-priced tapas restaurant. Luckily the company was fun and it was neat to meet some other HR people.

On my final day in San Diego I was able to spend a few hours on Coronado reading some of the HR books I purchased and enjoying the sun and water.

That evening I headed to Old Town to meet up with a friend of my boss. We had a fun dinner and then headed to a casino (oh yes that is right).

Behind me is the Sex and the City slot machines. There are engagement rings, shoes and handbags involved. My type of gambling and makes me very excited for my trip to Vegas coming up in a few months with my girl friends!

The next morning I somehow managed to stash all my free bags and goodies from the exposition into my suitcase, grabbed a leisurely breakfast and headed to the airport.

I had a fabulous first SHRM conference experience and I can not wait to get to attend another conference in the future. It was also good to be back on the Best Coast and get a reprieve from this awful heat wave!

I Heart HR

Yesterday I attended the HRA-NCA (Human Resource Association- National Capital Area) full day conference. It was a really great experience! There were two key note speakers, both authors of some decently big name books and then there were four break out sessions. I attended ones on:

The relationship between CFOs and HR
Bridging the generation gap
How to avoid a lawsuit
Servant Leadership

I also had a chance to do some networking and met a great woman who kind of took me under her wing for the day and even hooked me up with a great listserv for DC HR area professionals.

There was a tradeshow too, which meant tons of free pens. ( I even scored one of those ones that has the post-it notes in it). I picked up a few highlighters, some chewing gum, notepads, a new bag, and best of all!!!!......I won a Starbucks gift card as a door prize.

It was a great experience and I hope my company will let me go to more events like these because I learned more than I think I ever got out of a college class!