It’s even harder to job search with a sick infant and a sick husband and be sick yourself

All three of us are now officially under the weather.  The baby has an ear infection and bronchiolitis, but he has remained in pretty good spirits overall.  He’s on antibiotics, ear drops, Pedialyte, and lots of sleep.  My husband and I both are suffering from sore throat, chills, fatigue, and general irritableness.

I had a very good interview on Friday (the one that I had to cancel on Thursday).  However, I’m not convinced that it’s the right move for me at this time.  On the other hand, since it’s part-time, it would allow me to have a somewhat more flexible schedule and might lead to pursuing freelance work.  The kiddo being sick is a real wake-up call as to what could happen if and when I return to work.  We only have day care plans for him… we don’t have a plan for when he’s too sick to go to day care, which is what happened last week.

So you could say right now that I’m taking a step back and trying to take a hard look at what we need, what I want, and what we can live with.

It’s hard to job search with a sick infant in the house.

I ended up cancelling the interview I had scheduled for today because — you guessed it — the kiddo is still under the weather.

I did, however, apply for one job today, so far.  There was a surge in jobs that I was qualified for and applied for in the middle of January, and over the past couple of weeks, it has kind of dropped off.  Now that’s disheartening.

Yesterday I spent a good deal of time — in between sick-baby naps and feedings — strategizing how I could start freelancing, but after an exchange of emails, my two promising freelance leads seem to have dried up.

Adventures in Job Hunting

When compared to all of the job hunts I’ve endeavored over the last seven years, this one is tied for Worst Ever.  The other Worst Ever was in the summer of 2004, when I was searching for that first Big Job right outta college.  That was six grueling months, fumbling my way around the Internet and The Washington Post, scrounging for any semi-writing-related opportunity I could find (including an ill-advised application with Edward Jones… the financial advising people… which doesn’t have anything to do with writing).

This current job search is in its fifth month, and I am seeing a lot more traffic than any of my previous interviews. Here are the tallies:

• 4 interviews, with one scheduled for tomorrow, provided my son doesn’t have a fever
• 1 second interview, which didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, and I’m still waiting to hear how the interviewer thought it went
• 5 phone screens, 3 of which led to interviews
• 36 resumes sent for actual job postings (that I could find record of… that number still seems low to me)
• 44 people contacted about my job search or a particular position

So here’s the rub:  I’m unemployed.  I have about 6 weeks left on my unemployment.  They say don’t bank on getting an extension, because you might not get it.  They also say that it’s easier to find a job while you’re employed, and until now I never really believed that.  Now I do, obviously.  It’s like I’ve got some kind of plague… like I’ve got a scarlet “U” branded on my chest.  Never have I ever sent this many resumes, gotten this close to so many jobs, only to come up empty handed.  And now that I have a five-month-old son, the stakes are even higher.

I could continue to sit here and wallow in self-pity, moping around the house lusting after jobs that I’m not even 100% sure I want, but instead I wanted to put it out there.  Get it all on the screen and out in the open, so that I’m not just complaining to myself and my husband, but to all you fine readers out there.  And if you know anyone that’s hiring, think of me.

A designer’s rant

I’m in the middle of creating my website for class/portfolio review/networking, and I must say, I do not like it one bit.  Not the site itself; the process.  I am beginning to think web design is just something I am not going to be good at, and that kind of scares me.  I want to be good at it, but I just don’t have the patience.  I get so easily frustrated with it.  I am beginning to think maybe I’d be better off sticking with print design.

The problem with that, obviously, is that everything is moving online.  Most of the graphic design job postings I see require web skills (more frustration on that later).  In fact, there are more web design positions available than there are graphic design positions.  Here, in Pittsburgh, at least.  But I have the nagging feeling that it’s like that everywhere and I just need to get my ass in gear, put my nose to the grindstone, and dive into it.

And why is it that graphic designers today have to know how to do everything?  When did Web become graphic design’s middle name?  We have to know Flash, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and be experts in print production, illustration, and photography!  And do you know what they’re going to pay us to do all of that??  You guessed it.  Next to nothing.  Is that why they’re starting to teach web design in high school?  Do we really have to get started that early?  Makes me wish I were born 30 years earlier, so I could’ve done graphic design by hand… actually draw and paint posters and advertisements.

At least I know I’m not alone in my plight.  I know there are designers out there who share my frustration.  But what do we do about it?  Yeah, okay, I know what we do about it… I just want to sulk about it a little more.

The “what if” monster got to me

I graduate next week. As expected, I’m speeding through my assignments just to get them over with; not necessarily to improve the quality of them and hone my skills. And I feel pretty guilty about that. But, that’s how I’ve felt about all my online classes. I definitely feel like something has been lost in translation, and I really wish I had worked it out another way so that I could have taken these last three classes on campus. I am virtually no more confident in my web skills than when I started, and I am not getting the good feeling of closure that I thought I was going to have with the Portfolio class. In short, the saying “You get what you pay for” doesn’t really apply here.

Or maybe it does. Maybe I should have tried the CMU thing (assuming I would’ve been accepted, of course, which I’m not so sure about). Or maybe I should’ve gone with the Associate’s program at AiP instead of the diploma program. Sure, both of those would’ve been more than double the amount of money I already have racked up in student loans, but would I feel better and more confident about myself and my abilities?

I hate the “what ifs.”

This is how I’m gonna do it.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted.  I’ve been busy with school and work and buying a house.  But now that the year is coming to a close and I am gearing up for the holidays and my impending portfolio show/graduation, I am thinking about what’s going to happen next.

I feel the need to continue schooling myself after December 18th (joyous graduation day).  I’ve compiled a laundry list of my skills/lack thereof that need improvement… things I think will be important for me to know how to do.  Now, the problem with that is I haven’t assigned any deadlines, and I’m not sure how to go about that.  For instance, how do I set a deadline on teaching myself how to use Flash?  Or Javascript?

I think one way to do it is to buy a Lynda.com subscription, and commit to doing x-number of tutorials, or concepts per week or day. Because I just don’t do the whole “reading” thing. We have books on HTML, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Photoshop, Javascript, and Perl at home. But do I read them, and refer to them when I have a problem?  No. That’s why I think the tutorial route is the best option for me.

So that I have it in stone (well, not quite stone, per se), I am hereby committing myself to learn the following:

• Javascript
• CSS
• Live Paint in Illustrator
• Live Trace in Illustrator
• 3D in Illustrator
• Flash
• XML
• Scripts in Photoshop
• Painting in Photoshop

I think once I get proficient enough in Javascript and CSS, I will feel comfortable enough to put “web design” on my resume.  And that’s really what this is all about.  Beefing up the resume.  Because you never know what can happen.

Welcome back, old friend. Now go away!

Yesterday, in addition to being absurdly tired, I had a migraine. It’s the first one I think I’ve had in about a year; and, as always, it lasted through the night and into the next day. So I still have it. But, it is much better than when I woke up this morning. Now it has subsided into a dull, numbing ache, rather than a railroad spike. This migraine made me realize how I wear my pain on my face. The area around my eyes is dark. It probably didn’t help that I barely put any makeup on. I could’ve made the effort to do that, but in my own passive aggressive way, by not trying to hide my pain, I’m telling the world (a.k.a., my job and school) “Yes, I am in pain, and look where I am! Not at home! I’m here. Where I’m supposed to be. HAPPY???”

So take that. Yeah.

Chalk one up

Yesterday I cooked my very first Easter dinner.  Being out of town half of last week, I didn’t get the chance to really ponder what to make.  I ended up cooking a ginormous ham with a tangerine glaze, mac and cheese with broccoli and cauliflower, sweet potato casserole, and asparagus.  For the hubby, mum-in-law, and me, it was quite a feast, and I am proud to say that it all came out lovely and timed just right.  Whew!

I even took the time to decorate the table:

…and it happens just like that.

When someone you love dies, everything stops.

Here I go again… (great, now I’ll have a Whitesnake song stuck in my head all day!)

Today marks the end of my six-month hiatus from school.  I am happy to report that the Art Institute of Pittsburgh really has their shit together when it comes to the admissions process.  My transition was nearly seamless.  Every step of the process so far has been extremely simple, and the staff seem to actually know what they’re doing.  And they’re friendly, to boot!  Now, I am comparing this directly to the staff, policies, and procedures of the Art Institute of Washington, where all they care about is getting their money.  Granted, I understand that all schools are really only interested in getting their money from you, but I already feel like this is going to be a much better experience.  Minus, of course, my dear friends I made at the Washington site.  You know who you are.

To jump start this whole “me getting back into school and hopefully producing some awesome work” thing, I registered to exhibit a piece at Art All Night in Lawrenceville.  Registered five days ago, and still am excited/nauseous.  I’ve submitted my work in contests before, but that was a mail-in type thing.  All I got was a rejection letter (except for the one contest, which I was a finalist in).  I didn’t have to stand there and see people walk past my work, point it out, or — dear God — criticize it.  This is a completely new venture for me, and I’m pretty scared, actually.  Especially since in my excitement I invited like two dozen people to come see it, and for the most part, they’re all frickin’ coming!  Just to see my little 8 x 6 canvas.

‘Scuse me, I’m going to hurl.