Employment Wish List

Here I am, sitting in Jacksonville, Florida in my hotel room ending the second Monday of my new job. Virginia Slims ain't got nuthin' on me. I've come a long way baby. Instead of boring you with what my role is (I'm still trying to fully understand), I'll start this two part blog and give you my unrealistic wishlist in a bad economy after I was laid off back in February: 1) Change careers - I've been laid off from group benefits underwriting three times. I wanted out of that industry. Changing careers is hard enough. Doing it in a bad economy is ridiculously hard. I didn't mind staying in the insurance industry, although I sure wouldn't mind getting OUT of it either. I remember reading multiple articles about dying industries, and benefits underwriting was in both. Not good for job prospects. 2) Work from home - At MetLife, I worked really hard and excelled from the moment I got there. Within that, I was afforded some perks that I'd never had before. I was assigned to some high profile projects and flourished most of the time I was there. The best perk? Working from home. Not only did I save lots on gas, there's lot of freedom in waking up and booting up the laptop, never getting out of my Disney shirt and underwear all day. (How's THAT visual??) So, going into my next job, I really, REALLY wanted to work from home. Mainly because of the gas thing. I spent nearly $5k on gas/tolls in a year working at my previous job. Plus the lost time in traffic. Once I had the taste of working from home, it killed me each day to make that drive... much less wear actual work clothes. 3) More Money - Let's face it. We are not altruistic workers. We don't even work for companies. We work for our families and ourselves. Companies benefit too, so they pay us. But, unless you own the company... your loyalty lies to your family. Therefore, we all want to make as much as we can. Because I'm human, I wanted more. 4) No more production - This is closely related to my first point, but part of underwriting, unfortunately, is that it's a production-based job. How many quotes did you do? What was your turn-around-time? What's your closing ratio? It became a job where I was just a human conveyor belt. Instead of producing widgets and cogs, I was producing quotes. The reason I've loved the project work I've been on is because it allowed me to exit that reality and bring something to the table no one else could: myself. I wanted that again. I wanted to feel important beyond how many cogs could I pump out a day. 5) No relocation - In the back of my mind, I feared the possibility of having to move to attain any one of these goals. During my job search, I saw plenty of jobs... but just couldn't get a bite in the area. It had me wondering if I'd have to consider moving... Austin? Houston? Out of state? I didn't want to, but I prepared myself for the potential. So... what did I end up with? I am no longer underwriting, but still in insurance. Working from home for more money in a job that allows me the freedom to create the role as I go... and I'm still in Corinth. I have so much I want to write, but like my last Pity Party blog, it would probably be more therapeutic rambling than anything. That'll be part 2. But, nevertheless... I am blessed.