Some Thoughts On Losing Employment and Finding Friends

This morning I met with a "Transition Counselor". She is from the Bronx and now lives in Tampa. She was very professional and helpful while assisting me in editing my resume. What an interesting document a resume is. Don't you think so? The resume is a marketing tool that helps promote you to potential paying users of the services that you offer. The resume needs to get in the hands of the right persons and then capture their attention long enough so that they are driven to want to find out more about you. How can I help you and how can you help me? The classic quid pro quo. I actually enjoyed the resume editing session and looked at the resume writing process as less a burden and more a part of a major marketing campaign. A lesson learned. The transition counselor and I finished our task, shook hands and parted company with a smile and a wave.

From the Outplacement Service I proceeded to meet an old friend for coffee and lively discussion around some esoteric characteristics driving the industry that has employed us both for a very long time. I would like to find my way back into a productive position within this industry once again. Perhaps my friend will be the key to achieving this goal. A notion yet to be fully explored. We meet at the designated restaurant and begin our conversation with smiles and pleasantries. I order an unsweetened iced tea and she orders a diet coke. The mirthful salutations morph into matters of the industry and of her company and of her job and new product positioning, market share, the strategy and tools needed to grow that share, the strength of the competition. I'm totally caught up and absorbed. The intensity feels good. I agree to help put together a position paper...it never hurts to keep up with what's going on in your field of interest....Am I crazy? Am I dumb for doing this?. No, absolutely not and what's more it doesn't matter. I want to do it, I like to do it and truth be told, I would do it whether or not I was employed, because she is a friend. It is comforting as well as reassuring to know that there are people on this planet that you can relate to, people who accept you under a variety of circumstances, people who will make you feel that your value has not been diminished even when you are vulnerable. Being unemployed makes you potentially vulnerable on many levels. I walked away from that meeting with a number of assignments, self-imposed and otherwise. You know what? Work is really not just about the money! I have some work to get done because a friend can use some help!