The Next Step

Congratulations me, I have a masters. Toss the confetti, ring some joyous bells, and light the sparklers.

Now, the next step...

I've done this before, toyed with the 'going back to work' thing. I've looked occasionally, and would go through spurts of a month or two where occasionally I'd get bites, but mainly, nothing.

I have learned a few things though, and hopefully, when I do it THIS time, it will be different....

• First, overcoming the 'I stayed at home' thing: I'm re-ordering my resume by skill vs. by time except for where a higher degree is preferred. This does two things: In the first case, it disguises the four-year gap where I stayed home. In the second case, it explains the four-year gap as me going back for more education (if they don't do the math, which they usually don't on first glance, they won't figure out it was a 2 1/2 to 3 year degree).
  

• Second, I'm changing my career focus. Forget Public Relations. I've never been successful in finding employment in this field, to the point where I'm beginning to harbor a deep resentment for the field, after all, it's the one I worked in for ten years, the one I actually got my degree in... but after all this time, I'm beginning to take the lack of PR job bites personally so p'shah, it isn't working, it hasn't worked, and there's no reason to suddenly believe it will work. (Yes, I know it's irrational to take rejection personally, but when you train and educate yourself in a field for so long, I think you're entitled to just a wee-bit of irrationality). Good-bye PR. We probably wouldn't get along, anyhow. Hello business management.
  

• Third, it's time to just keep at it. And avoid all the horrifying economically dire news going on in the nation. It makes things harder, but it's not an excuse to stop trying.

So wish me luck, because one thing I did decide after receiving this shiny new degree, is that I will make it pay, I will leverage it, and I will (eventually) be employed. And yes yes, I know I am starting out in a new field, so obviously I won't go 'back' to where I was, but that is what the degree is for, to make it easier to re-enter at a decent level.

This moment of optimism brought to you by someone who hasn't had enough coffee yet to face reality.