Professional Help

Not only has it taken a lot of personal support from friends and family to make me a better person, but I no longer believe that professional support is some kind of cop-out for dealing with problems.

8 months ago I felt pretty horrible about myself. In order to turn it around, I started to make changes where is was the most comfortable, and enlisted professionals from my gym to work on my fitness level. (Which is connected to your heart, mind, body, soul . . . the hip bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bones connected to the foot bone, etc) I met with Kolleen, the exercise physiologist, who suggested Dan, a personal trainer, who inspired me to sign up for TRX training with Garrett, which inspired me to get a swim instructor, Jessica.

3 months ago I decided to enlist a professional staff for my career endeavors as well. Actually, it wasn't by choice - while stumbling through job postings on Craigslist (see the desperation here), I found one for an Executive Assistant in Palo Alto. Although I knew it was coming from a staffing agency, and not directly from an employer, I shot over my cover letter and resume. Within one hour, I received a phone call from a bubbly recruiter named Amanda, who wanted me to come to San Francisco to interview with her at the agency. I really didn't want to hike up to San Francisco AGAIN (At this point, I've realized that taking a job in San Francisco would completely uproot my life.), but her agency also does staffing on the Peninsula and the South Bay - it was worth a shot. What could this "professional" do for me?

During the interview I told Amanda what I was looking for, and what I was not looking for. When I left I felt like I'd give her too much information, and sounded depressed, and I never thought I would hear from her again. I'd all but forgotten about bubbly Amanda and the Agency, until she called me within 24 hours to let me know she was updating my resume slightly to send it to a client. She had me in two interviews the very next week.

Not only am I working with Amanda, but it seems like my resume is being passed around to many staffing professionals in her office. Now, I'm getting job information from Molly and Kelli who have put me in touch with a few more employers.

I have not yet found a new job / career yet, but things are going pretty well right now. I had two interviews for VC firms, which seem a little stodgy to me (glad it didn't work out), have had a second interview with a really cool medical device company (fingers crossed), and took a preliminary English comprehension /copyright / attention to detail test for an internationally-known marketing firm (apparently most people fail!).

It has definitely perked me up to know that there are some new career paths where my current skills are relevant, that I'm not so desperate to take anything, and that I am a master of the English language. Thank ya veerra much *Elvis*.

Professional help = get some. It's ok.