Seven Months

I've been unemployed for seven months now.* While I understand that the more senior and specialized one's career focus is, the longer it takes to find the right position, I'm just plum discouraged and exhausted at this point.

I have approached looking for work as a job in itself, spending at least a few hours each day networking, looking for listings, and applying for various positions. Other than "the age thing" (which I'm sure is huge and in two days I'll be yet another year older), I cannot for the life of me figure out why I haven't landed something -- especially the right thing. I have had gobs of interviews, most of which have gone swimmingly by all accounts, but it seems that I am consistently being told that the other guy -- the other finalist for the position -- was offered the job.

I have always felt that the right job is seeking me as fervently as I'm seeking it, and that the perfect fit looms right around the corner, but maybe that's the "hopeless optimist" in me. Still, I can't think of anything that I should be doing to find that job that I'm not doing now.

Maybe it's a bit like trying to get pregnant. You know those people who focus so heavily on getting pregnant, and then when they finally decide to just relax and back away for a few weeks, they miraculously become pregnant? (OK, maybe not miraculously...) Maybe I need to do that.

No, not the getting pregnant part; the relaxing and backing away part.

But first I need to send out one last "broadcast batch" of feelers to my hundreds of network contacts because, according to the many job seeking professionals who appear in my in-box daily (who are all practically my best friends by now), it's important to consistently remind people that you're still looking and available. (Geeze, what is this parallel with dating 'n' stuff?!)

And yet, all I can think of today is what I COULD have accomplished in the past seven months, but didn't:

1. I could have written a novel.
2. I could have lost weight and gotten in shape.
3. I could have started my own business.
4. I could have volunteered somewhere and made a difference.
5. I could have nurtured personal friendships.
6. I could have completed a few scrapbooks.
7. I could have cleaned the garage -- and the house.
8. I could have gone back to school and perhaps switched careers.
9. I could have traveled. (Oh wait, I did! Okay, I could have traveled more!)
10. I could have planted a vegetable garden.

I didn't do any of those things, but I could have -- and perhaps I should have. Why didn't I? What now?

*If you're wondering what became of the offer, well, that makes two of us. I requested the opportunity to meet the staff and suggested that we consider the option of a freelance arrangement to start, just to make sure it's a fit both ways. After that initial conversation, I heard nothing for a while and then this week was told that things were very busy and let's talk again in January. Odd, no?