Job Status
- Job I was interviewing for got cancelled (5 out of the 8 openings I applied for at that company have been cancelled so far...I guess they are doing major reorganization and moving departments out of this state).
- Participated in phase 1 testing for a job in San Francisco. Took 2 written tests. No word on if I passed and will get invited to interview. Really hope I get this job. I would like to live in San Francisco, even though this job would give me a $30,000 pay CUT. I want to get out of here so badly that I would take a $30,000 pay cut...
- Interviewing for a job in Sacramento this week. Really hope I get this job.
- Haven't applied to all that many jobs. I'm being somewhat particular about which ones to apply to because I do want to be happy. Plus, I'm not qualified for a big portion of open jobs ("director", "manager", "5 years of experience"). I'm watching for openings though, and applying to probably 1 job per week on average.
Travel Status
Just got back from a 3-day weekend at Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands. Basically in Canada. Good weekend with J. We had a panoramic view of most of the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island (will post pictures later). While sitting in our living room we saw two humpback whales, a pack of seals, sea otters, and Canadian geese. Elsewhere on the island we also saw deer, sheep, horses, cows, dogs, and a bunny. It was a wildlife-filled trip.
Trying to plan a trip to Australia. I need a "walkabout" type of experience to reconnect with my life. I should have done something like that right after finishing school, but couldn't handle it financially. Now I have enough saved up to do it, but after talking about it with J we concluded that the only way I can do something like that is to get a job and negotiate a later start date so I can go on a trip. My current plan is to get a job and ask to start 6 weeks from the time of job offer. That will give me 2 weeks for notice to exit my current job, and 4 weeks to travel Australia.
Ideally I would take off 3-6 months to just travel, but I just don't know how feasible that is. I could probably make it work money-wise but the real issue is finding a job after I get back. I could afford to travel Australia for 3-6 months, but once I got back it could take at least 6 months to find a job -- THAT I could not afford because it would mean I would be unemployed for 1 year.
I have only been thinking about Australia because it's winter now and it would kind of suck to travel Europe in the winter. So that's why I thought about Australia. I also was inspired to go there because I know L and another couple I know had both traveled around Australia for ~6 months. I've been pricing it out and it's very expensive to do what I want to do, but it's worth it. I'm tired of saving money. In Kauai and on Orcas I got really nice places to stay, waterfront. I'm tired of scrounging and saving money on trips. Of course there is a limit (I'm not going to pay $3,000 for a train trip when I can pay $890 for the same trip...).
But this idea of being able to travel between jobs has really given me hope. The only reason I haven't quit already and started traveling is because I'm afraid of my recommendors. If I leave, the people who are giving me recommendations (my supervisor primarily) will have less reason to give me a positive review because I've already left. So I am mostly scared of that. I fear that if I left and traveled and asked for a recommendation 3 months after being gone, any non-positive recommendation would get worse over time. In the context, it is rational to be so afraid of a recommendation. People get written reprimands, accused of sick leave abuse, etc. all the time. If not for that, I would leave and try to get a job later. But given these apprehensions and the poor job market right now, I have to play it safe because I don't have a lot of money to fall back on.
