nyj37: living on $50/week


So many of you have been shocked to learn of my current unemployment that it’s clearly time for that long-overdue update. Yes, you read that right: I am currently jobless (though not quite shiftless), and collecting unemployment. Why, then, has it taken me so long for an update? (Insert sheepish grin)

Since March, each month has brought a major event: In March I flew to San Diego for the graduation of my youngest brother (Josh, 20, Marine Reservist) from boot camp. April 17, I moved with my roommate Christy (graduate painting student at the New York Academy of Art) half a mile from our spacious Park Slope sublet to a slightly smaller “cold-water flat” for which we signed our own lease. May 22 my brother Gabe (24, active duty with the Army National Guard) was married near Phoenix. Since I’d been storing 11 containers of stuff in a gracious friend’s Tempe garage, I used the trip to ship it all to Brooklyn. Some of those tubs now fill out the vertical storage in my bedroom. The rest still has to be better integrated into my other belongings, but unemployment (theoretically) gives me lots of time to do that.

But I suppose you’d like to know why that is. Perhaps I never made this adequately clear when I first announced my job with Pub. Co., but it was a long-term temporary job (albeit with vacation and full benefits), typical in their education division. Staff is expanded to put out a textbook then contracted until the reprint or revision. My contract went through April 30, subject to the needs of the project. I actually worked through May 7, but budget constraints prevented further extensions.

Overall, the change is a good one. Not until I had such sudden downtime did I realize how frenetic the pace of life had become. I, so often the queen of introspection, barely journaled once a week—often less than a page at that. Some decrease in reflection is probably good, since its can impede the actual living of life. But at the same time, I have needed—and not made—time to think. Time to finish settling in post-move, to better order personal affairs (read: figure out my budget), and work on my novel (nearly 90,000 words of dreadful smut ... just kidding ;)). Time to finally plan our housewarming and consider how one celebrates a 26th birthday (July 11) on a shoestring. ;)

looking ahead
After all, the mid-20s are famed as the season of quarter-life crises, especially for single woman increasingly barraged with news of high school and college friends’ marriages and children.

For me the issues play out a little differently. I’ve basically decided this season in New York will not be “just a break” before going on to get a Ph.D (which was my original plan). March 5 I presented a paper at the Gallery of the American Bible Society, as part of an ongoing series of symposia on Art and Religion. If that sentence sounds deadly dull, it’s about how I’m tending to see the world of academia. I love the analytical tools it gave me, and the dialogue in my seminars, but I don’t have the patience or the passion to get a Ph.D. My primary motivation would be pride, which is not a good one.

My analytic addiction will have to find a fix somewhere else. Since I need to think of establishing a “career” rather than finding the next job, I’ve been fairly selective in my search process. Which is to say, I’ve applied for exactly one job.

I like to think of this as following Mark Twain’s advice: “Put all your eggs in one basket … and WATCH THAT BASKET!” So far this all-er-nuttin’ approach is still … under assessment. But that’s not a bad sign! The job I applied for is a communications/policy associate position with a small consulting firm, That Company. TC focuses primarily on infectious diseases, especially AIDS. You might recall that, over the last year or so, I did occasional consulting work for a somewhat-kooky visionary who sought to globalize the nursing profession. Coupled with an internship in college, and field experience with basic medical clinics during a summer 2000 trip to India, I actually have a lot of relevant experience for this position.

Enough to, at least initially, beat out formidable odds. When I finally had my promised phone interview (nearly a month after they told me to expect it), I learned that TC received 600 applications for this position. Of those 600, they picked 50 to interview by phone. Each of the two principals had a list of 25 to call, so I don’t necessarily think there’s cause to be totally bummed my 10-minute call fell short of brilliant. How much energy can an interviewer really have when there’re 24 people besides you he has to call? Is he really going to give you half an hour?!!

Where I think I shine is in the follow-up. Because of all the delays (the hired probably won’t start till Aug./Sept.), I’ve had ample opportunity to show persistence. The hapless guy currently in the job-to-be-filled has probably gotten once-a-week emails from me. But I’ve had good things to talk about. Through tremendous good fortune (in spiritualspeak, “by the grace of God”), I learned of a June 10 conference on AIDS that included a speaker from the org which both the top guys at TC used to work for. This conference has served me very well as a talking point in follow-up emails, provided a great (and free) introduction to the field, and got me semi up-to-speed on President Bush’s $15b initiative to combat AIDS. I also parlayed attendance into a chance to do something for GHS — providing them with a copy of the RSVP list so they could see who was there.

If nothing further comes of this, it’s certainly introduced me to a fascinating field and afforded great practice at honing my job-hound skillz. Although I will try to email an update on this job as such proves possible, notes from the Navel will be the best place to check.

posted @ 05:05 PM on Mon - June 28, 2004 remark! Email |  as quoted:
before I said ...  but more recently: 

©