Jobs are Like Boyfriends

It is easier to find one when you already have one.   Or that is how the old adages go.

I never believed it though...I mean I am the same person and same chemist whether I am employed or unemployed, right?  However.....a few years back, at the end of my last academic postdoc, I decided to take time off and not take whatever job was available at that time just so I could have a job.  I wanted to find "the right job".  When all was said and done, I was unemployed for a period of about 14 months.  It was a number of months before I had an offer on the table to consider at all.

Fast forward to present day.  The first interview fell into my lap because I happened to know someone at this company (Networking really does work!).  I have been stressed because once I committed to leaving my current employer, I knew what lay ahead from the last time I was in the midst of a job search.  Job searches are a full time job in and of themselves.  Trying to prepare for interviews while working in a toxic work environment presented, uh, new and interesting challenges let's say this time around.  Interviews are part art, part science.  It takes a lot of practice to learn how to present yourself properly.  And if you are foaming at the mouth because of your current work environment, it can sink your chances. 

Well, I must have done something right.  I got the call this week detailing a verbal offer from my first interview of Job Search 2009. 

The current offer is from a company in a totally different sector than where I currently work.  My biggest concerns are that (1) I will hate the work or totally suck at it or all of the above and (2) if I do hate it, that I will find it difficult to back track and get back into my current sector which I do love (despite the fact I work in an insane asylum.)  However, the new pay is 60% more and the benefits are stellar.  The potential for growth, stability (as much as that exists anymore) and advancement are much better compared to where I am now.  But I would have to move to a state I swore I would never live.  Ooops, did I say never???   Looks like crow may be on the dinner menu for tonight.

And the Beat Continues

Of the four professors with whom I performed research during my time in academia, two were verbally abusive bullies with sociopathic tendencies.  Each time, I initially thought that things would pass and the situations would improve.  I also stayed in the situations because I was far into my PhD work and didn't want to have to start over again (with a new professor or at a different school) or, in the case of my last academic postdoc, I had signed a contract and didn't want the added complication of explaining to job recruiters why I had left a postdoc early.  Even after realizing things would not improve, my mantra changed from "Oh, things will get better; just stick with it" to "Things will be better at the next job.  Just stick it out until then."

Looking back, it is amazing how deeply one can delude oneself.  In the end, all I received for my hard work and stick-to-it-ness was a severe case of depression, weight fluctuations, migraines, panic attacks and other health issues.  I swore after the last one, never again.  I realized that I would probably run into their ilk again but I promised myself I would not stay in the situation like I had previously.

Fast forward to my first job in industry.  For a time, I was very happy.  I had a fantastic manager.  When Fantastic Manager left for a new job, I did not panic.  I had confidence in the CEO/President of the company and in that he would appoint a good replacement for Fantastic Manager.  When things started to go downhill in the month after FM's departure, I chalked it up to stress on the part of the CEO.  Weeks turned into months. I finally came to the conclusion that the bad behavior and poor decision making I had witnessed, particularly on the part of the CEO, was not stress induced.  This was his normal.  FM has just done a fantastic job of shielding us from it.

Still there is this inertia to the process of job hunting when you are already have a paying job.  Funny how that works.  Things would hit the fan at work and I would spend a lot of time upset or angry as a result (deja vu anyone?).  Then things would calm down and I with them.  This week was no different.  Another dust up sent me just about into the stratosphere.  People can be so unnecessarily demeaning and condensing.  However, the quiet knowledge of my future job interviews helped to calm me quickly.

I have worked on my powerpoint presentation of research all weekend long and almost have it done.  I am feeling better with each passing thing checked off my job search to-do list.  Empowering, it is.