Looking for a job within a region with the highest unemployment rate in the country is challenging. I’ve been on the hunt now for almost 5 months or more. I mean, I gave myself some grace in the first few months after Tim died, but was still looking, still planning and re-writing the live script, as it were, er, resume, or updating some new job board I found. Looking for work is all about HOW you look for work, and how you do that today is nowhere near like how I did it close to a decade ago. Not even close.

So yesterday I spent the day updating my various profiles online, uploading the new resume and covers to recruiter boards I found. Hunting for new jobs, and then writing compelling cover letters to accompany my shiny new resume. Thanks to a dear family friend, I now have a resume that was rewritten by a pro. HALLELUJAH!!! Also she gave me some excellent pointers on writing covers, etc.

Everything now is digitized. These new HR departments have digital sifter software that hunts through the mass of applications looking for certain keywords, words they used in their ad. You have to work those into your cover letter, or your resume will not get picked.

Also I dedicate some time every day at some point to skimming the news sites, headlines from various online papers, reading articles on LinkedIn. I try to keep up to date on current trends, business news, and job or career related content. Fodder for the hunt.

At some point I have a few emails to send off to our MPP and a couple other local clubs today or tomorrow, in regards to the Heritage Committee I’m involved with. Building up my networks is important, so I’m glad I’m involved with this project. I’ve met some fantastic people, and who knows? Maybe something we’ll come down the line through this committee.

I am now working towards something. I’m busy. As down as I get sometimes, I have days like the last couple, and I want to remind myself that all is not lost. It’s not hopeless. It’s just hard work. No lucky breaks. IF you want it today, you must have the energy and personal drive to go out and get it.

I was reminded today of an important lesson in visualization [see: Career Funk? Tip For Removal, by J.T. O’Donnell]. Of seeing yourself doing whatever it is you want to be doing, see yourself as that person 3 years in the future maybe, two years even? Heck, even a few months away. Where are you? Who are you? What are you doing? What do you have around you? WHO do you have around you? I’m not thinking long-term, just living in the present, thinking in terms of happiness and personal growth now. And getting a job, of course. ;-)

When I do visualize myself, if I’m honest, I see myself in a 1 bedroom apartment somewhere near a park. My sister and I went and looked around outside one that backs on to one of my favourite natural spots in London. What bliss that would be, Irish and I romping around the wet lands, and woods all year-long.

This place we looked at is a highrise, but it would do. What I would LOVE is a place with a nice front porch maybe Irish and I can sit on, or nice space out back. I’m not thinking big here, just cozy and just right. Inside I’d use the bedroom as a garden room/office. The living room would be my bedroom/whatever. I don’t really watch TV, so no sense in bothering with one, or arranging my life around one.

Job? I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter as much now as it did. I see myself in a different light. I want to write, but currently I probably can’t make a living at it. It’s too new. But one day I will, and in the mean time I just want something that will give me the time to still do that. Also to get involved, join the local camera club, maybe a local environmental group. Perhaps start writing Letters to the Editor, pitch articles to local papers, magazines online. Submit my poetry to something. Submit my photography. Do all the things I’ve just never done, because I was too afraid to. And take pictures, and write about it all here.

That’s how I see myself.

What do you visualize yourself doing 3 years? 2 years, even 5 years from now? Or just next year. Are there things you’d like to change in your life?