Almostgotit.com

The Wall Street Journal’s online Career Journal  has continued its series of articles called “90 days,” presumably based on Michael Watkins’ bestseller, The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels.  Each WSJ column addresses the most critical things to remember in the first days following a major career transition.

There’s lots of terrific cross-pollination here, so if you’re in transition, go ahead and read them all!

• 90 Days: Working Productively As a Telecommuter
• 90 Days: Relocating Overseas? Do Your Homework And Ease Your Way
• 90 Days: Acing Your First Post-College Job
• 90 Days: Working for Yourself Can Have Its Challenges
• 90 Days: Easing Back From Maternity Leave
• 90 Days: Dealing With a PR Crisis Takes Planning and Truth
• 90 Days: Joining a Nonprofit Board Is More Than a Labor of Love

~ For more WSJ “90 Days” articles ~

———
Related Post:

The First 90 Days: Strategic Career Transitions

My friend Peggy, aka the Career Encourager, has asked me to choose which of the following I would use to describe myself:

1 - I am a Working Mother

2 - I am a Woman with Children and a Career

3 - Other

Hmm.  How would you answer that, readers? 

The way I define myself keeps changing, is the problem.  I’m going to be out of the mother business soon enough and never quite made it to feeling like a “Working Mother,”  so I think the first option is out.

The second option,”I am a woman with children and a career” is a little better in that I was a “woman” before I was a mother, but it seems a little out of reach as well.  I might, someday, get to call myself ”a woman with children and a job,” and then a few more years after that, I’d really like to retain the ”a woman with a job” part, too.   But a “Woman with Children and Career?”  “Careers” sound like such permanent and uninterupted things, things people have expressly gone to school to prepare for when they were young, worked away at for a three or so further decades, and then eventually retire from.  Can the majority of mothers even do this?  **Having a Career** sounds so intense and single-minded.  While “intense” certainly fits me, what mother is ever free to be single-minded as well? 

What I am is chronically multi-minded instead.  And every one of my many minds is subject to sudden and unpredictable change as my children and my life and I all go lurching along together. 

Which seems to leave only the last option: “other.”  I’d probably have chosen that option anyway, being the obnoxious iconoclast that I am, but in this case I think it really is the only one that fits.   In the end I think I choose “I am a woman:” or maybe,  ”I (just) am,” period.

How about you?

Creative commons   Child’s Drawing Photo by an0nym0usmus & Giraffe Photo by Timothy K. Hamilton  (see great comment by Timothy, below!)

—————-

Related Posts: Woman vs. rabbit hole: are we giving up too much?
Hanging in, and blonder, too
Trying it on for size: permanent 9-5 expat?

Here’s to starting over again, beginning a second career chapter, and trying things a new way!

My mother often made Italian biscotti for Christmas. Traditionally made with nuts, anise flavoring, and very little fat, they have a long shelf life – as do many job skills! And like many a woman’s career, biscotti is baked in two stages. This version makes an old favorite into something wonderfully new by using pistachios and dried cranberries! Try serving these with coffee (or red wine!) for dunking…

1/4 cup light olive oil
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups pistachio nuts

Preheat oven to 300 degrees, and prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper. Beat oil and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each. Add vanilla and almond extracts. Mix dry ingredients together, then gradually add to egg mixture while stirring. Fold in cranberries and pistachio nuts by hand. Wet hands with cool water and use them to shape dough into two 12×2 inch logs on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 35 minutes until light brown.

Remove pan to cooling racks for 10 minutes, meanwhile turning oven down to 275 degrees. Cut logs into ¾ inch thick slices on the diagonal, and lay slices cut-side-down on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake slices 8-10 more minutes until golden-brown and dry to the touch. Cool and store in air-tight container.

———————–
Never tried biscotti, or no time for cooking? Order some from Peggy’s Biscotti – she’ll even let you try a couple for free! And don’t miss her wonderful COMMENT, below…
———————–

The reason I’ve not been blogging is that, besides being in major house-rearranging frenzy, getting kids back into various school routines, and celebrating a 21st wedding anniversary (Yay, us!) I seem to have landed myself a job. I will be directing a non-profit “quality of life” organization with a large donor base and a history of visionary projects, several of which will come into fruition under my watch this coming year. It’s very exciting.

It’s also scary as heck. I know a little of what I’m in for, delving into the non-profit world, having worked for a large non-profit organization once before. Hours can be endless, results can be hard to measure, and working with a large number of volunteers and board members (who are also volunteers) is often like herding cats, or trying to stuff an octopus into a plastic grocery bag. One needs a fair tolerance for chaos, in other words!

Moreover, I’ve never supervised a paid staff before, let alone run a meeting using parliamentary procedure. What if I really do pick my nose?

And, speaking of blogging, where do I go from here with this one? How to (almost) survive working for a non-profit? How to (almost) get your working groove back after staying home with children for several years?

————–
*COMING MONDAY* Recipe for Daring Do-over, Double-Baked Biscotti

Good news for “older employees:” According to MSN, there’s hope after all!

Apparently, there’s a huge job shortage looming just ahead as baby-boomers approach retirement, meaning that several industries will be particularly short-handed when it comes to the more experienced employees that they most want and need. Among the most promising of those industries are health care, business-to-business services, education, and services for the elderly.

What makes these particular jobs attractive to the seasoned employee is that they tend to be both lucrative and flexible; moreover, they call upon one’s existing expertise and experience, requiring at most only a minimal investment in school or retraining.

The key? Being open-minded. Also, just a little thing — we may have to wait until 2014.