Found a Peanut

Days unemployed (1).  Jobs applied for (21).  Company/Job search websites joined (7) Responses(0).  Networks Tapped (3).

A Peanut Plant

Today was rough, but the most important thing I wanted to share was a conversation I had with my brother tonight about some advice he’d recently received:  “You need to find your peanut.”

This was a reference to George Washington Carver, and the many uses he found for the peanut.  When it comes to a job, we owe it to ourselves to find our peanut- that one thing that we’re passionate enough about to work on it at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for decades.

I liked that concept, but what my brother said next really boiled my noodle: the reason it’s so hard to find our peanut is because it’s in a shell and that shell is buried in the ground off on a farm (or in the woods, if that’s where your peanut is growing) and the only thing you can see is some green leaves and maybe some yellow flowers.

Building a career is a lot like finding a peanut.  When we’re just starting out foraging for a job, we don’t always know one plant from another.  But during the process of determining just how much of it, if any, will provide us with real sustenance or satisfaction, we learn a lot about what’s common to many jobs and what kind of work really interests us.  Then we start to expand on our interests to develop skills and collect experiences that will ultimately, if we listen close enough and honestly enough, lead us to our peanut.

Along the way, we’ll probably have to settle for some bitter herbs as we hone in on our dream job, but as long as we keep learning what we can, and looking for opportunities to develop our skills and interests, we’ll find our peanuts.

Thanks for the advice, bro!

You’ll notice I added a new category to my running tally, “Networks Tapped.”  I have two free lunches set up to talk to old colleagues about their new endeavors and how and whether I might have something to offer.  I also have a friend putting in a good word for me for an open position at her company.

Today’s steps: Filed for unemployment, revised my resume, networked, prioritized the budget and discussed ways to reduce spending.  Set up home computer in order to apply the same MS Outlook calendar and task functionality I used at work to the job search.

Tomorrow’s goals: Resume, applications, shop around for auto insurance, contact debtors, strategically plan out next grocery shopping trip.