Seven Weeks

It’s been seven weeks since I quit my job. Seven weeks to get back on track. I think I have accomplished a lot in those seven weeks. First, I am not so stressed out anymore. I have some stress that I might not find another job anytime soon, but not as stressed as I was.
I have started to lose some weight. When you become and mom and also work full-time, taking care of yourself becomes the last priority in your life. I put weight on but never seemed to find the time to work out or even eat better. Now I am using my Zumba program for the Kinect on Xbox and loving it. I am making better food choices and just over all feel better. I finally went to the doctor about my ankle pain and do rehab twice a week to fix the tendonitis I developed. I realize to be the best mom and wife I can be, I need to make myself a priority.

My relationship with my daughter has gotten better. When I had Lauren, I was working weekends at a TV station. I was home for four months after she was born before going back to work. I never felt that we really bonded like I have seen other parents with their kids. I know that my daughter has that bond with her Daddy but not so much with me. I was always working and never home to do things with her. Now I am. The whole family is doing things together, something we were really lacking. It’s made my relationship with my daughter better and my marriage stronger.

My daughter is finally sleeping!!!! This is a huge one. As I talked about in a previous post, she never slept through the night. By me being home, I have been able to fully dedicate myself to her and helping her sleep through the night. It was a long month of hits and misses but I think we have finally turned the corner. She has slept through the night for five straight nights. This is something she has NEVER done. I haven’t had this much sleep since she was born. I am going to keep encouraging her till we have a whole month of not getting up.

I have started my job hunt. I am ready to go back to work. I want to contribute again. I have put some feelers out about going back to TV without much luck. I know I am a good assignment editor but it seems that the TV stations do not need any desk people right now. TV will always be my first love but I also know that it may be time to move on.

I have applied for some PR jobs. Probably the most frustrating aspect is applying for these jobs are never knowing if your resume was ever seen by a human. Everything is automated and if you don’t have the key words the computer is looking for, your resume ends up in the trash before a human could even see it.
The other frustration is being turned down for being too experienced or not having enough. I have over 17 years of journalism experience and 2 years of PR experience. I am over qualified for entry level PR jobs and don’t have enough experience for management positions in PR. I would prefer to take an entry level job. Even though I have PR experience, so much has changed on how PR is done since I was in the business in 1999. I want the chance to learn and contribute to a company or agency. I hate when I do talk to someone about an opening that they tell me I might be bored with the job because I am overqualified. Sometimes, I think that is the nice way for them to say, we think you are too old.

I think the biggest thing that corporate and agency PR are overlooking is video. Companies need to have a good reel of b-roll they can offer up to journalists. Even print journalists are now doing some video for their publications website. I don’t know how many times in the past 2 years, I have booked a CEO of a company and then asked to you have any b-roll you can send over. I get one of two answers, no we don’t have any or yes but it’s not updated. Unacceptable. TV stations and publications are working with a minimal staff now a days and most of the time do not have the staff to send someone over to shoot some b-roll of the company. You will end up with a better story if you provide the journalist with all the possible elements they may need. This is where my expertise could help a company.

So I drudge on. I spend my days checking LinkedIn, Indeed and Craigslist for jobs, hoping that I will find something soon. It will happen.