After some self-assessment I realize that I have been with the same company for fifteen years doing jobs that pretty much proprietary to the business. So, this is a chance to expand my resume, gain new skills, and see what I'm worth on the open market.

I'm in a fortunate spot, I have a spouse who makes good money and I have enough in savings that I don't need to work ASAP. I can really take my time working on myself and do some of the activities on my bucket list as well.

Monica's Bucket list:

1. Go to Australia
2. Learn to sew
3. Meet Jason Mamoa
4. Get my MBA
5. Scuba dive
6. Get married in Las Vegas
7. Write a novel
8. Have dinner in the Eiffel Tower
9. Sit courtside at a Cavaliers game
10. Lay on a beach in a cabaña while being served drinks

So, I'm going to get started ( for the billionth time) on writing a novel and maybe I'll buy myself a sewing machine and start making my dogs really cute clothes to wear around the house. No, they don't want to wear clothes, but I think they are so cute in them and in the end that is all that really matters, right?

I'm also using this time to look into graduate schools to set the foundation for my new career!

Seriously, What am I going to do now?

Well, for starters I'm going to look at this change as an opportunity. It is really tough to lose a job you love. It's even harder to lose it when you're staring down the barrel of forty with a mortgage, bills and major responsibilities not just to yourself anymore.

But, this is still an opportunity.

photo from wikipedia

Have you ever read a memoir or a attended a conference by a  successful person like Richard Branson or Tyler Perry? Have you ever stopped to think what they might have in common with you? The answer is Failure. They both endured major failures and setbacks in their careers and now both of them are on top of their business fields. Love them or hate them, the truth is they are successes.

I might not ever reach their kind of success, but I know that this setback is not the end of Monica. I am worth more and owe it to myself to build my career now that I no longer have a job. See what I did there? I admitted a major truth to myself and to you, I was working a job. Just something to pay me the money I needed to live. I liked it, but it was just a job and now that its gone I can start my career.

That is the hard part, transforming my skills into a career instead of just looking for another job.

Now, how do I transform myself?

So I lost my job

So, I lost my job. Well, I did not lose it, I know where it is, but I was surplused which sucks. Really, truly, honestly this is the pits. I really liked my job, I worked with great people at a fortune 500 company that gave me a great pay. I loved my leadership team and they loved me back, we were a high performing team, but I still got the boot (so did they).

We knew this was coming, every time we had a "town hall" with leadership or received a company quarterly status update we were told that the company was downsizing. That a third of the company was going to be eliminated by the all-mighty, all powerful time of 2020. We were all strongly encouraged to get ready for the coming changes through education, pivoting skills, changing job titles, and attending several webinars.

All the training and updating of my resume didn't change anything. I was dragged out kicking and screaming about really wanting to keep my paycheck and my stapler!

Honestly, I've been through this before with this company. I was laid off in 2002 for very similar reasons, but after nine months I was offered my job back with the same pay. I was working in the real estate field at the time, building a new career selling houses. I don't like selling, in my opinion, excellent sales people are "sharks" and I'm more of a sea turtle. I'm not saying anything bad about the sales profession, but I don't have the social skills, instincts or fortitude to live off commission. Which is why I snapped my old job back up when they made the offer. True it was kid of like the "spoiled milk theory." You open the fridge and pull out the milk only to find it spoiled, then you put it back in the fridge.

Fifteen years later and that milk is still spoiled and I'm out of a job again asking myself, what am I going to do now?