One to another

The other day I was trying to see the big picture of how I ended up employed in so many different places (in this economy I have been laid off twice.) I believe in the "big picture" so here's my take on how one has led to the other.

Intro Job: took 100 resumes to get this one. Pre-internet, I grabbed my phone book from home and sat on my dorm bed and sent them out one at a time. He was early in the alphabet. I made $5.00 an hour, which was an actual raise from the $4.10 I made the summer before working as a daycamp counselor!

Lucky Break: We took a trip to Seattle to check out the UW, find an apartment, and get jobs. I remember running out of the interview so excited to be hired for $10 an hour. It was just luck. My first job where I drew on the computer. Worked over the summer full-time and when my classes were not allowing enough hours, they dumped me. Ugh.

Crazy Busy Economy: When I got my next job, I had computer skills so that was huge. I got my next summer job. I sent out tons of resumes (I never send to job postings, just places I want to work) and didn't hear back. I started calling everyone and leaving voicemails. I started getting calls pouring back in so quickly they were going to my voicemail because I was still on the phone. I had a few interviews and got a great "real" job. I loved the people, it was mostly residential and I remember one good friend later told me she heard the interview and asked my boss why he didn't offer me a job on the spot. She said "go down the hall and get her!" I knew I liked her! I got a call soon after. $12 an hour! Three years later, the economy tanked from 9-11 and I spent months watching all my friends get let go, and sending out resumes everywhere knowing I was next.

Details: Because I had been so detail-crazy oriented at the last job, I got a chance with a big commercial firm. Bu-buy residential. I spent the next year working on a big light-rail station and baking Logan in my tummy. Tried to go back after Logan was born, but it was a big failure on no sleep and a crazy intense needy baby at home.

Freelance Work: If you're gonna find freelance work, it's probably in residential. So my mad-house drawing skills landed me about $7000 worth of work while I was home with Logan- woohoo! Got the work off Craig's List and from sending around resumes locally offering just that.

Downtown Crazypants: Well thank goodness for that jaunt over to the commercial sector, it landed me my big downtown job in January in Downtown Chicago when we moved and had to find jobs before we could move out of my mom's house and into our own home. The commute, long days, babysitters for Logan for the first time, finding out I was pregnant (woohoo!), and a boss who was a yeller (at everyone) and crazy, well. I couldn't wait to quit that one on my own! I got myself a nice local job. Doing transportation had been my lead-in into this job. I also did a big bakery for this project.

Local at home: The next job was probably purely out of convenience. I had offered to work from home and my boss was big on work and small on space, so I worked 5 blocks from the office part-time and baked baby #2. It was lonely but good, with tons of time to raise Logan. I got a chance to learn the ins and outs of residential in Chicago and did some other types of commercial projects. Also did my first house in Chicago proper, which is like learning a new language it's that different. When I felt like the boss was going crazy, I gave my notice. Turns out he retired a few weeks later. Aaah, so that's what was going on. I'm a bit psychic about things like that.

Good designer: After working on mediocre design for a bit, it was refreshing to work at a residential firm again with a good designer. I got the job based on that first detail-oriented firm. Thank goodness for that job! It's still getting me jobs! Economy tanked, some projects got pulled, and I got let go last Thanksgiving. It was really tough because I liked working there, and my boss was crying when he had to tell us. Not to mention I was out of luck in finding a new job in a bad economy at the holiday time again- ughs! That is the worst time to send resumes by the way!

Bakery: So, when I had interviewed for a previous job, I had actually received an offer too late from this firm. So I sent them a resume again. He had a bakery project and was excited for my experience in it. He wasn't sure how much work he'd have, but he was willing to give it a go. We did the bakery and it was a good job, until work ran out. I told him I had to send out resumes again and he promised that someday the door was open when more work came in.

All Business: So this firm I work at now is all business. I think a bit of experience in all my residential firms helped me. And doing the house in Chicago clinched it. The past few jobs have offered not too much of a raise, which I think it common, but also indicative of the economy. This company is all business, lots of work on the financial aspect of my field, so I'm hopeful to learn a lot from that. Let's just hope I don't get dumped between Thanksgiving and the New Year again okay?

There you go, my world of architecture experience. Not exactly a cute mommy story, but I guess it tells you more about the person behind the mom mask right?