Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Eagle Has Landed


Neil Armstrong of Apollo 11 fame in 1969 said it best.  "The eagle has landed."  Though he was referring to the famous first moon landing, I am using it in a much more frivolous way to refer to my recent landing of a job.  Yay!

Finally, finally . .  . . . I have a new job and I'm really excited about it.  I'm going to be a personnel employment counselor - a "headhunter."  It was weird because I had gone to this employment agency several weeks ago in the midst of my job search.  The recruiter interviewing me stopped mid-stream in telling me about one of her available positions to say, "You know, I really think you'd be terrific at doing what I do.  Have you ever thought of working as an employment counselor?"  Well, no not really, I hadn't.

But some of my best positions throughout the years have come about due to recruiters.  So I initially dismissed the idea and continued to interview at other places.  I really want this time to be a longer term job, since I've been jumping from one position to another for several years now and feeling really worried about job stability.  How can I be over 50 and never really felt like I found the right career?  So I thought deeply about it, continued coming back to that agency and talking to them more about it.

None of the other positions that I've interviewed with over the past few weeks have seemed exactly right.  My mind kept drifting back to her question, "Would I like to do what she did?"  I thought about the fact that I am good an interviewing and finding jobs for myself, which might be one reason why I've had so many positions. It's never hard for me to find another one, and often a better one.  Plus, I've been in several different fields and find it easy to go into a new job, learn the job quickly and become a valuable part of the team and then move on.  I am not afraid of change, not afraid of learning new things... in fact, the yearning for challenge, for learning new things and meeting new people has always been a strong impetus for me switching positions when I become bored and my duties are stagnant or when I run into a wall and don't feel there's a chance to advance within the company.

So today, after doing a whole LOT of soul searching, I accepted the recruiting position.  Now that I've accepted and things are in place, I am so psyched!  It feels right.  Absolutely right.  The eagle has indeed
landed.  With this job, I'll be able to use my hard-won skills to help others conquer a very difficult job market while at the same time, helping employers find just the right employee to fill available positions.  I'm thrilled.

I start next week.  Yay!


3 comments:

Elysbeth said...

Go you!!! You will rock this.

Roxanne Rustand said...

Congratulations, Chelle!

HattieMae said...

You and I seemed to be on the same page! I too am looking again! I have thought the same, "Here I am at 55 and will I ever be stable in a job again?" I thought I was the only one feeling like my hair was too grey and I was too old to even be looked at in the work place of America!
You will be wonderful at this job. You will be able to understand what workers our age have gone through and continue to fight against. Bless you on your new journey! Congrats my friend! I really hope to meet you some day
Tammie