The Moral Dilemma: The Boomerang Considers Politics and Jobs

Don't be frightened this is not a political rant, it is the investigation of how I can bend my belief system to make money.

There is a job opening, I am qualified for it, it is fairly local, it is with an association that I am ideologically opposed to. So do I apply and more or less double my salary and get better benefits, or do I stick with my soul suckingly (really this is an adverb that doesn't exist and isn't needed, because what adverb is needed? but I'm letting it lie)boring job where I kind of like my co-workers and get to read books and news for good portions of the days?

My friends are not ideologically opposed to this association, well most of them, I have one who would probably disown me and stay in her happy London flat if I did work for them, the rest would high five me for embracing their one insanely out-of-our-mutual-political-ideology  passions.

This friend who would disown me, she has a point. Why compromise? I will not change their minds, they are too many, instead I should rise up and fight against them (with a peaceful discourse and some powerful elections, woot! for signs in your yard!) But what if I apply for this job, make this money, infiltrate the system, use subliminal messaging and win them to my side of this ideological debate.

What do you think?

Boomerangs and Dirty Business: The Challenge of Networking

I hate networking. I hate it because it's a filthy game of soullessness and greed. Now that said I'm working on the whole idea of networking, because, if I throw up a pretend statistic that is close to right, 90% of the people I know who have gotten jobs in their fields after graduating had done so because they know someone or their parents know someone.

I know people, they're just not the right people apparently, so I am on LinkedIn, I'm emailing the heck out of people asking for advice, I'm studying the bossman's technique (he listed networking as an "interest" for a class he is taking, he is a pro at it if one can be), and I'm reading and researching.  I can do these things. Maybe.

So far the bossman's technique has gotten me a client who may or may not have asked me to visit his son out of state with him, so I'm not great at it yet but I'll keep working. My mom's boss is willing to put in a good word for me in the places where she can, which helps. I'm on HR's mind when new jobs come up, I have them thinking of me, inventing ways to make it work. And I'm meeting people. The one person who emailed me back with advice said business cards were a biggie, so now that's on the table as an idea.

I've discovered a new in today. One that is sort of "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" but isn't that how this game is supposed to be played? If I knew people who could help me, wouldn't I already be out of this situation?

Here's to networking, then taking a shower.

Abandoned by Facebook Friends

There is a car commercial out there where a girl sits behind a computer confessing she is worried about her parents' social lives, they only have 19 facebook friends while she has more than 600 "friends." The parents in the commercial are off biking with friends and having a great time. The commercial is a disgusting, though potentially true, depiction of the generation gap. I laughed at it, believing that I am above it, sort of.

Then, today, I went to post something on the wall of a friend only to discover that we are no longer friends. This is the second time in a week that I have realized that I have been unfriended. The first one didn't hurt so much, it was a former classmate that I was never particularly close to, but today, that hurt.

It hurt not because I have one less facebook friend but because facebook was the medium of communication with this particular friend who has a habit of being challenged by life and disappearing into the unknown for periods of time. And, please don't tell him this, I look up to him, I need him because I am also not sure what is going on.

Granted our struggles are worlds apart, and I tend to find out about his though strange sourced, but he is/was a a buddy though it all. Usually he was just a laugh. And a laugh is pretty important at this point in my life.

So here's to missing my facebook friend. A tear shed.