Miss Moon's Musings About: Job Searching

I very much wanted to step away from my hiatus to share an amazing lesson I've learned about job searching, and about patience. You all know I am a firm believer in sharing a good thing! ;)

I've been unemployed for over six months now, and have consistently looked for a new opportunity in that time. I have had interviews, and although I've had great conversations and the people I've met with seemed to like me, I haven't found a match just yet. In the past, I would take job loss as a sign that I need to look for something new: a job that will motivate and challenge me, and give me the opportunity to gain something I value tremendously... wisdom. So with a clear idea of what type of job I desire, I would start my journey.

Obviously anything worth obtaining doesn't always happen immediately, Intellectually, I know this... but when it takes too long I allowed my own fear of failure to stop me. I would panic, take "just any job": one that offers no fulfillment or security just for the sake of being employed. It never ends up well and a year or two later... I am back where I am today. Jobless and looking for an ideal situation.

No more of this. This time around... I'm sticking to my guns. I will not deviate from my plan. I know with all the certainty of a zealot that somewhere in NYC there is a company looking for someone with everything I have to offer. And in return, the company will give me the challenge and opportunity to grow I am looking for. It will be a great match.

I used to think that job searching was like a crap shoot. You roll the dice and hope to win. Now I am starting to see the experience as cultivation. Each application, each resume sent is a seed you plant. You nourish each seed with patience, optimism and with the knowledge that you deserve to receive the opportunity you desire. And in time, you will most certainly reach the harvest you have toiled for. I believe and have faith it will happen for me. And if it can happen for me, it can definitely happen for those of you like me who are on the same path! Keep trying!

Music Therapy with Miss Moon

Happy Monday, Everyone! If you feel me on this, let me know:

Sometimes it seems that most of our time is spent at work. We give five days (or more!) to the J-O-B, and the remainder of us time is spent with our families, cleanings, doing laundry, running errands and if we're lucky... relaxing.

It can at times feel frustrating, but I am sure that most of you, like me have adopted an "It is what it is" state of mind: we pull up our bootstraps, put on our big girl (or big boy) drawers and do what we have to do... which for most of us is simply, "Living for the City" (See what I did there?! LOL). I hope that this week's song pick for Music Therapy will help to remind us all that as bad as we can sometimes feel we have it... there are many, many others out there you have it infinitely worse.



A boy is born in hard time Mississippi
Surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty
His parents give him love and affection
To keep him strong moving in the right direction
Living just enough, just enough for the city...ee ha!

His father works some days for fourteen hours
And you can bet he barely makes a dollar
His mother goes to scrub the floor for many
And you'd best believe she hardly gets a penny
Living just enough, just enough for the city...yeah

His sister's black but she is sho 'nuff pretty
Her skirt is short but Lord her legs are sturdy
To walk to school she's got to get up early
Her clothes are old but never are they dirty
Living just enough, just enough for the city...um hum

Her brother's smart he's got more sense than many
His patience's long but soon he won't have any
To find a job is like a haystack needle
Cause where he lives they don't use colored people
Living just enough, just enough for the city...
Living just enough...
For the city...ooh,ooh
[repeat several times]

His hair is long, his feet are hard and gritty
He spends his love walking the streets of New York City
He's almost dead from breathing on air pollution
He tried to vote but to him there's no solution
Living just enough, just enough for the city...yeah, yeah, yeah!

I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow
And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow
This place is cruel no where could be much colder
If we don't change the world will soon be over
Living just enough, just enough for the city!!!!

La, la, la, la, la, la,
Da Ba Da Da Da Da Da Da
Da Da Da Da Da Da
Da Ba Da Da Da Da Da Da Da
[Repeat to end]

Music Therapy with Miss Moon

I find it unbelievable that in a few short weeks, it will be the one year anniversary of starting my new job. I remember being so excited to get back into the routine and nervous I wouldn't do a good job. I also was compiling a list of songs I'd use for my wake up mix, a list I shared in a Music Therapy with Miss Moon posting on September 7, 2009.

And I have used this playlist since that time. I've added a few songs to the list (Had to add Georgia Ann Muldrow's "Roses", Janelle Monae's "Tightrope" and Zo!'s "Greatest Weapon of all Time"!), but it has started my work day for this past year.

So to celebrate my first year at my job, I decided to create a new playlist. I don't know what the list will consist of yet, but I do know that it will begin with Amel Larrieux's "InI", which is this week's selection for Music Therapy with Miss Moon.







What song would YOU add to my 2010 Wake Up Mix? Leave a comment with your pick for a chance to wish a very special thank you gift!!!

The Greatest Miracles Happen When the Odds are Against You...

A little background history: Last year, I was working as a Customer Service Representative for Carol's Daughter here in NYC (If you called or emailed last year you perhaps got me. If so, I hope I helped and didn't piss you off! lol). I also got really serious with my then long-distance boyfriend (now cohabitant/hubby-to-be) and decided that I would move from Brooklyn to a small-ish town Upstate NY called Corning to be with him. So I quit my job, and sure that the fates would smile upon me for making such a uncharacteristically brave leap, made the move in November on my 31st birthday.

And I am not saying that the fates haven't smiled on me at all. They have brought me the most fulfilling and loving relationship I've ever had in my life. They have brought me a man who has the most amazingly loving family, and they have brought me so many wonderful experiences in the time spent in Corning (including the most wonderful surprise proposal I've ever witnessed - and it was ME being proposed to!). They just didn't bring me a job! LMAO

So, newly affianced hubby-to-be by my side, I moved back to Brooklyn, where I was 50-75% sure I would get my old job back at Carol's Daughter, as they seemed very enthusiastic about me moving back to the city. I didn't. They didn't even send me a "thanks, but no thanks" letter after my interview. Which sucks anytime you go on an interview, but sucks really hard when you have a relationship with a company and have made positive contributions of time and creativity to said company.

Fast forward 3 months, several interviews and several rejections later... I am still unemployed, and it's moments like this when it's hard to keep optimistic. Especially when I read this comment from a DailyKos article that suggests the fervor about the Malia Obama picture is not about her tee shirt, but about her hair:

"I recently attended an employment coaching class for unemployed women looking for work. Part of it entailed the usual lesson on how to dress for an interview and was astonished to hear an African-American woman speaker advise AA women not to wear "ethnic" hairstyles. It was really shocking, because as a white woman, I find braided hairstyles to be very neat and no-nonesense[sic], as they signal that the woman is not spending her mornings doing her hair."

This coupled with an article from LiveSteez that reports that the unemployment rate of black neighborhoods in NYC is way over the rate for the entire city is far from encouraging, as I happen to be an African-American woman. With "ethnic" hair. Trying to find a job in NYC. According to these articles, I have a better chance of simultaneously being struck with lightening and contracting swine flu.

Suffice to say, I had a mini-breakdown as the weight of this information landed squarely on my shoulders. I decided to regroup with a long hot shower/mini meditation. While in the shower, this phrase came up for me during the meditation:

"The greatest miracles happen when the odds are against you"

I truly believe this, and it made me instantly feel better about the situation. I don't know if I will be immediately successful, but I do feel stronger and more optimistic. In short, I am ready for the challenge and I am (sho nuff!) ready for the triumph I believe will come from it.

So I am arming myself with the love and support of my friends and family (most importantly myself!), and this amazing meditation by Lilou Mace that I plan on watching twice a day: after waking up and before bed.



And I will be open, receptive to divine instruction and guidance. And I will succeed when I find the opportunity that has my name all over it!

Champions of Crackheadedness

I am all for finding love, with a millionaire or with a broke dude... even finding companionship or a good time but I highly doubt that a job classified site is the appropriate forum for this advertisement (even though they pay participants for "interviews"... with rich CEO types... right):

Millionaire Dating? We invented it! Now interviewing female candidates

posted: July 1, 2009, 03:02 AM

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Reply: click here

Millionaire Dating? We invented it! Are you the "whole package"? Woman-run, upscale & discreet Corporate Introduction Service now interviewing Admin Assts, Managers, Models & other professional women in the medical, hospitality, retail, advertising, modeling, acting, publishing, PR, arts, real estate, administrative & financial fields etc... who are underpaid, underemployed or just sick of the constant financial struggle, to date CEOs, Senior Executives and Corporate professionals. Your pictures will NOT appear on any website and your family, colleagues & friends will never know. Be 18-40yrs., very attractive, articulate and honest. College educated a plus but not necessary. Paid interview for qualified candidates.

Salary/Wage: unlimited
Status: Full-time, Part-time
Shift: Days, Nights and Weekends

• Location: Miami/Dallas/NYC/Toronto, Your City

I love how they had the nerve to put this in the office administrative job section. Wouldn't it be more of a "customer service" job? LMAO

Friday into Saturday...

This last week has been pretty... bleh. With the exception of two interviews in one week, there hasn't been much going on in my world.

Summer is the worst time of the year to be unemployed and looking. A lot of people are on vacation and simply aren't looking for employees. The jobs I've been seeing on Craig's List have truly been a head scratcher. And I have a lot of questions:

1) Have all Russian/Korean/Chinese people left their jobs recently? It seems like 2 out of advertisements are asking for people with these specific language skills.

2) Does "polished" really mean W-H-I-T-E? I hope not, but I wonder sometimes...

3) Do employers looking for Ivy League graduates only truly expect to get a shitload of replys when they are paying $9 an hour? I'm a dropout myself, but if I graduated from an Ivy League I would assume I'd be looking for more than a receptionist gig, ya know? But then again, I'm an L.I.U. drop out! lol

4) How can you be an Office Manager and only work PT? I mean... does the office only require managing 25 hours a week? I don't get it!!

5) Employers: Stop writing the BLOODCLOT BIBLE in your ads, okay? You wouldn't read a 3 page resume, why should I read the Declaration of Independance when reading about a job opening? I appreciate you wanting to give as much information about the job and the company as possible... but that's what Google and Job Interviews are for, man!

Anyway, despite these frustrations, I keep pounding the virtual pavement, and am confident an awesome kick ass job will be coming my way sooner rather than later. I am a good person, a hard working sistah, and I am open... which is a recipe for success.