Misery Loves Company

Jenny is also job hunting at the same time as I am. It's really strange...

She graduated from an East Coast school with a BA in Art History and has been looking for work in her field since March. I think she is the only one surprised that it's taking so long, poor girl. Part of the wait is that she has walled off certain segments of the job market because she doesn't really want to work for museums, but would rather work in art appraisal or protection (e.g. insurance), a smaller slice of the market.

But, she has been very diligent in building a network of contacts, and some of these have turned into interviews and correspondences and further leads. No use of recruiters yet, but then - they're not often involved in entry-level job searches. Monster.com is more like it...

She's contemplating moving to cities with an active fine art community, sort of on spec, and working at what she can find (to meet expenses) while still pursuing work in her field. So now she is looking at possible apartment and roommate situations in Boston, NYC & Chicago, the latter being the least expensive by far, but with the smallest arts community of the three. Tradeoffs...

The interesting part of all this is that we wind up comparing notes, giving advice, encouraging each other. Never thought this would happen - father and daughter in parallel job searches. She may land something before I do. :) And, in the meantime, we can still support her for a few more months while she decides. That's a nice thing!

Jonny is grinding away at a factory job over the summer. He works 12 hour shifts 3-4 days a week, and had an amazing revelation the other day. He says "I've learned something. It's easier to work all day long when I've gotten more than 4 hours of sleep the night before." Hey! There's an idea whose time has come... ;)