Lost & Found

On March 1, for the third time in 3 years (3 years and a week, to be exact), I was laid off.

Seriously.

My resume looks like this in the last three years:

Layoff(though technically, I took a position switch, then quit 3 months later to move to The Frontier - still, I was laid off, THEN offered the position switch that we both knew would be temporary)

Layoff (job that isn't even on my resume, since it lasted all of 6 weeks - not worth the trauma)

Quit (bad, bad job at The Factory, and had I stayed another month, I would have been laid off anyway - upping the stats to 4 layoffs in 3 years

Layoff

Seriously. What once was great job karma (with lousy pay) has now become bad job karma (with decent pay).

I knew 2009 - the first year in the history of Himself and I where we've only had a SINGLE job each - was too good to be true. We're only 125 days into 2010 and already our tax situation is so convoluted I'm already putting out want ads for a good tax accountant.

As a total side note: tax nightmares tend to only hit us in even-numbered years - 2002 Navy mis-declares income (in our favor, but it would take us/them 2 years to discover it); 2004 after re-filing 2002's income, the state of VA sees red flags and audits us; 2008 filed with no W2 and a schizophrenic withholding pattern; 2010 - W2 employee, 1099 employee, temp employee and unemployed employee - a different tax ramification for each month of the year thus far.

And yet, some semblance of the good job karma is still lingering in the rafters.

After two months of trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up (or, more accurately, how to get there, since it doesn't exactly involve a paycheck), 5 job applications, 9 interviews, and a single week of financial panic, I received a job offer. This would be the same week the consulting business got crazy busy, and two days before I got so sick today is the first day I've even ventured to do any consulting work.

I told my sister (prior to being knocked flat on my rear with some unknown virus), "I realize how lucky I am in this economy." LONG PAUSE. Then I said, "No. It's not luck. It's hard work and blessings."

Because really, I've worked my tail off - not only over the 10-year course of my career, but during the entire period of my unemployment. I've done a lot to broaden my experience, stay relevant and skilled in the up-and-coming trends in my field, show leadership and initiative. Since my unemployment, I've networked and networked and networked and, well, you get the point. And while this job offer is the 4th job I've gotten from a job hunting site (4 from job hunting sites, 1 from personal connections out of my 5 most recent jobs - statistically weird) and not a result of networking, it was my networking that has helped us stay financially viable and kept me aware of what was going on in the market.

It's not all bad, but I'm rather glad the roller coaster is coming to a stop. At least for the moment. Until the tax man cometh ..