{TEN} Blogtoberfest

Some of you may already know I was made redundant in July this year.  Now this didn't some as a big surprise to me as with one thing or another the writing had been on the wall for 18 months or so.  However it did still affect me quite badly.  I have only had one role (or really it is three roles but one company)  since moving to Australia 6 1/2 years ago and it feels really weird to know I won't be going back after my maternity leave finishes.

Once I heard it the first reaction of most people was so what are you looking for now?  That is where I hit problems.  I decided to take a full year maternity leave and intend to stick by this (its only a few more weeks) and in fact am looking to extend it and am trying to find a new position to start in January.

As part of the Career Transition support I got as part of the redundancy package I have had a great deal of support in revising my resume (it now is huge and the 'master' runs to 5 pages) and advice on how to search for and apply for positions.  

One piece of advice was to update my LinkedIn Profile only to find I had two.  At some point I must have forgotten a password and set up a second account.  Anyway I reactivated the one with the most connections and have been hard at work updating it so that is matches my resume.  

One tool of LinkedIn I only discovered yesterday was the recommendations option.  You ask coworkers, boss etc to write a recommendation for you.  Like a mini reference I suppose.  It sits on your profile and is visible to anyone who can view your profile.  So on a bit of a whim I decided to try it out and contacted a couple of my old bosses to ask for a recommendation.  Now I have two recommendations sitting on my profile and it has been a huge boost to my self esteem which I will admit to being a bit shaky at the thought of the job market.

I like this tool.  If nothing else it has helped boost my morale which is flagging as positions are few and far between at the moment.

Wish me luck in finding the right job for me.  Something that will enable me to balance my work with my kids and of course my craft.