It is hard to believe it has been a year this past Friday since I found myself and several others out of work by our previous employer due to corporate reorganization. So I thought this weekend I would offer a few thoughts on the past year, what has happened and where I am right at the moment.
When I was let go August 8th, 2013, I had passed 32 years that May at CKTB Radio, and was about three weeks shy of 40 years in radio with continuous employment, which in itself is something of an accomplishment in this day and age. But the plan was to finish my career at CKTB and retire in a few years, earning I thought was the right to no longer wake up at 3 am every weekday morning for my position as Morning Show Producer.
Alas, as they say, the best-laid plans and all that...not quite.
When I received the news just over a year ago, I was quite literally devastated. I wavered between fear, anger, resentment and hope that I would indeed work again. These are probably normal reactions to this sort of situation, but I also knew deep down in my heart I was not ready to finish my career on this note. Something good must surely come out of all this, I thought.
That good did indeed come, and I didn't have to wait very long for it to arrive, either. Call it luck or just good timing, but a part-time position opened up with the Brock student radio station right about the time I found myself unemployed, and I was very lucky to be granted an interview just three weeks after I lost my full-time position.
The job at CFBU-FM was a contract position, 20 hours a week for eight months, developing spoken word content for the largely student-run station. It also involved me hosting my own show on research being done at Brock University, titled Inquisitive Minds. Although my time hosting Inquisitive Minds ended in late May, the show is in summer re-runs now Saturdays at 12 noon. Archived shows are also available on the CFBU website at www.cfbu.ca.
What the show taught me was that I had not lost my ability to communicate information in an accessible, easy to understand way everyone could enjoy. It was a challenge every week coming up with interesting topics for the show, but every week I found three topics of interest and in the process learned so much myself about a wide variety of subject matter. I also forged a great number of important relationships with influential people who could possibly help my career path in the future.
The CFBU job was the best thing that ever happened to me, really. I grew both as a broadcaster as well as a person, and found creative ways to utilize my communication skills in ways I had not done often enough in the past. In addition, it proved to me I had a talent that would find a new home when the contract ended, although I had no idea where.
While I applied for many positions in the broadcasting field, both locally and beyond Niagara, there were no offers of employment, due likely to my age, I gathered. So over the Christmas break I decided to expand my horizons and think outside the broadcast box, if you will. It was time to strike out in a new direction.
I had some retail experience, so that was a good option, although likely it would be part-time. I had writing experience, too, but of course, most writers don't make a living at it unless it is corporate publications of some kind. But I started to do my research and in the process found a new home in what for me at least was a rather unlikely place.
I looked at the financial services sector, although I had no prior experience in the field. But I felt my communication skills and ability to connect with people and forge new relationships would work well in this new field.
To say I was delighted to have an interview with Meridian Credit Union would be an understatement. I was thrilled! Everything I heard and read about this progressive local business was positive and rang true for me as I did my research. It was clear that should an opportunity arise, Meridian was where I wanted to hang my hat for my second career.
And so it was that on March 17th I started training for a position as Member Services Representative at the downtown St. Catharines branch, which I find hard to believe is almost five months ago now. My probationary period ended June 17th, so I must have shown I had some talent that was transferable.
Now, I don't mind telling you this is not an easy transition for me, nor did I expect it to be. A new career as opposed to a new job is always more of a challenge, and that is what I wanted. The learning curve is steep and will be for quite awhile yet, I suspect. But I am grasping the concept of this new reality and although most days I am exhausted when I arrive home from work, it is a good type of exhaustion as I know many days I have made a difference to many people who come into the branch.
I am blessed to have had this opportunity and hope to grow within this role in the coming years with Meridian, and I am truly grateful for their ability to look beyond the resume and look at the person in order to base their hiring decision. I know I will do my best to reassure them they made a good decision.
The team I work with is exceptional, and the support from both them and the corporate level is something I have not experienced before in my long career in radio. It is gratifying to me to know they want me to succeed and are willing to invest in me in order to achieve that.
But what of this period from last year to this year? What else have I learned? In a nutshell, I learned to believe in myself and never give up on myself. I learned finding a new career is a career in itself. I learned if I remained positive, things would eventually work out, and they did.
The key word here is positive. You will always have days when you are down on yourself, of course. Lord knows I had enough of them. But the more positive feelings you have, the more it radiates out to others, so think positive! I does help.
The period of self-evaluation you go through during this transition will turn out to be a good thing. You will discover new skills, new things about yourself you perhaps didn't even know you possessed. And hopefully, you will grow as an individual as I did during the past year.
It is also a good thing to be forced to update your resume for the job search. In fact, I would go so far as to say everyone should be forced to update their resumes about every five years even if they are not looking for work. Once you put on paper all your accumulated skills and achievements, you will be, as I certainly was, surprised how much you actually know and how many things you've accomplished thus far in your career. It will open your eyes, I can assure you.
Try not to be hard on yourself, although I was guilty of that as much as the next person often over the past year. There will be setbacks, to be sure. But there will also be victories, and you have to celebrate those and put the setbacks in the rear-view mirror.
If you, like me, feel you have much to accomplish with your career still, you will find a way to write that next chapter as I have done, and hopefully it will lead to a happy ending to the story that is you.
Next week, I will review some of the ideas I utilized in my job search and offer some thoughts on what worked and didn't work. But in the meantime, be thankful for what you have, whether you are working now or not. You have a lot to offer, and good things will come. They did for me.
Enjoy the weekend!
August 9th, 2014.
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