{"id":329,"date":"2007-11-05T15:00:19","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T19:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sarahdopp.com\/blog\/?p=329"},"modified":"2007-11-05T15:10:13","modified_gmt":"2007-11-05T19:10:13","slug":"resting-or-holy-crap-im-unemployed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/2007\/resting-or-holy-crap-im-unemployed\/","title":{"rendered":"Resting. (or, “Holy Crap. I’m Unemployed!”)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Heads up, this content is 18 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading.<\/div>

It’s a long story, and I won’t get into it now.<\/p>\n

It involves all of the plot elements of a good high-budget dramatic movie. I’d like to think that after I finally sell the script to David Lynch, my character will be played by Janeane Garafalo. It will be a romantic comedy, filled with dry wit and poetry, and it will document all of the laughter and tears in the latest chapter of my most tumultuous love affair: my relationship with the tech industry. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The film will end with me sitting at the top of Nob Hill, looking out over a sparkling, thriving city with a shaken longing in my eyes. And after a few minutes of thoughtful silence, I will take a deep breath and say, “Holy crap. I’m unemployed!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

And as the screen fades to black and the credits start to roll, the music will be soft, and a heavy sigh will be heard through the darkness. It will be followed by three words in the same intense voice : “It’s about time.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back to reality for a moment. I suddenly have no income. I’ve said goodbye a team that I’ve been calling “family.” I’ve transitioned out of exciting projects with valuable clients that I adored. No, these things do not make me happy.<\/p>\n

But there is a relief that comes with change. There is a blank piece of paper in front of me, and I haven’t even picked out my pen yet. There is a time to rest.<\/p>\n

And there are also many questions to answer. So let’s get them out of the way now.<\/p>\n

The “Sarah is Unemployed” Fall ’07 FAQ <\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Are you okay? <\/strong><\/p>\n

A: <\/strong>Yes.<\/p>\n

Q: What was your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> I was the Project Manager and Technical Writer for a new partnership between two firms, overseeing the production of high-end internal websites for large corporations. In other words, I was the “details person” for a startup.<\/p>\n

Q: Were you an employee or a contractor?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> I was a contractor. I haven’t been an employee anywhere in about 3 years. My autonomy and flexibility are very important to me. So is my ability to legally work eight hours without a break. :)<\/p>\n

… <\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> ::sighs:: You’re giving me that look my mother gives me, aren’t you. Yes, I buy my own health insurance. No, it doesn’t cost that much. And my level of job security is no worse that it would be anywhere else in the tech industry.<\/p>\n

Q: What’s next for you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

A: <\/strong>I’m taking a few weeks off to rest, volunteer, write, and reacquaint myself my plans and goals.<\/p>\n

Q: Don’t you think you should be looking for work right away?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: <\/strong> To be honest, work seems to be looking for me<\/em>. I’ve only been out of work for a week, I haven’t asked for any help, and I’ve already received 10 nudges\/leads\/offers for new work. This tells me that the tech industry is alive and well, and I don’t have much to worry about.<\/p>\n

Q: I know someone who needs a website. I’ll send the request your way, okay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> Hold that thought! <\/em> While I appreciate all leads and adore the spirit of community, I’m not in a position to be building websites right now<\/strong>, and will have to decline the request. I’ll let you know if that changes. I am, however, happy to offer suggestions for where to get assistance with your web needs — especially if you don’t mind me blogging the advice for the general public to see, too.<\/p>\n

Q: But isn’t building websites your thing<\/em>? <\/strong><\/p>\n

A: <\/strong> It used to be, back when simple designs and static page content were considered “high-end websites.” Now there is so much more that can (and should) be done with a website, and I’m far more interested in managing and documenting the vision and process than I am in learning new programming languages. Consider me a Project Manager and Technical Writer now. And while, yes, I could manage and document the details around your web development project, I don’t currently have a team on hand for building that website. If you have that team, we should talk.<\/p>\n

\"sdopplaughing.jpg\"Q: Are you, um, going to grow your hair out now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> Nope.<\/p>\n

Q: Okay, I mean, it’s a good look on you. So anyway, what are you looking for right now? <\/strong><\/p>\n

A: <\/strong>Open space. Inspiration. Coffee dates with people who are living lives of their own design. Calls for submissions to publications. A good yoga class. Resources for improving my financial literacy. Lunch dates with people who have outlandish dreams and want to scheme the details. Tech conferences that I can get into for free or cheap. Meetups. The motivation to fix up and reorganize my home office. A renewed connection with the blogosphere. Lots of time and space and focus to write.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s more to come, I’m sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heads up, this content is 18 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading.It’s a long story, and I won’t get into it now. It involves all of the plot elements of a good high-budget dramatic movie. I’d like to think that after I finally sell the script to David Lynch, my character […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,53,30,2,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-my-hair","category-my_projects","category-personal","category-the_creative_life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}