Open to Work

Yes, please.

Here's the thing; I have two jobs (not including parenting, which is my most important job but doesn't pay the bills). But one is for a school district and has been sidelined by Covid-19 until they reopen our schools for in-person learning, and the other is down to less than 10 hours a month at the moment. Not good.

And as I got passed over in favor of another candidate for what would've been the perfect job for me today, I wondered why I'm apparently unhireable. I mean, I can write, I'm not asking for huge wads of cash, and I'm certainly not the only person who wants to work remotely during a pandemic. Is it ageism? Am I not ruthless enough about going after what I want? Am I not clear enough about what I want?

There's not a lot I can do about the first two of these.

So here's me, being clear about what I want.

• A writing. proofreading, and/or editing position.
• Reasonable pay. I don't need hundreds of thousands of dollars, but a livable wage would be nice. 
• To that point, $25-$40 an hour would be nice.
• Also, I can get insurance through the school district. So I'm not fussed about those benefits, though they would certainly be nice.
• Remote work. I don't mind going in for meetings occasionally, or even going in every day if a worksite is quite nearby. But not all the time during a pandemic.

Honestly, it doesn't seem like that much to ask.

What I Can Do

Cartoon rendition of me (green
eyes, brown/grey hair, freckles,
in a blue shirt, giving a thumbs-up,
smiling, and working at a laptop), with a
caption reading "working from home."

It occurs to me that the previous posts on Work Safe but not Boring are out of date, so let me give you a quick bulleted list of major skills and experience.

• The usual suspects - Microsoft Office Suite, Google Docs, etc.
• Some SEO (writing rather than programming)
• Some light QA/Agile Test work
• I know quite a bit about the theory of recent business trends, especially in IT and Cloud services. I may not have done a lot of agile testing or SEO in a few years, for instance, but I have written about it often, and you have to know some of what you're writing, or it sounds fake.
• I have the happy ability to "translate from Geek to English." Basically, this means I can make highly technical information accessible to almost anyone. 
• But many people do that, right? It's easier to do this, even if it makes the non-technical people feel stupid. The key here is that I can do it without sounding like a condescending jerkface. 
• This is not as common as you'd think; many very bright people are not great at teaching, partly because they often don't quite realize that you have to start at the very basic steps.
• As an example, say you're an expert chef, and you are trying to teach a rank beginner to cook. You're not going to start throwing out terms like Gateau St. Honoré or expecting them to create a perfect crown roast of lamb right out of the gate; you start small, with scrambling eggs and chopping vegetables.
• I can also do what in my household has always been called "Nerd-Herding" or "Nerd Wrangling."
• I believe the correct business term for this is "project management" and it's the act of getting everyone moving in the same direction.
• This is harder than it looks, but as my late spouse was ADHD and probably on the autism spectrum, and my younger daughter is diagnosed with both, I have lots and lots of daily practice at this skill set. It involves lists and charts and patience and deep breathing.
• I can work from home - in fact, I am usually more efficient working remotely than in an office.
• Part of this is that I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in (Intercultural) Communication, from the University of Phoenix, before it was fashionable to distance-school. And I did it with young children in the house.
• When working remotely, I don't have that irritating voice in the back of my mind, reminding me of all the things I need to do when I get home (or on the way home) from work. I'm already here, so when it's time for a break, I can throw in the laundry or take out the garbage or grab the mail.
• And hey, I've gotten fairly adept (as a user) with Schoology and Zoom and other aspects of Google Drive (I already knew Google Docs) in the past few months.
• In the social media circles in which I participate, I have learned quite a bit about accessibility and image description. This is why you will see a caption under most of my images with a description of the image in question.
• Based on this list, I think it's fair to say that I can almost always find a silver lining... eventually.

Just a Snippet

Cartoon rendition of me (green
eyes, brown/grey hair, freckles,
in a blue shirt, giving a thumbs-up,
smiling, and working at a laptop), with a
caption reading "working from home."

It's been a while - about two years - since I last wrote in this (the consistently safe-for-work) version of my personal blog. 

Mostly this is because much of what I have written since then is inappropriate in topic (politics) or language (because I'm angry about politics and my language reflects it in... let's just say fairly obscene and profane ways.)

I don't really know where I'm going with this, except that I need to exercise my not-angry writing skills and this seems like the best place to do so. And it can also serve as a writing sample. And yes, I'm fully aware of the grammar rules stating I should not begin a sentence with a conjunction. But this is my own blog, in a conversational style. Just so you know when you read it that I do know what I'm doing; I thought I'd mention that.

Anyway, why I'm looking for work? 

In a word? Pandemic.

You see, my job is as a McKinney-Vento driver for my local school district (yes, I also know that Wikipedia is not a citable source for most formal papers. Again, this is conversational, not formal). If you choose not to click the link, the summary is thus: I drive the kids who can't ride the bus (for whatever reason) to school. 

No kids in school in-person equal no kids to drive.

But wait, you say, I thought your district was taking the school to the kids, delivering lunches and library books, because your school district is just that cool!

They are.

But I'm newish, so a lot of other drivers are ahead of me on the seniority list, and I don't have an assignment. And it doesn't look like I will anytime soon, not if the Covid numbers keep climbing.

So aside from serving on the Racial and Educational Justice team for Transportation, and sort of remaining on call, I have nothing to do, and no money coming in (the district doesn't pay me for tech support or onsite paraeducator services for my own two kids; wouldn't that be nice?). 

So here I am, looking for work in my other specialty.

Nice to meet you!