Monday, August 28, 2006

More job-type thoughts

K has mixed feelings about Waco. He's nervous about Brian being there - worried that someone else will be around J a lot and try to take his place as J's dad. (Not gonna happen - even if I were stupid enough and mean enough to try to replace K with someone else in J's affections, J wouldn't go for it, and I wouldn't try it anyway. And no one meets the boy until I have a pretty good feel for where things are headed and until K and I have talked about it.) He's not crazy about the possibility of being an hour and a half away from J. (I'm nervous about that myself, because then I really would be on my own most of the time, with other family all out of state.) But he understands that I have to go where a good job is to be found, and that I'm not going to make a hasty decision - if I'm offered a job in Waco, I'll have to be pretty certain that it's a good fit, and one I'll be happy with for the long term, before I'll accept it. Believe me, I don't want to be in the position of having to move out of Waco in a few years because I don't like my job anymore, or because I lost my job, and there are no other jobs to be had - been there, done that, that's how I ended up here.

I did want to smack him this afternoon, though. Here's what the placement agency's website says:

A____________ Legal Staffing is currently interviewing qualified candidates for the following opportunities:

IP / trademark infringement attorneys on a contract basis for a downtown law firm.

Corporate paralegals contract and full time for a downtown firm.

Contract Litigation / Document Review Attorneys for downtown and mid-cities area.

Experienced Real Estate paralegal for downtown firm.

Contract Litigation paralegals downtown, far north Dallas and mid-cities.


I was trying to make this point: If the only positions the placement agency is looking to fill are the ones listed on its website, then I'm not sure there are a great number I'd 1) be interested in, 2) be qualified for, or 3) both. And any contract position would have to offer a pretty kick-ass salary and benefits *and* be for an extended time period before I'd take it - it would be pretty short-sighted to leave a full-time job for something with, say, a three-month contract. K got all upset, telling me to stop selling myself short, stop making up my mind before I'd even talked to them. Um, not doing that (or at least that wasn't my intention) - it just seems like, if they're looking for, say, someone with intellectual property (IP) experience and I have none, then it's pretty unlikely that they'll want to consider me for that position (and pretty unlikely that I'd want to take it). For all I know, they've got hordes of positions not even posted on the site, and one may be just perfect for me. I'm just saying *if* that's all they have, then this interview may not lead to an offer right off the bat - it may be one of those "meet and greet" sessions only, with my resume kept on file for future reference. Granted, my previous job, they were looking for a tax attorney with five years' experience - and for some unknown reason, they hired me instead. So you never know what employers might actually go for as compared to what they say they want. I'm just saying that it's possible the agency doesn't currently have anything that's a good fit for me. And it's possible that they do.

We'll see what they have to say when I go talk to them. The trick is for K not to get so hung up on wanting me to stay here that he pushes me to consider something that's almost right but not quite, and for me not to get so hung up on wanting to go to Waco (which I told myself I wouldn't do) that I overlook possibilities here.

1 comment:

Holly said...

YOu made a good point. I remember when hubby was looking for a job and we had to be carefeul not to let my family's idea of not wanting us to go far get in the way of searching for good, solid job ops. in other areas! Keep your mind open....I think K would learn to deal.