A week or so into August, and the activity finally seems to be picking up, thank goodness. At my networking group, I am pretty much “all in” these days. Truth be told, I give the most credit to my impatience: for the last several weeks at our team meetings, most people have been reluctant to volunteer for duties. I dunno whether they can’t commit to three weeks at a time like some of the roles require or what, but invariably, we get to that part of the meeting where things come to a standstill. There are roles that need to be filled, and no one steps forward. We can’t move on to the next agenda item until that issue gets resolved. It’s a pretty uncomfortable couple of minutes, and frankly, my distaste for inaction and drawn-out meetings compels me to volunteer.

Granted, I’m not the only over-achieving nerd. There is another newbie who is an even bigger sucker than I am… The dude has volunteered for EVERYTHING, from high-responsibility roles, to teaching workshops, to taking on leadership gigs. Seriously. And he’s such a personable guy to boot. He’s my Shawshank Redemption warden. I really dig him.

So yeah, because I volunteered for a ton of slots, today I ended up:
1. observing another team’s meeting,
2. ushering during the all-hands meeting,
3. reporting on the team I observed, AND
4. volunteering at the computer lab help desk.

Shit man, I was so swamped with people needing help at the lab that I didn’t even have time to hit the restroom. That said, the people are always so thankful for the help and guidance. One dude today asked me about DropBox and when I explained cloud storage to him, holy shit, watching his reaction to my explanation was like watching someone witness magic. He was so blown away. It was pretty frickin’ awesome. And he was so funny about it: he was all impressed with how quickly I navigated on the computer. He was in complete awe. “Oh my god, how are you without a job? You have crazy skills!! You need to be at Google.” So sweet, but clearly, this is someone who doesn’t interact at all with techies, you know?

All in all, it was a pretty full day from 10-4. But hey, I clocked in my volunteer hours! Afterwards, I then met with a fellow ProMatcher who just started an environmental NGO and wants a digital marketing communications volunteer. I know, at some point, I need to stop volunteering and start pulling in the dough, right?

Beyond the volunteer work for ProMatch, things do seem to be picking up. Last Friday, I had a really great phone screen with a recruiter for a communications manager role at a small and lean environmental NGO. Sadly, I ended up withdrawing my app. The pay was just waaay too low with no wiggle room and few other meaty benefits. Bummer.

This Friday I have a phone screen with another environmental org– one really close to home. Then next week, I have round 2 (in person interview) with the big-name environmental NGO in the city. Sadly, still no word from any of the family foundations. Philanthropy sure is turning out to be a tough nut to crack! But I just keep plugging. Tomorrow, I’ll submit for a digital marketing manager role at another foundation nearby. Fingers crossed!

As for my learning, I have a few job center classes on my calendar this week. One class is with the Sunnyvale library on using the A to Z special database to research companies and get the REAL inside business scoop on them. Another class is on interviewing, and then a third one is on negotiating. I haven’t taken any of the negotiation classes yet, but I ALWAYS negotiate job offers. It makes such a huge difference: several years ago for the fuel cell startup, I ended up earning $22k/year more than they had initially offered. Seriously. I know my worth, and I’m not about to get lowballed on that shit.

Ok, so not that you give a damn, but I’m an engineer so just indulge me here. Yes, I have been tracking all my job activities in spreadsheets: one for info interviews and one for applications. Just to get a sense for my response rates, I have compiled the data. I requested 66 info interviews and have been granted 39. Since January, I have applied to 25 targeted job positions, and I have been invited to the first round on 8! Percentage-wise, I’m pretty happy with these rates. But clearly, I need to boost my numbers and cast a wider net. There’s so much more to do! Off to bed so I can rest for tomorrow!