Making a Comeback: WHAT am I doing?

As mentioned in the last post, at the end of November, I was left without a job. I still wanted to come back to the ranch for Summer 2010 and the chances of getting a job in December, during Christmas? Not looking good.

Have you guys met Craigslist? This has been my life blood! It started in San Francisco and I learned about it when I had an internship out there and needed a place to live. Since then, I have used it to find roommates for my house, getting jobs, selling stuff (anyone need a washer and dryer in Colorado?), etc. It's pretty much amazing. (Ok, so there was the Craigslist killer, but you have to assume most people are good...and then do a background check.)

So, I started scanning Craigslist. And had applied for all these tax jobs (perfect, right? January through April, go back to the ranch in May!), except not one single company responded to me. I guess Actuaries must really fly below the radar! I continued to scour Craigslist, which led to the Gigs/Events section, which led two weeks of hawking Yoplait yogurt, which introduced me to the 'underworld' of promotional marketing, which led me to give away more yogurt, beauty product coupons, and LOTS of Bud Light stuff.

But the problem with this type of work is that it's not consistent (although Bud Light continues to serve me very well). So I had to find other supplemental income.

The big thing about being laid off and not looking for an actuarial job was that I wanted to do stuff I really enjoyed. And that's exactly what I did.

Again using Craigslist, I offered healthy home-cooking, as well as tutoring. I now have one guy I tutor in Macroeconomics and another guy who I cook 5 meals for once a week.

It's pretty crazy because I'll cook for 3 hours then tell Dow that I feel guilty for not working! It's pretty amazing to get paid to do something you love. This is not to say that I'd like to become a chef; I think the fast pace of a restaurant kitchen would take all the fun out of it.

I find that I really enjoy doing promotions and realized my freshman year of college that I was good at selling. I did the Drake Phone-a-thon asking alumni for money and was one of the top 'sellers'. So, I'm trying to think about what I can do in this realm.

As for tutoring, I've always liked to do that and still toy with going back to school to become a teacher or possibly professor.

But what I think I would REALLY like is to work for a start-up company using my financial, sales, and HR-type (I LOVE interviewing people for jobs!) skills. So if you know of any start-up companies....pass my name along! I'll be ready to start in October or November!