Resourceful me

Resourcefulness

What is a resourceful person? Merriam-Webster (2010) defines resourcefulness as a person that can meet situations. Anyone who knows anything about people and/or human resources knows that sometimes people inflate their knowledge of something and/or there are people who believe they have the necessary KSAs (knowledge, skills & ability) when they really don’t. How does one differentiate? Testing, that’s how.

As for my KSAs, I purposely gave myself a low excel and general MS Office score on my Monster.com self-assessment because who am I to say that I am any kind of expert or good at all? Yes, I can do some correlations, scatter plots and Cartesian graphs (you like that, huh?) on excel, but then who can’t? I write formulas, but there is so much more to know, when will I ever really learn it all? Plato wrote that his mentor, Socrates, logically claimed (Plato, BC) that he [Socrates] could not have taught the children of Athens that there was only one God because he was not a teacher (Plato). Yes, he did spend time at The Academy (name of the school?), but because he himself was not finished learning, he in essence, didn’t know anything at all and could not be considered a “teacher.” (Plato, BC)

But how can you be resourceful?

When I worked for a small music label, one of the assistants told me everything is 2 phone calls away. I was 18 and very impressionable then. I also (constantly) heard from my employer, that if I was weak, he would also be perceived as weak – another blow to my 18 yr old self. What was I to do? I had to learn very quickly to not only anticipate the needs of my employer but be able to figure out everything else. I had to be this imaginary thing: resourceful without anyone’s physical guidance. I am thankful for that.

I am thankful that my ethnicity, my upbringing (nature & nurture) has made me fighter, an overachiever, a perfectionist. I do not expect anything less than the best from myself, my peers, my spouse, my child, and certainly my employer.

I know how to get the information, do you? Food for thought (and Wikipedia is not a reliable source!).

~CT

Coverage

Coverage

Ten years ago, I turned 21, I wasn’t in school, thought I would be a writer or some other type of tortured artist, and needed coverage. Things were happening, my mom’s wonderful union insurance no longer wanted me and I vowed get my own – coverage. It was all about the coverage especially if something happened: I was in an accident or worse had to live with your-round allergies (at 21, a perpetual snotty nose is the end of the world).

I found a job, but soon lost it, but then found another one within a week. Life was good at 21. I quickly found a job that promised coverage in 30 days. I had no clue what I was doing, but I knew that it wasn’t too difficult – “I am a bright young woman” I thought back then. I wasn’t wrong, I know some things, but I also knew that I knew nothing at all (Socrates). I was ready to work and learn; besides an office job was only temporary… Or so I thought.

As they say, “More money, more problems” and it wasn’t like I was making a ton of money, but I had a shoe habit and “mucho hangeo” (a lot of hanging out), then it was an apartment and more hangeo, then I met Chris and we moved in together and I couldn’t be unemployed in a new relationship. How would his family react? We had so many plans, so many dreams and then a dream came true with Aidan and I enrolled in college, we bought a home and in a blink of an eye, ten years had passed at the same job (as of 8/9/10).

I cannot say it was all bad, and in the years, I have made great, great friends; but I know that it is my time to go and I am terrified. I wish I could take aspects of my life here with me… some of the people, the jokes, the laughs, the bond, and the guidance.

I know it is time. I have to go and let go of this place. My HR professor always said, “Organizations do not make hiring mistakes, people do” and I find that to be so true today. The mistakes we have all made, the hiring decision made that pushed me over the edge. I have many reasons not to stay and hopefully my new search into gainful employment will be successful [soon], but 10 years and 1 day ago it all started with coverage.

Coverage, I thank you for being there for me through my hypochondria, my year-round allergies, my pregnancy, and all, but you are no longer enough to keep me in one place.

~CT