Blogocentric Formulations

Job Perspective

When it comes to my job, I've been through the Stages of Grief. Denial was pretty short lived... I think that was over before I left the meeting where I got canned. Anger lasted a wee bit longer, Bargaining came and went, and Depression has probably lasted the longest of any of them. Depression at not having a full-time job, depression at not being able to find a job and the terrible economy, depression at seeing my education and years of work experience and achievement met with, "Yeah, but all that is just not enough," from employers who can pick and choose from a workforce with 12% unemployment. It's been a tough road over the past seven months, but I think I've finally moved into the Acceptance phase, and can put everything in perspective.

One of the things that's been the hardest to accept is that I might have to find a job in another industry. The film industry, quite honestly, is just a horrible place to be right now. Even though it's posting record profits (as it always does in a recession), the studios are owned by parent companies now. So even though NBC Universal is in the black, General Electric is still in the red, which means that layoffs and cost cutting still reach NBC Universal. "Hey, that's great that you made $100 million in profits last year. We're $500 million down, so we'll just say thanks for the effort, but we still need to save $400 million. Start firing people."

Anyway, as I've thought about it and the wife and I have discussed our options, we're considering a whole range of possibilities that we haven't considered before. Maybe living in a different city, or a different state entirely. We were both born and raised in California, so the idea of starting fresh somewhere else does have some appeal. We love the Pacific Northwest; who knows where we'll end up. She still has to clear her teaching credential, so we're talking at least a year off... but the possibility is somewhat exciting.

But since there's no real film industry outside Los Angeles (and San Francisco and New York), it's forced me to start thinking about what I would want to do for a living if I weren't working in film production. If I wanted to stay in the same general field, I could do commercials. Or if I wanted a more writing-centric job, I've considered copywriting and speechwriting. Ultimately, I think what would really make me happy is to explore my love of entrepreneurship and start my own company... but that may be a few years off, unless any of my loyal readers have a few million dollars they could spot me for startup costs.

I'm rambling now, but for those of you still reading, the point of all this is to say that I'm okay with being laid off. It has been nice to have some time to myself during the day, and I think the time off has been good for me; it's helped me realize that the world doesn't revolve around a job in this industry. It will be hard to see all those years of experience and education derailed if I change tracks... but now that I think about it... how many people haven't had a twist or turn in their professional careers at some point? How many people are still working in the same field as their college degree? I should be fortunate that I have so many varied interests, and could see myself being happy doing any of a number of jobs (as long as there's minimal math or science involved!).

When I met a friend of mine for coffee last week, she said, "You might not realize it now, but things could be worse than being unemployed at your age. You're old enough that you've got an education and experience under you, but still young enough to change your career for the right opportunity. Just think if you were fighting for entry level jobs or had twenty years of experience and were facing a career change."

I guess she has a point.