The Quest

[BigV]

Lest you think I am facing this quest alone in real life, I assure you I am not. I am blessed to have the caring support of a few very good friends out here in 3D land, and their contributions have proved invaluable.

In no conscious order, Steve C, Walid F, David C, Dave M, Howie K, Tim H, Mark G, ... wow, the list really does go on and on now that I try to enumerate them.

Some highlights, while I can recall them.

I was given a couple of binders of good information from a dear friend who was laid off from a local bank. The bank's program included professional third party outplacement, and the material he gave me was their documentation of the whole "get back on the horse" process. It includes many (manymany) steps. It is very thorough, and I'm about 25% the way through it. I'm filling out all the worksheets as though I'm in the self study version of their program. It has been very enlightening.

Another friend, mrnoodle, very generously assisted me in the proofing and editing of my resume. He is as professional as he is brutal. I wouldn't want him as my personal trainer--I'd collapse. Thankfully, I don't get winded as easily when I'm only exercising my yap (or my typing skills). That led to another problem, actually, and he coldly and efficiently solved it. My longish resume now has *no* surplus verbiage (is that redundantly repititious, I wonder?) Regardless, thanks to him, I now have something to distribute with confidence. I feel my resume looks very professional, and I expect it will be recieved and percieved that way too.

Many folks, trying to be helpful, offer suggestions for where to apply (at their own company, mostly) or where to look for openings. Most of these suggestions were pretty good, especially the ones that were job posting sites, a'la Monster.com. Monster.com *is* the king of these kinds of affairs, and I've gotten a couple of nibbles from that source. Also worthwhile are: nwjobs.com, dice.com, **new** craigslist.com, and to a lesser degree, usajobs.com, and jobdango.com.

I'm a computer professional, and I'm looking for a job in technology. This is a good location for that search, and the prospects are promising. I'll post some of the openings I've set my sights on.