Cresting The Hill: Search results for job

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I KISSED JOB HUNTING GOODBYE

Monday, 23 September 2019

DATING AND JOB HUNTING

There was a book that did the rounds of Christian youth groups back in the 90's called "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Josh Harris, it was based on the concept that Josh no longer wanted to go through the rigmarole of dating countless women in the hope of finding his one true love and offered an alternative. Twenty years later he changed his mind and wrote a retraction because the book was rather over the top in what it was advocating.

Despite that, the title was super catchy and made me think that dating and job hunting were a lot more similar than I'd realized. They're often preceded by a traumatic break-up, then a lot of soul searching, a desire to hook up with the "perfect" partner, the awkward interactions, the failed attempts, and then (hopefully) the ulitmate successful match that lasts a lifetime. Josh kissed dating goodbye and this is why I'm kissing job hunting goodbye...

6 REASONS WHY I THREW AWAY A "PERFECTLY GOOD" JOB

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

WHY I LEFT A SECURE JOB

If you've followed my blog for any length of time (and if you have thank you so much!) you will know that I left my old job a few months ago. It was a good job, stable and I was able to do it with my eyes closed and twirling a few plates at the same time! Despite that, there were several reasons for leaving and I wanted to share a few of them for others who might be having thoughts about their 9-5 grind.

THE "PERFECT" JOB

Monday, 6 November 2017

IS THERE A "PERFECT" JOB?

I know that there are people out there who are happily ensconsced in their perfect job, but when I've been asked if I thought there was a "perfect" job for me I would always answer "No". I would tell you that there is no such thing as the "Perfect" job and that I'd be naive to believe any such entity existed. The funny thing is that, despite my pragmatism, I still fall into the trap of imagining that each new job I start will be that elusive unicorn - perfection at last.

YOU CAN QUIT THAT AWFUL JOB RIGHT NOW

Monday, 27 January 2020

YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORK TILL YOU DIE

If you're one of those lucky people who love their job then I take my hat off to you. I truly envy people who look forward to going to work every Monday. I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like because I've never had a job I could truly say I loved. I've had jobs that I've been really good at, jobs I've not minded doing, jobs that have paid well, jobs that were okay, but nothing all that fabulous. Because of that I've always wanted to NOT have to go to work and wondered if that day would ever arrive.

AT THE JOB CROSSROADS

Saturday, 18 April 2015

WHEN YOU FEEL STUCK

I'm not sure if I am the only Midlifer stuck in a fairly monotonous job. I have been working in reception at an orthodontist's office for eight years. I've hung in there through thick and thin but I'm starting to feel like the time to move on is looming.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR - YOU MIGHT JUST GET IT!

Monday, 18 April 2022

NEVER GET TOO SETTLED

Just over three years ago, I finally walked away from my toxic job. I didn't have a lot of time to think about it. I'd been pushed to the end of my tether, and when that last straw broke this camel's back, I gave two weeks' notice, packed my bag and left. I was mentally exhausted and it took me a long time to recover my resilience. The ending was sudden and abrupt, and it left me feeling quite lost and unsure of what to do next.

By the time I felt like I had something to offer a new employer, covid arrived in all its "glory" and the world locked down. We all retreated and it became easier to stay at home than to worry about putting myself out there again. But life can sometimes surprise you....

ASKING THE BIG QUESTION - WHERE TO FROM HERE?

Monday, 22 April 2019

MY LIFE HAS CHANGED AND QUESTIONS ARISE

Work has been a huge part of my adult life - I've been in the workforce for 40+ years, only stopping to have our children before heading back to the grindstone. Now that I've left my job, the big questions arise - Where to from here? What do I do next? How do I define myself without a job title? Who am I and who do I want to become? I don't think I'm alone in asking these questions because I've heard variations of them from other Midlife women. So the question I'm asking today centres around "Where to from here?"

KISSING FROGS - I HAVE A NEW JOB!

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

FROG KISSING

I'm so excited - frog kissing has paid off! After being first runner up at my last job interview, I took the plunge and kept applying for jobs that looked interesting. I hadn't reached the borderlines of desperation so I was still being fairly choosy about what I wanted to do - not ready for shelf stacking at the supermarket just yet.....

LIFE AFTER A MID-CAREER MALAISE

Monday, 21 September 2020

CAREER CHOICES IN THE 1970's

I really admire people who choose a career in their teens and then stay the distance until they retire in their mid sixties. I'm not one of those people. Originally I had plans to be a teacher. For a lot of young women back in the 70's, teaching, nursing, or office work were the main choices - but teaching didn't pan out for me because my parents didn't want to support me for those extra years of university - after all "women just get married and have babies, so it'd be a waste of time and money" (my dad's words). Fortunately times have changed for the better these days and young women can be whatever they choose.

FEELING VALUED......OR NOT...

Friday, 15 May 2015

RELIEF AND REGRET

You know that feeling from your younger days when you broke up with a boyfriend and there was the relief but also the regret? Well that's a bit what leaving my job has been like. The kicker is that it feels like my metaphoric boyfriend has replaced me already!

JOB INTERVIEWS AND BEAUTY PAGENTS

Sunday, 31 May 2015

ON THE HUNT FOR A NEW JOB

I went for a job interview a few days ago - my first since leaving my last job behind me in the dust. It is a very strange feeling polishing up the resume and updating it and looking in the Situations Vacant columns in the newspaper or online (and realizing how few jobs are actually appealing).

I DIDN'T CHOOSE RETIREMENT - IT CHOSE ME

Wednesday, 22 September 2021

I DIDN'T CHOOSE TO RETIRE

I've always worked - I had my first Saturday job when I was 14 years old - working in a department store selling purses, alarm clocks, and other assorted goods. Then it was the dress fabric department at another store, and then into my career as a dental hygienist. From there I moved onto working in a call centre, and then into dental reception, and finally, I was head hunted by a surgeon’s Practice Manager. She offered me the Perfect Job – great hours, great pay, great office, great team…….

But we all know that if something seems too good to be true….. it often is too good to be true.

Forty three years after I started in the workforce, and with an anticipated ten years still to go, things took an unexpected and upsetting turn, and suddenly I was handing in my resignation.

CHOOSING ENTHUSIASM OVER PASSION

Tuesday, 17 November 2015

DO WE NEED A "BURNING PASSION"?

I've read many, many articles on "finding your passion" that tell me that my life is not complete unless I find something that I am completely passionate about. I think there is a lot to be said for swapping the word "passionate" with the word "enthusiastic". That way you can embrace lot of different experiences without being consumed by just one.

TO RETIRE OR NOT TO RETIRE? THAT IS THE QUESTION...

Monday, 12 May 2025

Why do some people retire as soon as they can, and others continue to work for years longer than they need to?

THE KEY TO A CONTENTED RETIREMENT

I've often wondered why some people enjoy retirement more than others. And I've also wondered why some people can't wait to retire, while others work well past the official retirement age. There's a lot of different reasons that come into play - probably as many reasons as there are retirees, but I've finally figured some of it out - and I think a large part of it is to do with whether you have a job you love and want to keep doing it, or whether you really don't enjoy working and can't wait to stop...

RESIGNATION, RE-INVENTION AND A REVELATION

Tuesday, 17 March 2020

RESIGNATION

My husband and I always joked about how flattering it would be to have someone phone and offer you a job based on all the good things they’d heard about you. In 2015 that exact scenario happened to me when I received an out of the blue call from the wife (and Practice Manager) of a surgeon who had rooms in the same hospital as the Specialist I was working for.

She offered me the “Perfect Job” – great hours, amazing pay rate, lovely small team to work with etc etc. I was understandably excited and jumped at the opportunity. The first few months on the new job were pretty good, but then the wheels started falling off left, right and centre. It turned out I was working for a self-confessed narcissist who had enormous emotional issues that overflowed all over me every.single.working.day. and it literally did my head in. So, three years after I started in the “dream job” I admitted to myself that I’d reached breaking point, handed in my resignation and left while I still had a shred of sanity remaining.

JOINING THE JIGSAW PIECES OF A NEW JOB

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

NEW HORIZONS

I have undergone an amazing transition in the last few weeks. A month ago I was a guru in my field. I knew every dentist and dental specialist in my vicinity. I knew who was good, who was great and who was indifferent. I knew the terminology, the appointment types, the item numbers and the costings and I could multi task several things at once. If you needed a goddess of all things dental I would have been a candidate for the job. Then I got bored.......

HOW I UN-RETIRED IN MY 60'S - AND BALANCE MY BUSY AND UNBUSY LIFE

Monday, 20 March 2023

BEING UNBUSY BUT NEVER BORED

When I left my old toxic job I decided that I'd never work myself into the ground again. I looked for another job but just couldn't bring myself to risk repeating the issues I'd faced in the last one. I slowly found a new rhythm of living - choosing to retire early and to be Unbusy, letting life unfold at its own pace.

My days were filled with a mixture of activities and at-home time, and I was quite content with that, I never felt bored - just pleasantly occupied... Then my hip failed, and I had to drop most of my more "active pursuits" and Unbusy-ness started to slide towards laziness, dis-connectedness, and like I was living Ground Hog Day over and over again. It knew I needed something to change, but what?

QUITTERS CAN BE WINNERS

Monday, 25 May 2020

WHEN QUITTING TAKES ON NEW MEANING

We've all heard the old saying from Vince Lombardi that "winners never quit, and quitters never win". It's something I've believed to be true and I've used it to motivate myself to push through the rough times - you know....onwards and upwards!, Tally Ho!, stiff upper lip etc, etc. But what if that isn't the case at all? Maybe it's not always the best thing to keep ploughing through and making ourselves miserable. What if quitting something makes you a winner?

HOW DO WE DEFINE OURSELVES WITHOUT A JOB TITLE?

Monday, 21 July 2025

DON'T LET YOUR TITLE DEFINE YOU

One of the hurdles that came with leaving work and settling into an early retirement was the issue of who I was if I wasn't defined by my job or by what I was doing each week. It was a strange feeling to go from having a defined job title and a weekly schedule to being completely untethered and free to do whatever I chose. The responsible oldest child inside me felt like I needed to keep justifying those choices to myself and to others.

Basically I was defining my self worth on a title, or a job....how ridiculous that seems now, but it was very real when this retirement journey began so unexpectedly.

IS THERE LIFE AFTER LEAVING WORK?

Thursday, 13 June 2019

THE "PERFECT JOB"

A few years ago I thought I’d finally been offered the “Perfect Job” – great hours, great pay, great workplace, the perfect fit for me in Midlife. The only problem was that the old saying “if it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true” proved to be an “old saying” for a reason. I was told by another receptionist (after I started my job) that my employer paid well because they couldn’t keep staff. I scoffed at that initially and took it as jealousy on her part …..but ohhhh how right she was! The reason they couldn’t keep staff was because the lovely manager who employed me wasn’t as lovely as she appeared on the surface.