SECURE the Job Journey - Day 27
Plan for the Day
Send Thank-You notes and references for the Sustainability Planner interview
Apply to the jobs suggested from the career fair
Respond to LinkedIn messages
Follow up with the folks you met at the ATL Women in sustainability meetup
What I Actually Executed
Everything!
For Task 2, I only applied to one job since the other ones were beneath my salary requirements. I had to look at my finance spready to calculate the ACTUAL amount of money I need to survive on. We are NOT taking low paying jobs this time around. I’m an experienced Green Girlie. Plus, have yall seen these inflation times we gotta live in. I can’t afford mentally or physically to work 40 whole hours and not have all financial needs met. Yes, I’m passionate about this sustainability work, but I’m also passionate about food in my fridge, power & water in my home, and oh yeah… being able to live in my apartment that costs MONEY!
Results/Updates
I had two chats today with some Green Girlies. They really helped me to articulate my skills better. The Scope 3 Carbon Accounting life might be for me. I like the number crunching ministry lol. One of them took my resume and passed it along to someone hiring and the other connected me with a fellow black woman that does a lot of geospatial analysis work. Exciting!
Reflection
I'm learning that I don't need to feel bad about choosing to move on from a potential connection if it kinda seems like they aren't interested in chatting. Hey, it happens. I’m not crawling back into my shell or being timid, I’m reading the room. Having seen how excited people can be when they want to connect, I’m ok with moving on from those that don’t seem too eager. I don’t press people hard if a person responds but they don’t seem to have an eagerness to talk or come off dry. I just simply thank them for connecting with me and scurry onward. I understand when people say they aren't taking no for an answer, but sometimes you just have to. You will waste your time trying to turn an OBVIOUS no into a yes especially when there are CLEAR yes’s in other directions. Don’t keep barking up the same tree, there's a whole forest out there. Read the room! Well.. the forest lol. It’s not by force that everyone you reach out to will be willing to skedge a call with you. This is where (say it with me ) DISCERNMENT really comes into play. Take initiative to reach out to folks, but PLEASE know when someone is not interested in talking. Don’t be that shameless foolish goat running around aimlessly in these networking streets. Please. For Christ sake, don’t be the one to shake hands with fooloshmentitude trying to shake someone down for career advice.
Ok, rant over. Now to other things.
There’s so many skills (EXPENSIVE skills) that I didn’t realize I have like climate risk modeling, econometrics, geospatial analysis, etc. Talking to folks and having them essentially say what stands out on my resume and LinkedIn helps me know what to highlight. Also, talking to folks that work at big consulting firms (where I would usually be too intimidated to apply to) helped me see that I’m more qualified than I give myself credit for AND I should go ahead and toss them my application. I got the skills! And folks are willing to PAY. It’s possible.
