An unlikely messenger...

Crossroads in life present a person with the much needed motivation to reflect on what’s important, social responsibility and personal goals.

Currently I am a parent, grandparent, volunteer, student and entrepreneur with a new fledging business. The usiness, which like all good things, began from “necessity” the mother of invention.


BACKGROUND:
Due to my husband’s acceptance of a new position I relocated to Maryland from Florida. Once here I immediately began the process of finding employment. Much to my amazement, with over 20 years of work experience, an associate’s degree and less than two semesters away from a bachelor’s degree I could not find a job.

What I uncovered shocked and saddened me. I learned that regardless of my job expertise I couldn’t get past the HR screening process due to my lack of an advanced college degree. I could run circles around the other applicants yet couldn’t find one company that didnt have computer-less HR screening process and no one would speak with me personally.

I remember watching Glen Beck, when he was mentioning that many people who are unemployed were not included in the national unemployment statistics, due to their classification of unemployedness.

I have a college education and thought I knew what unemployed means. In my world (aka the real world) a person is either employed or unemployed. Who knew that there are subclasses to the definition of unemployed and that are used to make the economic picture look brighter.

Yet for all of this defining and sub classifying it still meant one thing, I was unemployed so I had no income. What I learned was that I was one of the unemployed individuals that does not count as a statistic, I hadn’t applied for unemployment (not permitted due to my relocation) so therefore I meant nothing. I now understood how it felt to be a DC citizen "taxization with our representation" and I live in Maryland.

This made me wonder, how many others out there that don’t count are searching for jobs. This cold reality led me to the belief that competition for available positions was even more intense than I originally thought.

Undaunted and up to the challenge, next I attempted to make contacts in my new area through the use informational interviews. I managed to schedule some appointments and secured some wonderful new connections. These individuals helped me to refine my future resume for when I achieved my degree along with a watered down version to use now to apply for other positions, mostly administrative, as a way to get into the system.

Interestingly enough, the last informational interview I attempted caused me to rethink and invent a position for myself.

A higher education administrator wouldn’t even meet or speak with me until I provided a more thorough explanation of why and how I got the persons name. This person’s response to my e-mail request was so condescending and curt that I immediate sent back a thank you for your time note and began to consider alternative ways to make a living.


A BUSINESS IDEA
“Necessity” and two very good bottles of pinot noir had me brainstorming with my husband about how I could generate income. The strategy session was the beginning of the planning process and led to the formation of company, Browning Global Solutions, LLC.

We created a small business that would permit me to work virtually for businesses and individuals providing them services that range from administrative, client retention, marketing, social media, research and more. Now I just needed clients.

Work that contact list…

Networking is one of my favorite terms and in my case helped to find a way to gain attention to the new business. I was able to make some calls and found my first client. A serious Yahoo Moment for me. The next client came through my daily scanning of craigslist and my third from a friend whose daughter started her own company in the UK.

I couldn’t believe it within a short period of time I was the CEO of an international business.

As with any new small business, at the beginning the owner finds that it boils down to me, myself, and I performing all the work. This was okay (not fine – we all know what fine actually means), I have a bit of perfectionist in me so I wanted to have control over quality.

Yet due to the nature of my business I had limited contact with the outside world. This is in direct contrast to my perfectly perky personality that needs some type of social outlet. I can tell you that the dog is not a good conversationalist. I was beginning to have doubts and wondered if I had done the right thing.

THE MESSENGER
They say, which I believe, that in life God sends you someone to help you realize that you are on the right course or steer you down the right road. In my case, my messenger was Federal Government.

That’s right, pick yourself up off the floor I said the Federal Government.

God sent me an HR manager who worked for the Federal Government to contact me for an administrative position in DC. I had always thought God had style but now I knew a sense of humor could be added to his list of character traits.

IS THIS THE RIGHT THING TO DO
I listened to the representative and even completed the paperwork that was required but couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to seriously reflect on this opportunity and the direction of my career. I came up with a few key questions to help me.

• Would this position help me to achieve my career goals?
  
• Is a 9-5 administrative job the type of position that would challenge me to be the best person I could be?
  
• Would it be socially responsible for me to take the position and did the job create an ethical conflict?

My career goals include: owning my own business, finding ways to involve our children in the business, flexibility in schedule, travel opportunities and innovation. Given these criteria the administrative position would hinder my career goals versus help me to achieve them. I would no longer be in a position to help my friends or family find ways to gain income. I would turn into the handout not helping hand person and that just wouldn’t sit well with me.

I like to be challenged and explore new and innovative ways to get work done. I enjoy the use of technology but understand the value of a handshake. I believe that the days of working 9 - 5 are gone; if you want to get ahead you need to put in the effort to succeed. Yet I need the flexibility of being able to change my plans to be there for family and friends when needed. I like to smile. So no, the 9 to 5 job wouldn’t suit my daily routine and the position would not challenge me to strive for excellence.

I have some firm opinions about business practices which include that I think pay raises should be merit based. People should be given the opportunity to lead when they are ready and not from seniority and new ideas explored. This business philosophy could be counterproductive in the government system where many (not all) feel that the government will take care of them for the rest of their lives and there is no reason to try something new when what they are doing works just fine (we all know what fine actually means, don't we)


THE RESULT
Reflecting on my questions and the answers, today I sent off the notice to my messenger, the HR person, explaining that I had accepted a position with another organization.

This is true, for today I accepted that the fate of my career lies in my own hands. That the success of my company depends on us, my husband and I, and by being forward thinking, goal oriented and socially responsible I could achieve my career goals and more.

Going forward I offer that the old adage of adapt improvise and overcome has been revamped and modified to a more modern statment that works for my situation.

accept, invent and succeed