PossScript
Don't Give Up
When I decided to become a writer I was in my mid-20s and still learning English. Though it's funny to even say "decided" -- I was always a writer from as long as I can remember. I wrote stories and plays as a child, I had fun with words and took enormous pleasure in discovering new writers. But I never thought I'd do something with it as an adult and especially as a job. If anything, I saw myself working as a veterinarian because I loved animals, and later, I became really attracted to the idea of being a psychologist. I thought it would be a blast to sit in a chair and listen to other people's problems and charge them money. After I went to school, I discovered, naturally, that there's much more to psychology than sitting in a chair like a big Freudian goofball. I developed huge respect for the science of psychology and also learned that I didn't have the guts to do it myself. There is nothing "fun" about listening to other people's problems and I wasn't good enough at math to go into research.
I know, I know: why is this blog about my experiences again? Be patient. Speaking of patience, this is what this blog is really about. It's about being persistent, or specifically, about being persistent when achieving my biggest goal.
In my 20s, I began to write. Once the second language became a little easier to use, I wanted to write about everything and anything, and, as before, I discovered that I could get lost in words. And I found even more writers that I admired and wanted to follow and learn from. I also went back to school to get a postgraduate degree in journalism because I thought I should channel my wanting to write with an actual profession that would show me how to do it properly. It was also then that I had an idea to write something that was more substantial, namely a book. I had some vague notions about writing a book and I had a million ideas but it took almost nine years before I was able to sell a book to a major publisher. I can’t tell you the number of false starts and promising starts that didn’t go anywhere and the number of shady people and good people, who meant well but couldn’t help, and the amount of stress and frustration it took to get to this point. I was ready to give up so many times because of how much time this seemed to take. Years! The actual work (writing the book) was perhaps only one-third of what got me to this point. The other third was the discipline it took to stick with one project, the rest was perseverance.
Looking back I know I would do it all over again and in exactly the same way. Because it's what I always wanted and I never gave up on that goal. So yes, this blog is particularly about my own experience but I'm sharing it with you to tell you that you should never give up your dream, even if it takes forever, even when you are in the darkest of your moods and on the gloomiest days, because it may come true and how will you know it if you never try.
Jowita
Keep a Close Eye on Those Jobs
I'm always amazed at how hard working my son's teachers are. They are on their feet, all day, educating and entertaining groups of whiny youngsters who move around constantly, twitching even when they're supposed to be sitting. They do, however, seem slightly overstaffed and I'm always hoping that this is going to change for their sake as well as for the kids'. And so it was great to read that child care workers may be one of the jobs of the future. Here at Poss.ca we've written about jobs of the future already and even though we don't talk about child care in it, an article in the Toronto Star simply confirms that you should always keep on top of trends.
As we discussed in our article and as the Toronto Star confirms, computer technology, skilled trades and working with the aging population will be the hottest jobs on the market.
According to the Health Care, IT and Skilled Trades are the Canadian Jobs of the Future article, other jobs that may be high in demand are those of kindergarten teachers (when the province moves to full-day classes) as well as jobs in construction (ahem, check out our Around Your House article to learn more about this field).
The Star article says that those with college or apprenticeship training should expect to "get 35 per cent of the new jobs, followed by university graduates, at 26 per cent. High school dropouts are expected to get just eight per cent of the new jobs." In other words, stay in school, kids!
Jowita
What I Found Out When I Drove
I'm one of these people who never thought I'd have to drive. I grew up in a large city but spent my youth in a small town where kids practically drove before they could even walk. I found their enthusiasm and love of wheels unappealing, plus we were always reading and hearing about so-and-so getting into an accident. Drunk driving was the equivalent to taking a spinning class here in Toronto, that's how passionately it was practiced. I drove in a car with a drunk driver once, and once in a trunk. Good times, I really recommend it if you haven't had that experience under your belt yet (not).
Finally, in my early 30s, it hit me that I should probably learn how to drive because I have a family now and it's about time. I took classroom classes right now am taking in-car classes with a patient yet stern gentleman who tries his best to teach me how to not to kill both of us and his car in the process. I am learning standard and it's winter. Our classes happen at night. It snows sometimes; last time we had a mini tornado going with newspaper boxes flying around onto the roads. Some friends -- driving friends! -- say that I'm completely insane to be learning in the winter, in Toronto. And perhaps they're right. Today I had my first car crash and am absolutely shaken up by it. It's nothing serious, everyone is healthy but my confidence level has plummeted (I am a fearless and stupid driver, though now the "s" word applies better).
I will drive again. And a standard. And I will ask my instructor 400 questions, most of them to do with driving. I have already learned that he has to drive close to 300 km a day to attend to all his lessons. He has students ranging from teenagers to a woman clocking at 70. The boys (because it's most boys) who moved here from the country do the best -- they know cars from their early years of having to operate farm equipment and so on. I'm fascinated by how the instructor's car is designed to teach driving -- all the extra mirrors, the brake on his side, the fact that students like me probably kill his transmission ruthlessly with our uncoordinated feet. I don't know how large his allowance is for damages like that but he indicated it's not huge. After the official classes are done, the instructor himself prepares people to pass their road test (G2) (I know I'm in no "danger" of passing that yet) and he himself gets tested as an instructor to make sure his training is up-to- date. Look out for a future career profile where I may just cover the job of a driving instructor.
Jowita
Handmade Toilet Paper
Long time ago in a country in Europe we had "our" butcher, shoemaker, baker, the farmer from whom we'd get eggs and milk. My grandmother got her dresses made at "her" dressmaker and my mother would get sparkly water from a place downstairs across the street. My grandmother shopped for buttons for the sweaters she'd knit at ... a button store! This wasn't some magical land but communist Poland and I'm sure part of the reason for these services was because otherwise there would be nothing -- it's not like the sickly government had any money or desire to open up gigantic serve-all malls where all your needs could get met. No matter, I'm a fan of local and ma-and-pa shop, though probably not as much as a respectable hipster because I will go to Wal-Mart simply out of laziness and convenience. Still, to some extent I'm willing to support people who source and sell local, handmade products. I did all my Christmas shopping via Etsy.
According to the Vancouver Sun article Artisanal food creators find recipes for success, "Artisanal food products are a fast-growing sector of the food service economy." But it isn't necessarily because people are being pretentious, make cutesy chocolates to poo-pooh the big-box stores and show their superiority. As Marcus Samuelsson observes, "Many underemployed or unemployed are pulling themselves up by creating something on their own in order to become fully employed again."
Recently, a giant happy retail complex opened across the street from our office. It has a humongous grocery store and a big discount clothing store on the top floor. I go there a lot because it's easier than schlepping to the neighbourhood butcher/bakery shop (actually there are a couple of those around here). And I know that the giant happy retail complex itself is not so bad as it provides dozens of jobs for people so I can't be mad at it being here and stealing business from the local business owner. Still, I do feel guilty about it and am not sure how to make peace with those feelings.
Jowita
This is a hilarious parody about artisanal being taken to a totally different level.
And, Again, it Pays Off to be Social!
Recently I decided to deactivate my Facebook account. If you've ever tried to do that you know that it's kind of complicated to delete it permanently and you always have the option to come back if you don’t really, really (REALLY) mean it. I didn't really mean it but I wanted to see how the break from Facebook would help me. As I was off of it, I thought about all the bad and good stuff that using social media has brought into my life. And I kept coming up with the good far outweighing the bad. I've met really interesting people via social media, I've done interview requests by using it, I've followed some people I admire and have been able to contact them. I've used it to advertise my side projects. But most importantly, I've made a very important professional contact that I value more than anything. As much as I'm struggling to admit it, Facebook was not so bad for my professional life. So I went back and I've no intention of disappearing just yet.
In her column How to Use Social Media to Find a Job, Krystal Yee talks about what we've talked about here at Poss.ca almost nonstop for months now: using social media to enhance your career, through Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, and so on. Yee talks about her own success in using social media -- from finding a real estate agent to talking to an editor about a potential freelance gig -- and mentions a survey that found 68 per cent of employers would hire a candidate based on what they've learned about them via social networking sites. Whether this an accurate number or not, the fact is that everybody and their dog checks out your online self so you better be prepared to vouch for whatever is on there. Yee suggests positioning yourself as an "influencer" -- someone who creates his or her own brand by talking (Tweeting) about things that interest you, creating your image as an expert in a given field on social networks. Following Twitter accounts of people you admire and may want to work for is another idea; even joining Twitter to get first-hand info about industry events and gossip can assist you. Whatever you end up doing, don't be a stranger and get used to considering this media as yet another step to getting you the job you dream of.
Jowita
Stay-at-Home Dads
We all know that staying home with kids is not unicorns, roses and endless sleep. It's work. And, in Canada, men have been getting more and more involved with their children. According to the Labour Force Survey (PDF), in 2010, 54,000 men in two‐parent families (with at least one child under 16) were "stay-at-home" dads, 11 per cent, compared to one per cent in 1976. Toronto's Mio Adilman is part of that statistic, having been a stay-at-home dad since the birth of his daughter in 2010. A former radio and TV producer, he has spent almost two years "working 7 a.m. till 7 p.m." as a full-time dad. His wife travels a lot and is the family's breadwinner. It was decided that Adilman would be the primary caretaker because it made more sense in terms of their incomes. "We couldn't afford a daycare so we decided I'd do it. I've been staying home with Satchi for 17 months now."
Adilman points out that everybody focuses on the actual birth, "the 36-or-so-hours of hell of it," but then the notion that you can never rest again sets in. "I wish somebody told me that you really don't rest. People try to help but they don't help in the way you want them to," he says, and I agree, thinking of the many hours spent entertaining both the eager grandparents and the baby and falling flat on my face when the "babysitting" was over. As for Adilman, being a stay-at-home-dad he only wishes his friends would understand why he's so tired and can't hang out, why this is not personal. Have people made any comments about him being a male taking care of a baby? "Yeah. Somebody asked me if I lactate," he says and neither of us laughs. We are both too exhausted.
Jowita
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