find work I'm passionate about

Because I forgot to update everyone on what’s going on in this quarter: I got the hotel job! I start tomorrow!

I’ll be a guest service agent at one of New York’s most swanky hotels, owned by one of the world’s premier luxury hotel companies. If I do well, it could lead to opportunities at other hotels in their company, both in the US and abroad.

So happy I’ve taken this step. It’s a huge financial risk, but I need to find something that I’m happy doing and hope that the money follows from that.

I’ll let you know how it works out . . . .

Well, when God closes a door, sometimes He throws you out the window for good measure. Just to see what you’ll do.

My “just surviving” job (that is soul-crushing and going nowhere, but pays well) abruptly ended on Thursday night. It was pretty surreal…they let go a whole bunch of people. I guess the project is “entering a new phase” to use their terminology.

ANYWAY, this little event occured just after I had had my second of what will hopefully be only THREE (gawd!) interviews with a top New York City hotel. (The next one is Monday…hoping that’s it). The problem was going to be the money….it would be a big step down from what I was doing (which was making me miserable and going nowhere), and it was going to be quite the dilemma to decide whether to give up security or happiness. (Of course, my operating theory is that the thing that makes me happy will also be, in the long run, something I’ll be successful at and eventually be able to make money doing.)

Fortunately, and I do mean fortunately, the choice has now been taken out of my hands! So now, assuming that this thing at the hotel pans out, I am basically forced to try my hand at this. It’s scary as Hell, but I’m irrationally happy about it.

Here…we….go!

Big Pharma money makes it very easy to just sit here complacent and continue to have my life chipped away, day by day, by the drip drip dripping of resentment and boredom. Yesterday I just got so FED UP that I promised my officemate that I’d do something or she’d know the reason why. So, last night I finally pulled together all the course stuff, filed the paperwork for the certificate, and actually began following up on the contacts I made during my class (which ended nearly 2 months ago!).

Today: 2 resumes to 2 top-flight hotels going out in the mail.

Well, class is winding up. There’a a hellacious amount of work between now and the last class: finishing a group presentation, doing about 3 weeks’ worth of reading (and associated reading quizzes) AND a final exam. But I’m glad I took the course….it’s really opened my eyes to the possibilities for me in the hospitality field.

I sat down last week with the career counselor and revamped my resume. It looks good, but it’s still going to be a hard sell until I get my first hotel job. But I’m optimistic. I went to Staples yesterday and bought fancy paper and everything. It’s also posted on HotJobs, Monster and CareerBuilder.

Boring pharma documents, I may be bidding you adieu soon!

OK, so everything’s in place for the next act of my life:

1. Quitting icky job…last day is tomorrow.

2. Start “survival” job (that pays as well as icky job) on Thursday. Found out that I got that job THIS MORNING, which is the main “thing working out” that the title of this post refers to.

3. Start evening classes at NYU’s Hospitality School on 2/7.

Ready….Set….GO!

This is it. I put in my notice and I’m leaving February 3. Actually, they said I could leave earlier if I wanted, so I think I’ll be leaving next Friday.

I am very scared and very excited, all at once. But mostly excited. This is what I want to do…I want to have a job I love and that I am good at. I am so thrilled to be leaving the law it’s sort of staggering. It’s nice when your heart tells you that you’ve made the right choice (even when part of the choice was made for you!).

So, the adventure begins . . . .

I have registered for the Accelerated Certificate in Hotel Operations course at New York University! Hopefully that will help make up for my lack of hospitality experience as I try to leverage my many MANY years of work experience into a career in Hospitality.

I wonder how I’ll use my law degree? I wonder if I care!?

Really pretty psyched about this—would be more psyched if I knew how I was going to pay my bills after I leave my job at the beginning of next month.

Oh my goodness. Now what do I do?

The career counselor is recommending a course of action that would involve yet another degree and more grad school (albeit only a year). Or maybe just a certificate program.

And a complete abandonment of the legal profession.

Think about this, I must.

I had my second appointment with the career counselor today. I feel a little conflicted about it. On the one hand, I see how blinkered I’ve been about my career options, and how there are lots of things I could be doing in the world of work that would make me much happier than I am now. On the other hand, I worry that I may be gaining lots of “wishful thinking” type information that will be of little practical use.

For the time being, however, optimism has the upper hand, so I’ll try to go with the limitless possibilities.

[5 minutes pass]

My boss just came in and reassured me (again) that I have a job until the end of the year (or beyond) and seeking my help with a project. So I think I was right to be on the optimistic side of things.

Had my appointment with the career counselor yesterday. She’s amazingly insightful, and really helped me start to see new ways of viewing my predicament, vis a vis work.

Now I have homework and everything. Looking forward to seeing where this goes!