Trying to get back in the game

Hi,
This is my first entry in this blog. I guess I will start off by telling a little about myself. I have two bachelor of science degrees. The first is in Social Work with a minor in Psychology. The second is the one that I just recently completed in May of this year and is in Journalism with a minor in History. I completed both of these at a university in Michigan. The first degree was completed as a full-time student, I commuted and worked at part-time jobs. The second was completed on a part-time basis as a full-time employee of the university. Our university paid for staff member’s tutitions if you worked for the university in the capacity of a staff member full-time. As an employee, you were only responsible to pay for fees. This was a great benefit and one that I greatly appreciated. I worked clerical and administrative jobs while going to school. All were at the university, except for my first job at 18 at a retail store and an adminstrative assistant position at an information technology consulting firm during the brief period between my two degrees.
Okay, now the reason for having two bachelor of science degrees … I know, I used to ask the question, “Why someone would want to complete a second bachelor’s degree? Why not just go on and get your master’s?” Well, I really wanted to switch fields. In fact I pretty much made a mistake in choosing the Social Work degree. Great field, but not for me …. I always was fascinated by the journalism field, print media specifically. I also have always had dreams of attempting to write fiction one day. So, I felt the field of journalism was a great choice for me. I knew it from the start. The only thing I can say is pure stupidity and not following my gut instinct made me choose my secondary major choice, thinking I needed to reach out to others, to really challenge myself. Of course, this is a great field and I respect it and those who work in this field. There are so many non-profits out of there in need of dedicated social workers. I just knew that this field was not for me. My heart was always going to be with writing and the writing field and I didn’t want to look back and say, “If only ….” So, I decided to complete this degree and complete the second bachelor’s in Journalism on my own. My parents were great parents and paid for my first degree. The second degree was me, finally an adult, living on my own and “making it” on my own. The working full-time and going to school was VERY challenging, but I finally completed it. By the way, I decided to go the second bachelor’s route as my school did not offer a master’s degree in this major and I think it did work out best overall. I also have to add that even though the Social Work field was not what I ultimately did as a career, I can’t imagine my educational background without it. I really benefited from the content of that program and I am really grateful for it.
Flash forward to my life today as I sit here typing on my computer to all of you … I am 28-years-old and married to an Army nursing student. We have been together for 10 years this December, married for a little over one year. We are living in Augusta, Georgia while he completes his Nursing program at Fort Gordon, GA. He will receive his LPN in January ’07 and has dreams of being a Physician’s Assistant. He is currently Army Reserves, but is trying to transfer to Active, ROTC so that he can continue on with school. We are moving near family in Florida after his graduation. Sorry to give you all of this detailed information, but it is hard to explain my current position in the world of post-graduation job hunting without explaining our circumstances. I came here in June 2006 to join him here in Georgia. We had been living in two separate places, miles and miles apart, since he started training in November 2004. I tried to find a job here in Augusta while still at my job and going to school in Michigan. I started talking to a large administrative recruiting firm here in Augusta, but that was my only lead. I have never done this before and it was VERY scary, but I decided to give my notice so that I could finally move and continue my job search in person in Georgia.
Well, needless to say, I have been unemployed since my arrival here. I tried working with the large recruiting firm here, but nothing happened, no leads. They seemed impressed by my resume, but I was not impressed by their customer service skills and no jobs became available. So, I gave up on them and tried searching on my own and applying for temporary jobs through other staffing agencies. I was only looking at temporary jobs. Several people suggested that I search for a permanent job, but if I had actually secured a job right away, I only had 6 months to work. I am a person who is very truthful and I just couldn’t lie to an employer, I would feel too guilty. Everyone kept urging me to look out for myself and go out there and apply for the best opportunities. I wanted a great opportunity, but I just have to be truthful, it is just intrinsic to who I am as an individual.
The hard part about this situation is only being in one place for a short amount of time, something I have never done before. This is the difficult thing of the military lifestyle. Especially if you desire any type of career. But, I believe that I will be able to continue my journey in my career, I may have to be very creative, but I will continue to be optimistic. We plan to be in Florida for some time, so that is a good thing.
So, of course, yesterday I get a call in regards to an open position from a local staffing agency. Of course! I had been switching my concentration on job searching from this area to Florida, since we only have a few months left here, plus the holidays are coming up …. I am currently playing phone tag with the agency. I want to have dialouge with them in regards to if this temporary opportunity would work with my current plans. It most likely will not work out, but I feel the need to get some more information regarding this opportunity. It is an administrative assistant position, but at this point, it would be work.
I really desire to get out of the administrative assistant rut and try to get into a media related field. I prefer print media but anything related would be wonderful. I hope this will occur when we make this next move. I should add that I am trying to add to my very limited journalism experience. I briefly wrote for my university paper for the features section. I was very proud of my work, but I only had three articles while there, I waited too long to start writing for the publication.
I look forward to reading other posts on this site and am excited to be involved! I am sorry this entry was so lengthy!