I'd Love to Start Writing Again

I miss writing blogging about gospel living. I've written 4 blog posts in the last year and a half, which were attempts at starting to write again. A lot has happened in that time.

Around September 2012 I was getting very close to wrapping up my PhD research and preparing for graduation. I don't remember making any decision like, "Wow, I don't have any time to blog." But I definitely had my mind on other things like moving and finding a job.

I looked for a job for a very long time, starting in June of 2011. That's when I thought I was going to graduate the next spring (of 2012). Looking for a job in "industry" (that's what the academic world calls it) is pretty tough as a graduate student approaching the end of his/her work because you have to keep focus on actually finishing, writing and defending, but you also have to somehow figure out what kind of job you want and how to convince a hiring manager/company that your skills can actually help them make money.

Try doing all that while being surrounded by students who have never done what you are trying to do and, therefore, have no advice to move you along and faculty members who never wanted to go into industry and wonder why in the world you don't want to stay (in academia; everyone knows you don't want to be a student forever! For that matter, they all know you wanted to graduate a long time ago).

So I did my best to find a job. The hardest part was turning academia's version of a resume, which is called a curriculum vitae (or CV for short), into a form that give employers an easier time of understanding your skills. Oh, and CVs have no page limit! It includes everything from your career, not just what will help you get your next job. Contrast that with employers that want to see the "you on a single page (and make it good or you're going in the trash)" type of resume and you'll get the first glimpse of why it's so hard to transition. That, plus skills learned in grad school and in research/development have to be presented in the right way or you won't get a second look. And I saw a lot of that!

Anyway, after finally defending my dissertation in March 2013 and walking (graduating) in May of that year and still not finding a job by the end of that summer, we decided to move away from that college town where there were no real job prospects and headed west. We landed in Utah for what we thought would be a short time while I worked at getting a job in California, but I ended up getting a job here. And we're elated!

So I'd love to start writing again. I think it's time to make it a higher priority. See ya'll!