My Dad is a Genius (Alternately TItled: The Best Kept Secrets To Finding a Job!)

I guess I should have written this Sunday for Father's Day, but it didn't occur to me then.  My Dad has been encouraging me for a long time, and he often says very wise things for his age (hehe).  Whenever I call him to talk about life (and he really doesn't actually like to talk on the phone), he listens to me cry about whatever hard things are going on, and then he says "You're the woman, baby."  And I think he really believes it.  The sky's the limit for me according to my dad.  While he believes that, most of the time I don't (thus all the crying phone calls).

This week I'd become a little discouraged because the job search just didn't seem to be going anywhere. I called Dad, and he gave me some genius advice. And, you know what? It's working!
All the looking on sites like monster.com (and I even desperately searched the Houston craigslist) haven't had remotely the impact of taking my dad's advice over the course of the last 48 hours.  I know I have quite a few friends on the market for a job, so I'm happily passing along my dad's secrets to you.  Just so you know that he has some credibility, my dad's been in the corporate world for thirty years.  He's been actively involved in the hiring process for the companies he's worked for. He knows what they're looking for and he knows how you ought to go about it.  So here are his tips:

1) Assess your friendships and professional connections to determine some folks who can connect you to possible opportunities in your search area.

I happen to have some professional friendships with former colleagues at Teach for America.  I contacted a friend from there who gave me the name of someone she works with.  This friend of hers connected me with the Managing Director of Alumni Affairs all the way in Houston, Texas! Score!

2) Reach out to your network base by email or phone and ask them if they can connect you to anyone that has possible openings or can connect you with those who do.

The ideal situation is for your connection to provide you with three or more names of others you can contact.  You'll want to ask your connection if you can use his or her name in a cold call to the names he or she has provided.  If you're lucky, your connection will communicate your name to the other parties directly.

Just recently I made a connection just like this.  As soon as I contacted her looking for some help in the Houston area, she rattled off three names and provided three job descriptions for me.  She directly contacted two of the three and was actively researching the hiring manager of the third so she could contact him on my behalf. (My Dad says that this kind of thorough response is pretty rare, but I'll take it! Usually you're lucky to get one name and personal contact.)

3) Recognize that the connections you  make provide two possibilities in the job search.  These people who you have been referred to can either represent a possible job OR they can provide you with yet another level of networking connections to lead to more opportunity. 

Think QUANTITY here.  The more people who know you're looking and who feel a personal connection to you, the better you will do. So when you are communicating with folks, always ask if there's anyone else they would recommend that you talk to.

4) If the names you've been given fizzle out, don't be afraid to reconnect with your prior contacts.

The Alumni Affairs Director in Houston actually told me of a job available on his own team the second time we talked.  I'm now applying for that position.  Good thing we talked again! My Dad suggests waiting about 45 days, and if you're still looking, to reconnect with older contacts to keep lines of communication open and to see if they've heard of any new leads.

5) Seek out opportunities to meet contacts in person or at the least talk over the phone. 

Like I said above, you want people to feel personally connected to you.  This isn't about schmoozing, it's about making sure that the job is right for you and that you're right for the job.  Relationships are a big part of making sure it's a good fit.  If people are going to hire you, a personal recommendation goes a long way. 

So, taking my dad's advice, here's how things having been going for me: In the past 48 hours I have sent in one application to a job for the which the person who will be my actual supervisor I have already personally spoken to several times.  I have three other jobs I'm interested in for which one of my contacts has recommended me.  I have plans to connect with the folks doing the hiring for these jobs as well. My contact has provided me with their info. My Dad says that puts me ahead of the game! Time will tell!

Thanks Dad! YOU'RE the man! :)

Fun with Food

I'm loving summer because it means no school and more time to play! Reid and I have been doing some experimenting with food.  Here are some of our projects:

 Reid has dressed the part! Actually we've both ruined a few shirts with oil stains from all the cooking with coconut oil and bacon grease.  Whoever is manning the skillet wears the apron now.

 My new (to me) toy! An Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator.  I found this for an AMAZING price on Craigslist.  I'm looking forward to making SO many yummy things like dehydrated fruit chips, all sorts of dehydrated veggies for flavorings and soups, fruit leathers, jerky, and even yogurt can be made in this.

I soaked some nuts over night (soaking makes the nutrition in the nut more available) and dried them in the dehydrator.  The product is called crispy nuts and they make a great snack! And when you pulverize them in the blender you can use them as ingredients in yummy and healthy desserts like:

 These are called No BS Cookies and contain coconut flakes, peanut butter, cocoa, cinnamon, and honey for some sweetness. No need to cook them, I just chilled them in the fridge!

 Last night Reid helped me use some of our soaked nuts to make homemade almond milk.  We blended the nuts with filtered water then strained out the pulp.  The left over liquid we blended with some raisins to add some sweetness.  We used it as coffee creamer this morning. I used the dehydrator to dry the almond meal today, and now we've got a jar of almond flour for some yummy (and gluten/grain-free) treats!

 Reid likes to drink the almond milk plain.  I like it as a mix in.

We've been buying up strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries at their lowest prices since they are in season.  I've frozen a lot of them to use in smoothies or for oatmeal in the mornings.  I also blended some blueberries up with some honey and lemon juice to make a yummy fruit leather.  I just dehydrated the mixture for several hours, and the leather tasted even better than a fruit roll-up and it's healthy too.

Right now I'm trying to dehydrate some left over blueberries.  I'm not sure it's going to work.  But as with all experiments, sometimes they just fail.  The berries are not finished yet in this picture, but we'll see what happens.

Next up, I'm going to use some coconut flakes to make homemade coconut milk and I'll use the pulp to make coconut flour.  The milk should be a good substitute for dairy, and the flour is great for baking! Gotta do all the experimenting I can before school starts again!

We Have a Home!

As of June 6th, Reid and I are the happy lessees of an apartment in Houston, Texas!  This moving thing is really starting to sink in.

On our short trip to Texas we were able to see twelve apartments, but none of them felt quite right.  We're weren't trying to be picky, but we just didn't have that sense of peace.  In the end our choices came down to two factors: safety (almost every home and apartment complex is gated and many have a guard house at the entrance) and as selfish as it may sound - comfort.  We figure we're here for Reid to study, and the best environment we can find for that the better.  I'm going to be working full time which means most of my day will be spent out of the house.  For these reasons, we nixed anything without a dishwasher and any place that seemed like it was going to require a lot of upkeep. We also wanted to have space for a desk for Reid which was proving interesting since a two bedroom was definitely out of our price range.

On the way back to NC at the end of trip, Reid and I were discussing our options and when it came down to it we really enjoyed the complex and the apartments where our friends Will and Jenn live.  So we asked our realtor to search all the empty units there.  We found a great 1 bedroom unit (that's almost the same size as our two bedroom now), and our realtor was able to talk the owner down $70.00 per month on the rent. 

We'd actually not seen this place ourselves, but Will was able to see it.  He's been in the housing industry before, so he could spot all the red flags if there were any.  Once we got the thumbs up from Will and an email full of the pictures he took, we decided we better jump on this place.  And it's a good thing we did.  Just as we finished up the contract a couple from NY had put in an offer for a 1 year lease at full price! We've signed a two year contract in order to seal the deal (and to negotiate our late move-in in July), so we'll be there til 2013!

Here's some pictures of our soon-to-be home!

 The living room looking into dining area and kitchen (These pictures were taken while the prior tenants were still living there).

 The large bathroom!

 My kitchen (and no, Mom, it doesn't come with the baby chair ;) )

 DISHWASHER!

 The bedroom with big windows!

And a nice added bonus- the community pool!

R&R's First Trip to Houston

Some highlights from our first trip to Houston on May 26-29th:

We arrived Thursday morning and met up with Will, Reid's friend from Seminary and now a fellow graduate student in the Philosophy program at U of H.  After eating lunch at Chipotle, we headed over for at tour of the university campus.

Here are the philosophers now! They're standing outside the philosophy building soaking it all in :)

These little guys were also soaking it but mainly the coolness of the concrete floor in this shaded area.  Not a bad idea since it was in the high 90's this day.

Of course, we had to get our picture with the Houston cougar...

Then it tried to attack Reid, and I had to save him!

It was a close one, but we made it!

Reid and I spent some time exploring and found this:

And this:

And ran into some of this:

Houston Traffic (it gets a lot worse than what you see here!)

Friday night we met up with some of the other philosophy students at U of H.  They gave Reid lots of good advice on classes and professors and preparing for the PhD.  They also spent quite a bit of time discussing topics using words I didn't quite understand. They're starting a reading group for the summer and were trying to land on a specific book. All in all, Reid feels excited to join in on the fun!

On Saturday, we spent all day apartment hunting with a wonderful Realtor recommended by Will and Jenn (our friends in the grad program at Houston).

That night we went out for some wonderful TexMex at Pappasito's and some homemade ice cream at Hank's.  We recommend the Texas Oreo (more oreo than ice cream it seemed- yum!) and Banana Pudding (tasted just like the real thing, but better!) flavors. 

We are so thankful for Will and Jenn and their generous hospitality.  Reid and I aren't sure how we would've made it to Houston without them.  We're so excited to get to be their neighbors soon, and of course hang out with their friendly dog Cutter (he'll help me through Cooper withdrawals):

We only saw a little bit of Houston, but we can't wait to see more and experience it ourselves as residents.  To top off a wonderful and productive trip, Delta offered us free travel vouchers if we took a later flight since they had overbooked ours.  $400 travel vouchers and a free meal at the airport? We'll take it!

Reid happily waiting for our later flight!