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I’ve surfed the job listings on the internet such as Career Builder and Yahoo Jobs.  Who hasn’t?  But I must say that I am always unimpressed.  Job ads always look like generic descriptions that have been used for years–job ads that have not changed since the Industrial Revolution.  Most of them appear to be a paper job add that was typed into a form screen by some underpaid secretary in a back office somewhere.I always ask myself……where are the exciting jobs, the ones that sound interesting, would challenge me, would use skills appropriate for current society?

Hat’s off to Brittni at Paper & Stitch.  I ran across her job listing today in her blogpost.  She, unlike all of the other employers I’ve seen, asks for an email application while other standard jobs ask for a paper resume or some basic web page form.  She asks for links to the applicant’s website and social media accounts.  Wow, how outside of the box, NOT!  Let’s face it, we are out there and in the type position she is hiring for, she needs someone who is “out there”.  Social media is here to stay and let’s just embrace it.  Your potential employer should get the chance to see you as all of your friends and family and random acquaintances off the street see you.

Maybe we need a new job website that has checklists for being tech-savvy, social media literate and all-around in touch with the modern technology.

There seems to be a revival of sorts in the sewing and crafting industry. A recent article calls it a “Maker Movement”.  Call them Maker Faires or Arts and Crafts Shows, they are the same things – gatherings of creative folks displaying and selling their wares.  These “faires” seem to have sprung up driven by a new generation that is yearning to learn craft skills, some which have long been forgotten.  Despite all of the cutting edge technology at their fingertips, they want to get their fingertips dirty, splattered with paint, burnt on hot instruments, and scarred by sharp edges.  My generation, their parents, were too busy finding themselves and making the most of all  adult life had to offer instead of passing down life skills to their offspring.  I realize that I possess something to give this generation beyond the the resources to write an academic research paper.  I am adept at stitching, knitting, crocheting, painting, gluing, and constructing.  I have learned many things by trial and error and would love to pass these along to a group of people interested in such things.  But through what outlet?

How best can I pass along the skills that I have?

I’m a 50-something that was born halfway between the Baby Boomers and the Generation X-ers.  I lead two distinctly different lives.  One life is firmly rooted in creating and crafting with my hands while the other is equally as rooted in a professional life that manages technology and information resources in an academic library.  Caught between two very different generations and two very different worlds, I am ready to try melding them together in the hopes of becoming an even better whole person living one complete well-rounded, skilled, knowledgeable life and ending the the duality that has been my existence for too many years. I’m afraid I tire of the effort of keeping them separate.  It has finally occurred to me that I am not required to keep them separate and that by combining them I could finally give in to what has been happening naturally for some time.

I have an insatiable need to understand how things are made and how they function.  I can stare at things for hours trying to understand exactly how things work.  I am constantly discovering new skills that I feel compelled to acquire and new techniques I need to master all the while adding my own unique flair.  This curiosity holds true in both my professional and person lives.  Over my lifetime, none of my hobbies were popular among my peers.  I was sewing doll clothes when others my age were learning makeup techniques; learning to knit while others were playing video games and drafting and flower arranging while they were rushing sororities and going to parties.

I work in technology as a profession.  I administrate servers, monitor systems, manage data, create graphics, and develop web resources in the library world.  I’ve written complicated reports, manipulated copious amounts of data and written numerous procedures, manuals, blog posts and emails.  I’ve even managed social media and dabbled in marketing.  I do all of this for an hourly wage, benefits and the hope of doing something to contribute to the young minds of tomorrow.  So why can’t I use all of these skills along with my creativity to become a “complete package”?

So, here we go………

I’d like to take a commercial break before returning to my regularly scheduled blogposts of “fruits of my hands” and share an intriguing idea suggested by a friend’s blogpost.  Cari, over at The Printed Peach, created a very ambitious list of things that she wanted to have accomplished by a certain age.  Cari sparked an idea in me.  I’ve struggled lately with knowing what direction to take next, what project to start, what skill to learn, what mountain to climb.  I was particularly impressed by her “strikethroughs”.  Do I have anything that I can cross off my list?  Have I accomplished anything in my life?

The answers were indeed in the list!  Understand that I will turn 50 in a couple of years and have several more years on Cari, so don’t judge either of us. I remembered being 21 and started my list there.  Some things are from that time in my life and some are from last week.  Laugh along with me as I celebrate with myself.