Sweet Skills, Part 1

This post and the one that will follow it started off as one humongous post-- a post so long that I kept losing interest and focus while I was proofreading it. Lucky for you, dear reader, I realized that if my writing can't hold my own attention, there's no way it will be able to hold yours. So I chopped the post in two, which means that you're about to experience a Why You Should Hire Me first: a two-part post. Whoa.

Since this is a blog that I hope potential employers will be looking at, I feel compelled to list some of my own skills, although I'm going to go somewhere else with this train of thought in the next post I write.

• organizational skills: I can organize files, inboxes, arts and crafts supplies, calendars, and groups of people.
• writing skills: I can write reports, handbooks, lesson plans, witty and not-witty emails, essays, and blogs.
• proofreading and editing skills: I can and have proofread/ edited just about every kind of document you can think of.
  
• people skills: I have worked in many different office environments and with diverse populations; I've also recruited, managed, and trained volunteers; worked at front desks; attended diversity workshops and trainings; and gotten along with just about everyone I've ever met.
  
• drawing/ designing skills: I can make visually attractive fliers, invitations, and signs (this may become its own post if I can ever get my hands on a working scanner; in the meantime, one caveat: I don't know how to use any sort of design software... yet), and I studied a lot of fine art in college (mostly drawing and painting).
• language skills: As I hope this blog has demonstrated, I am a good writer who truly loves the English language. I also speak good Spanish, bad Italian, laughably bad Portuguese, and perhaps three words of Arabic.
  
• computer skills: I am proficient with both Macs and PCs, Micosoft Office, and a variety of databases.
  
• being professional skills: I've worked in a wide variety of offices and have maintained a friendly, calm, and professional manner in all of them.
• tutoring skills: I have experience tutoring adults and children of all ages and in a variety of subjects.
  
• cooking skills: This may not have much to do with a job description, but any office I work for is virtually guaranteed to get tasty homemade treats at least once a quarter (more on that here).
  

OK, so those are the skills that ought to convince you to hire me. But what really sparked this blog post was my increasing frustration with my lack of tangible skills. It's great that I can analyze the heck out of a Victorian novel or a grant proposal, but I can't even tell you how much it irks me that I can't fix my car or build a bookshelf. Stay tuned for Sweet Skills, Part 2, in which I ruminate on some skills I would like to acquire and why.

Reason #5: I am kind of a big deal already.

Well, OK, I'm not. But Peanut Butter Plan is! Check us out (and see the back of my head--I'm in the red sweater) in this fabulous article in today's Chronicle.

Woohoo!!

This is why I care so much about doing good work.

My mom pointed me to the cover article in last week's New York Times Magazine. Written by Nicholas Kristoff and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, "The Women's Crusade" chronicles the appalling conditions in which far too many women in the developing world live out their lives. You should really read the article for yourself if you haven't already, but I'll provide a very short and very incomplete summary here. Basically, Kristoff and WuDunn write, there are anywhere between 60 million and 107 million girls and women who are missing. They've been aborted after their sex was discovered via ultrasound; allowed to die as children (baby girls in some countries aren't given the same health care as baby boys); or kidnapped and enslaved, sometimes as sex workers. For perspective, they note that number is larger than the number of men killed in battle in all the wars of 20th century combined.

That's astonishing by itself, but, at least for me, the real punch of this article lies not so much in its compilation of facts, but in the way it explains the tragedy and stupidity of this "gendercide" and its implications for the rest of the world. There's a growing body of research that suggests that educating girls and giving aid to poor women may be most effective ways to alleviate global poverty. Many of the world's poorest countries are also those with the lowest rates of female education, and researchers are concluding that the two may be related: by neglecting girls' education, those countries are essentially using only half the talent available to them.

As I was reading, it occurred to me one of the reasons--if not the main reason--that I care so much about doing good work is simply because I can. I touched on this in an op-ed I linked to in an earlier post, but I think it bears repeating, especially because I worry that sometimes this blog makes me sounds as though I think I'm somehow entitled to a good job, when in fact nothing could be farther from the truth. I know I'm incredibly privileged even to be looking for a job in the first place. Had I been born almost anywhere else at almost any other time, my job would be raising children, and that would be that. So, once again, I'm not kidding when I say I feel like I have a moral obligation to find employment that will help other people in meaningful ways. And if that doesn't convince people I'm a motivated worker, I don't know what will.

Reason #4: I am stubborn.

That might not sound like much of a selling point, but let me elaborate. I'm not stubborn all the time. I work well as a member of a team, I like collaborative projects, and I rarely mind compromising on where to eat dinner or whatever. When it comes to things I really care about, however, I can be just as stubborn as that mule in the picture. 

For instance, back in college, I almost always had a passable paper written at least 24 hours before the deadline, and yet I routinely found myself sprinting across campus to hand that paper in on time. This was due not to procrastination, but to a bullheaded refusal to hand in anything but my very best work. I recall one paper in particular that I trashed a day and a half before it was due because I realized a slightly different reading of a key passage could lead to a significantly more interesting thesis. Thirty-six hours later, I was cursing that decision as I ran through snow in sandals to get the paper handed in on time (I'd been so focused on the paper I'd failed to notice the first snowstorm of the year had blown in), but it was worth it. My professor liked the paper and, more importantly, I was really proud of what I'd written. 

This whole job search process is another prime example of my particular brand of stubbornness. I'm quite sure I could have found a full-time job as a receptionist for a company or corporation I didn't care about, but that's just not good enough. That's not why I went to college. That's not why I've spent so much time and energy trying to figure out what I want to do. I don't mean to imply that I think certain jobs are somehow beneath me (they're not), but, as mentioned in an earlier post, I feel strongly that, given the amount of time, money, and energy invested in my education, I have a strong moral obligation to find a job that will benefit people besides me. And, mule-like, I've refused to budge on this issue.

Now, as I see it, digging my heels in about finding a job that helps people is different from refusing to adapt to a situation that's been radically different than I expected, and I think I have adapted. I moved to San Francisco assuming I'd find work with an educational nonprofit, but I quickly realized I needed to broaden my search, to compromise a bit. I think that's actually a good thing. If I'd gotten a job at an educational organization, there's a good chance I would never have looked back. I've applied for educational, environmental, urban planning, social justice, and even a couple of public health jobs, and would be genuinely excited to take on any of them. I'm also getting less stubborn about staying in San Francisco, so, friends, if any of you are reading this and wish I would come join you in New York, D.C., London, Bozeman, San Antonio, or wherever you may be (or, alternately, if you want to get me as far away from you as possible and send me to Timbuktu or Perth or wherever), go ahead and start sending me job postings. I would even consider moving someplace with winter again. 

But I am still determined to do good work, and I don't think I'm ever going to change my mind about that. 

Reason #3: Hungry? I can help.

I cook a lot. This is not an activity that initially seems related to the working world, but I think there are several connections. First, cooking requires some advanced planning. Vegetables need to be peeled and chopped; crusts need to be blind-baked; fruit needs to be blanched; etc., etc. Second, especially for baking and especially if you're a new cook, you need to be able to follow directions and pay attention to details. Otherwise, your pie crust won't come together, your eggs won't whip properly, your cookies will melt in the oven, and all sorts of other dire and annoying consequences. Third, if you want to be a great cook--not a good cook, but a great one--you need to be able to improvise and be creative. I'm not quite there yet, but I've been cooking a lot this year and I've had very few disasters and a good number successes. 

For instance, an asparagus, tomato, and avocado omelette:

Or salad with pears, feta, and walnuts:

French toast with berry compote:

Chocolate chip cookies with sea salt:

If you hire me, I'll bring the advance planning, attention to detail, and creativity I employ in the kitchen to the office. And I will also bring treats.  

Reason #2: Multitasking is my life.

About 99% of the job descriptions I've read in the last twelve months stipulate that applicants must be able to multitask and manage competing priorities. My cover letters tend to outline ways in which I’ve succeeded in doing both those things in a professional environment, but secretly I always want to include a sentence or two that says something along the lines of, “Of course I can do this—can’t you tell that multitasking and prioritizing are a way of life for me right now?”

My résumé shows clearly that I’ve been working four part-time jobs for the past few weeks and that, since August 2008, there’s never been a time when I’ve worked fewer than two jobs. What it doesn’t show is that I’ve worked all these jobs while searching for and then moving into an apartment, learning to navigate an entirely new city, making new friends, shopping for groceries, applying for jobs, volunteering, keeping up (for the most part) with current events and old friends, cooking dinner at least four nights a week… I think you get the picture. None of this feels like a big deal while I’m in the midst of it—in fact, I usually feel like I really ought to be doing more things with my time—but that list looks pretty impressive when it’s written out like that, right?

By now you may be wondering why I put a photograph of a tomato plant at the top of this post. That’s my big, beautiful tomato plant, which I got months ago from the free farm stand when it was just a tiny seedling that could be housed in a single-serve yogurt container. Managing not to kill a single tomato plant--and also a couple of basil plants, a fuschia, and some thyme, sage, and rosemary (the parsley went to seed, thereby preventing us from having a Simon and Garfunkel song on our front stoop)-- may not seem like much of an accomplishment. But think about it: when I decided to grow these plants, I took on responsibility for the lives of seven other living things, and I've taken that responsibility seriously. They aren’t sentient beings and don’t require as much attention as, say, a toddler, but they are still gloriously alive and still dependent on me to make sure they that stay way.

I’m not saying anyone should hire me solely because I’ve managed to keep myself afloat and my plants alive on a messy schedule full of freelance work. What I’m saying is that I’ve managed to keep myself and my plants not just alive, but also thriving in the midst of what I sincerely hope will turn out to be an anomalously turbulent time in my life. Imagine what I could do if I wasn’t spending so much time and energy on the job search. 

Reason #1: I will organize the heck out of your files.

I have always been incredibly organized and tidy. This particular trait became apparent quite early on. My parents still love to talk about how, as a first-grader, I was so eerily consistent about doing my homework and putting it in my backpack before bed that they considered taking the homework out of my backpack so that I would see it was OK if I messed up. (In the end, they elected not to interfere, and one fateful day in April, I finally arrived at school, opened my folder, and realized I had left my worksheet sitting on the kitchen table. Although I still remember feeling my stomach drop in panic, it turned out not be a big deal.)

In the years since first grade, I'll be the first to admit that I've spaced on a few assignments and deadlines here and there, but I remain one of the more organized people I know. Right now, I work three freelance jobs and volunteer for two organizations, and I have yet to miss a deadline, fail to show up for work, or bring the wrong materials to a meeting. I can do this in part because I am good about writing to-do lists and putting meetings on my calendar, but I was also just born with an organized brain. I won't go so far as to say that filing or alphabetizing are my favorite pastimes, but I do actually experience a certain satisfaction in organizing big stacks of paper that used to be jumbled messes. (I'm also one of those shoppers who puts clothes back on hangers.)  I like knowing where things are, when they're due, and what I need to do to get them done, all of which has served me well in the working world. 

Here are a few concrete examples of how my organizational skills manifest themselves:

• Almost every message in my Gmail inbox is labeled. Once I've responded to it, it gets filed in a labeled folder for future reference. 
• Ditto for my "My Documents" folder.
• I keep a planner. 
• I use my planner. 
• I don't have a closet, so all my clothes are kept folded on shelves. 
• I remember birthdays, usually because they are written down in my planner. 
• I have never been late paying a credit card bill. 
• Friends, colleagues, and family members have been begging me to organize their desks, studios, offices, and lives since I was in middle school. 

In short, you should hire me because I will organize the heck out of your files, inbox, and database.