I need your
help.
I will be losing my
job at the end of this month. Our office got
downsized, and my neck was the one that got put on the
chopping block. Everyone tells me that I am not getting
laid off because of anything I did -- I'm getting let go, basically, because I'd been assigned to beats that were no longer considered important by the new office.
Now I'd expected that the
university would be helping me find a new job somewhere on the campus since that's what I was told by the person taking over the office, but it turns out that's not really going to happen. (And it's not the fault of the person who made that promise -- she told the personnel office to help me out, they freaked out and changed their rules so they wouldn't have to give me any
assistance.) I've applied for several jobs within the university, but I don't want to hold out too much hope for them -- it's not uncommon for the university
bureaucracy to take several months deciding who they want to interview, much less hire, and I don't want to be
unemployed for several months.
I've got enough money in
savings to hold out for several months, but no matter how long my
money lasts, the
lease on my apartment is up at the end of December. If I don't have a job by then, I will have to put all my stuff into
storage and go live with my brother or grandmother.
My preference would be to get a job at the university or in
Lubbock. My
grandmother is now almost 95 years old, and she relies on me for a lot of the chores she needs done, including grocery shopping, taking out her trash, lugging heavy objects, changing
smoke detector batteries, and keeping an eye on her when she gets sick. My brother also lives here, and we love getting to go out and do things together. My brother's
rat terrier is a darling little girl who I'd hate to move away from. I've got a lot of other
family living in the area, too. Now all these people could survive without me, but it doesn't change the fact that I'd prefer to get a job here in Lubbock, so they don't
have to survive without me.
But while I want to live in Lubbock, I don't want to be so attached to living in Lubbock that I'm willing to go semi-
homeless in Lubbock. There aren't a whole lot of jobs being advertised anywhere in this area, and it's quite possible that I wouldn't be able to find anything by the end of the year.
So please
help me. Please find me a job I could work at.
What can I do? To be honest, I don't have a whole lot of
job skills. I've spent the last decade specializing in being a
writer, but there are very few companies that are really looking for writers. I've been told more than once that I'd make a good
technical writer, but I've never had any training in how to do that. Having said that, I've got a masters degree, and I think I'm smart enough to learn how to do most jobs, as long as they don't require a lot of specialized
knowledge.
What would I prefer
not to do? I would not want to be a
teacher -- I'm not that fond of most kids, elementary, high school, or college age, and dealing with
helicopter parents would make me pop a gasket. I don't want to work in
newspapers,
radio, or
television -- been there, done that, couldn't make my car payments.
I would also prefer not to live too far away from my current location. Family has always been very important to me, and everyone in my family lives in either
West Texas or
New Mexico. I could handle living just about anywhere in the
Midwest and much of the
Southwest, but I'd prefer not to live on the coasts. I'm sure the
coasts are purty and you love living there, but it ain't for me. I also don't like big cities. Sorry, but I don't.
OH! And money! I would, obviously, like to get paid money. How much? Well, I'm currently making approximately $30,000 a year in Lubbock. That's comfortable for a single guy in West Texas. There are areas where that amount of money would make me look
rich, and areas where that would make me look
poor. I'd like to make close to what I'm making now. More money would be very nice; a slight decrease would be bearable. I don't want to work for a
pittance. I like my current lifestyle, and I'd like to maintain it.
This isn't a
contest. No one gets a
prize. I don't guarantee that I'll apply for any jobs you may find. I'm just trying to find something that'll work for me.
If you need a copy of my
resume, let me know, and I'll send it to you. And thanks for any help y'all can give me.