The Past Two Years - Job/Career

Here are the updates on what happened in my life over the past two years in regards to my job/career.

Work at the publishing company started getting difficult over the summer of 2016.  We were having trouble bringing in enough advertising sales to get the magazines published which affected the advertising sales.  It was a vicious circle.  My specific job and tasks were impacted by not receiving the mailing lists from our fulfillment company.  Also, since I was still doing two jobs (circulation & reception/executive assistant), I was also fielding calls and visits from contributors looking for money they were owed.

Over the Christmas holidays of 2016/2017, while the office was closed, we moved locations.  I ended up with my own office and I no longer had to cover reception.

Even with moving to a smaller space with lower overhead costs (rent, utilities etc), everything continued to go down hill.  I really did not know how bad it was getting until we started to have trouble making payroll.

In March of 2017 we started to lose employees.  Over 50% of the staff arranged to leave and go on unemployment.  By the time we got to June, we were down to about 6 of us left.  We were being told that our boss was just working on the agreement with a couple of new investors and then things would turn around.

It never happened.  The business ended up closing suddenly under horrible circumstances (more on that in a future post) in the middle of June.

I started looking for a new job in July.  At the end of August I found a new position with an accounting firm that started after the September long weekend.

For 5 weeks I struggled to learn a new system in an unfamiliar field.

Then, just days before my 40th birthday and Thanksgiving, I was let go in my probation period.  They did not give me a reason.  In fact, one of the owners actually said he was not going to discuss it with me.  All I can figure is that I was not learning & picking up tasks fast enough for them.

So I continued on unemployment until early 2018.  Finally I was getting calls back from applying to jobs.  I actually ended up 2 positions - at the temp agency for the University and a 3 month contract with a large communications company.

I started with the executive assistant role at the communications company, and after the first three months, they extended my contract for another 3 months.  Then I ended my availability and gave my notice with the University.  Worse case scenario, I can always reapply at the University, but it looks like my job is not going to end anytime soon.

My confidence is back and I am really enjoying the people I work with everyday.

The only, small issue I am experiencing is that I am making less money than I was at the publishing company.  Hopefully in the Spring/Summer of next year I can get hired full time by the actual company I am working at now (instead of being on contract through an employment agency).

It has been a very tough year in regards to my finances.  Thank goodness I am back to working and making money (and getting out of the house).