New job???

I’ve had lunch with my first contact, and we had a terrific brainstorming session. I came away from that lunch with a very positive feeling about my new direction and the possibility that there will be a job out there for me.

My goal was to make no secret of my plans. So when we were meeting with our financial planner a few days ago, I told him about them. This fun, generous man has found his niche in the financial planning world by being a specialist in setting up Special Needs Trusts for families with children who are disabled in some way. (Look for a future blog post about financial planning for your special needs child – if you are doing what you would for a typically developing child, you’re doing it all wrong.)

We were talking about if/when I’d start back working again (he’d connected me with a friend of his who is a church musician here, and we had a brief conversation about getting a vocal studio going). Anyway, since he had been kind enough to try to help me get connected musically here in town, I told him that I’ve been feeling a different career calling recently. He seemed interested when I told him that I wanted to help families of children with autism. He asked about my office experience, to which I replied that I had temped for years while getting my singing career going, working in New York City for a company which worked with companies in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in Richmond, VA for a law firm, and in Lansing, MI for a hospital’s medical education office. With T starting at the VB center full time, I would have from 9-3 everyday to work, and was hoping to find something part-time that could work within that time frame.

So...he has a job for me. It looks good, anyway! He had a part time employee who moved on to another job recently, and he needed a replacement. He thought that one of the mothers whom he works with would be perfect, because this person doesn’t need a ton of office experience, just a passion to help special needs children. (Oh my God.) The job would be lots of paperwork – keeping up with the filing & copying after he meets with a family, and I know I can do that. But the important part of the job that’s really exciting: this person is going to be the contact with all the special needs organizations he works with. ALL of them – not just for autism. This person would be the contact who would make contact with these organizations, schedule his presentations and maintain contact with them. I can TOTALLY do that. He just wants someone in this job that can talk on the phone and has a passion for special needs children. WOW. And he was fine with the hours I’d be available. WOW.

Okay, deep breath. This isn’t exactly the job I wanted. It isn’t helping families get to the therapies they need. It would be leaping right into 20 hours/week, when I had visions of starting off slowly and working my way up to half-time. It would also mean giving up most of my free time during the day when T is in school.

On the other hand, it would connect me with a ton of special needs organizations. Talk about learning the system. It also would work with my schedule, and it is ridiculous how conveniently it is located to our home and the VB center. I wouldn’t have to know finance at all – the office work sounds easy, and I would be completely comfortable in the role of setting up appointments for him and talking with these organizations. The potential to make a good hourly rate is very real – it sounded like I could pretty much name it and he’d do it. We could certainly use the money. I could certainly use the feeling of satisfaction I get from earning a paycheck again. And I’d be able to pick up T when he’s done at the VB center and spend the rest of the afternoon with him. It also would not be a permanent job – I could get my feet wet with being back in the workforce for awhile, and in the meantime start working on setting up the next job that would take me in the direction I envision going, all the while earning some money again.

This has the potential to be a great opportunity. The look of stunned disbelief and joy on Rob’s face when Financial Planner & I were talking about his was priceless.

So I’m trying to think clearly about all this. It appears that a job has fallen into my lap here, although it’s not exactly what I was thinking of. I meet with his office manager in two more days, and I’ll have plenty of questions for her. I don’t want to take a job just for the money...but gosh, some extra would be nice, especially since we want to start up craniosacral therapy again, and swimming lessons…must think, must think.