It happens all the time, especially when in transit—me, thinking of topics to write about and composing sentences in my head. However, as soon as I reach my office desk or my laptop at home, a pile of other things get in the way of writing and my brilliant ideas get shoved under the desk.
A few days later I find a blog or an article that seems to have stolen my thoughts from under my desk. It’s like reading about what’s going on in my head from other people’s blogs. On one hand it’s frustrating, making me wish I was as eloquent as they are; on the other hand, what a relief to know that I’m not alone in thinking about these things.
I direct you now to these posts which moved me, inspired me, and validated the thoughts that have been burning in my head for the past weeks. Short of saying this is where in life I am right now.
1. Mondays are the hardest. Toni returns to full-time work after being a work-at-home Mom for 2 years. The thing about being a working mom is—and can I just say the phrase “working mom” is redundant—you want to stay at home and you need to leave the comforts of home for one and the same reason: your children. The thought of missing out on their day at home makes you crazy, but they’re the ones who fuel you to work harder and to keep going, too. There’s just no easy way around, and no solution to this universal challenge mothers face. We just have to go through the day the best we could, do our jobs, and look forward to the rewards of a day’s work: coming home and ending the day with our little ones. I feel you, Toni, I do.
2. What a content career in marketing looks like. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one who took a web copywriting job and (accidentally) found herself in the marketing industry. “I had no intention of growing a career in marketing, but it’s the closest I could get to getting paid to use my words,” the writer said. Well there you go, my career in a nutshell. I may not have the freedom to write whatever topic I want to write about just yet, but now that I’ve figured out what I really want to be, I think this industry is a good place to learn and to dream. I can’t remember the last time I felt excited about a job until now.
3. Maggie’s inspired to blog because of her son, and because she wants to pay it forward. Everything she said resonates well with my desire to keep blogging, no matter how time-consuming it can be sometimes. It’s one thing to keep photographs and stories in a box, another thing to publish them for the chance, however small, of reaching out to someone out there who needs to know that she’s not alone. It’s not once that I found comfort and inspiration from other people’s blogs, and like Maggie, I want to pay it forward too.
On a totally unrelated note, I’m currently girl-crushing on Caroline Glaser, I want to live inside her song. (Where did that come from?)
Anyway.
Wherever you are in your life right now, keep going, keep dreaming, and keep paying it forward. Have a great week! :)
Sometimes, no matter how you try to maintain composure and professionalism in job interviews, some questions just can’t be answered without being personal.
Questions like this, in spite of being a totally normal job interview question, can be a dreaded one especially when you’ve gone from being a confident, workaholic single woman, to a smitten, family-first, full-time Mom.
It would have been easier (and maybe more impressive) to answer this by saying “I was offered a better opportunity somewhere else,” or “I’m looking for a new adventure.” Unfortunately, none of those answers applied to me.
So I faced this question head-on, knowing that my answer would either make me or break me.
This is it, I thought to myself. He’s going to know I’m a mother.
I went on to explain that the normal maternity leave was not enough time for me to adjust to my new role as a mother, which gave me no choice but to resign.
It’s not that I’m ashamed of it, I’m not! Right now there’s nothing I’m more proud of than my twin girls. But I do know that in a dynamic and demanding industry such as the one I’m in, being a mother can be a professional disadvantage. To some employers, a turn-off even. There’s no denying the fact that a mother’s first priority is her family and everything else takes the backseat (including her job); whereas a single woman, in comparison, is more free to devote long hours in a job.
But a mother is who I am now. And it’s no secret that my family is my priority. In fact, my family is the very reason why I resigned from my previous job to begin with, and why I started looking for a new job a few months after.
Whoever’s going to hire me should know that.
Amazingly, this particular employer became even more interested to hire me because I am a mother. Apparently, their target market happened to be young mothers and women my age, and they needed someone who has a fresh take on motherhood and womanhood.
I fit the profile. Score!
“Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal,” I can almost hear Kathleen Kelly thinking out loud. Finding a job is as personal as can be. A job takes your time away from your family, your friends, your hobbies, yourself. If that isn’t personal, I don’t know what is.
Often we try to compartmentalize professional from personal, and I don’t really have any objections with that because we have to know where to draw the line too. But I also realized that if I must choose a profession that would make me happy, one that would set the course of my career in the coming years, then the job has to fit right into my new (personal) profile: A mom of twins. Who has an extensive background in Online Marketing. Who just realized that she wants to be a writer.
And even though I didn’t get this particular job either (the location and the schedule didn’t work for me), it paved the way for me to land the job that God happened to tailor fit just for me.
(To be continued.)
It’s been going around for a while, people challenging themselves to do 30 things or go to 30 countries before they turn 30 in hopes of finding some semblance of fulfillment in the 3 decades that seemed to have passed them by. Two years ago I was following this blog of a girl who did a 30-item bucket list before she turned 30 years old, and I was particularly inspired and interested because we happen to share the same birthday! All items in her bucket list were checked before she turned 30, and the project officially ended in May 21, 2011.
I wanted to do that too, make a bucket list of sorts before I turn 30, but I’ve been setting it aside because I didn’t realize I’d be turning 30 so soon. Until it hit me, just last week actually, that I’m turning 30 in less than 30 days! (Yaikes! Already?)
So I missed out on making a 30-item bucket list, but you know what? I’m glad. I’m glad I didn’t make a list. I’m glad I didn’t subject myself to the pressure of getting 30 stamps on my passport, or doing 30 Fear-Factor-like adventures one after the other. I’m glad I didn’t frustrate myself for not achieving ambitious goals I’ve set for myself.
And I’m glad that the very things that happened in my life over the past 30 years are beyond anything I would ever put in a bucket list anyway. To be a mother and to give birth to twins, for one, is something I never imagined myself putting in a to-do list. Who knew?
And so I’m listing down, what God has taught me for the past 30 years instead. 30 before 30 in 30 means: 30 Lessons I Learned Before I Turned 30 in 30 Days. You can follow this series on Tumblr. Maybe at the end of 30 days I will put them all together in one giant post and publish it here.
It’s going to be special, turning 30, and for sure it’s not going to be like any other birthdays I had in the past. And I’d like to commemorate that by pondering upon what I’ve learned, and what I can impart to you, whoever you are reading this. You, who, perhaps like me, are nearing the big 3-0 and wondering what has come out of those years.
Let the one-month celebration begin!
Having worked for a total of 5 companies in over 8 years, I had my share of judging and profiling applicants by the way they answer questions, as well as being in the opposite end of the table trying to impress a potential employer. Some of those interviews became defining moments in my career, and I have a few more added just recently.
Two months ago, I started entertaining job interviews again. Why I resigned from my previous job, and why a full-time, work-at-home setup didn’t work for me this time is a story for another post. For now let’s just say, I’m thankful for this recent set of job interviews, if only for the opportunity to poke into my heart again and surprise myself with my very own answers.
Applicants come to job interviews thinking that they’re at the mercy of the one asking them questions. The truth is, job interviews are both for the benefit of company hiring and the person applying. For applicants, it’s our glimpse into the company and the position we’re applying for, a chance to see for ourselves if the job is really for us.
In one of my recent job interviews, I was asked:
The question came like an afterthought. We were already wrapping up an hour-long interview when the CEO of this company I was applying to noticed in my resume that I graduated with a degree in Communication Research. It’s not really an unusual question. In fact, it’s not the first time someone asked me to explain the connection between the course I took in college and the career path I chose.
It was how I answered this particular question that surprised me.
For the next 30 seconds I blabbered about how, fresh out of college, I was really looking for a writing job, and I accidentally ended up in the online marketing industry as a Web Copywriter. I went on saying other unnecessary things, like how I love writing content for my clients’ websites more than anything, and how writing has always been what I’ve wanted to do. It’s probably in those last 30 seconds that I lost my shot at that job. Who in his right mind would hire someone who just professed she wanted to be a writer when she’s shortlisted for an “SEO Director” role? I figure they’re looking for someone who’s experienced in mobilizing people and coming up with solid marketing strategies. Or someone who loves looking at spreadsheets and counting costs.
And me, well, I was the applicant who wanted to be a writer.
The guy shook my hand, thanked me for my time, and sent me off right after that last question. I never got a follow up call nor a rejection letter from that company. I didn’t even follow up my application myself. But that’s okay. I came out of that building knowing that the job was not for me. How did I know it wasn’t for me? I knew it from the way the CEO asked questions. (Hey, companies are not the only ones who get to assess applicants, applicants assess them too!)
The whole time we were sitting across each other, he was implying to me that the job was demanding, the requirements toxic, the hours long, the schedule shifting. And, the ultimate turn off, that it didn’t involve any writing. Except maybe writing memos, or writing business proposals. The job just didn’t fit in this new life that I have. It didn’t.. excite me.
Still jobless, I spent the next couple of days trying to process the answer I blurted out in that job interview.
Like I said, I surprise myself sometimes. Sure, I’ve always wondered if writing was for me, or if I could really consider myself a writer. But I can’t remember a time I declared or even thought about wanting to be a writer.
I realized that to accidentally be something is different from actually wanting to be it.
I guess that’s one other thing I like about job interviews. You have to answer questions under pressure, and no matter how prepared you are (or how many times you’ve answered the very same questions), sometimes you still end up blabbering what’s really in your heart. Well, good for you! And good for the company you’re applying to. Because these days, it’s not enough that you just get a job, you’ve got to find that one job which makes your heart flutter. You’ve got to find that company who’s willing to hire you for your passion, your true calling.
Anything short of that is not good enough.
(To be continued.)
I have to admit, dressing up twin girls is one of the things I love about being a Mom. When I was still single, I’ve always wished for a baby girl for one selfish reason—shopping clothes for girls looked so fun! It sure is. Even more when you’re dressing up twin girls.
I obviously love mixing and matching their clothes, making sure their dresses complement each other’s if not totally the same. Sometimes, all four of us (the twins, my husband, and I) would even go as far as wear matching outfits. The child in me gets jumpy when it’s time to dress them up, like I’m playing with my own life-size set of Barbie and Ken dolls. It drives my husband crazy!
Though I like dressing up, I hardly accessorize these days. Partly because the girls like pulling and drooling on whatever their tiny hands can grab—note to mommies, your outfit needs child-proofing too! But mostly because carrying around an adorable and fashionable baby is like donning your best accessory, no need for more blings. Just make sure you don’t look like a drag, or else be mistaken as your baby’s yaya! :)
These days, whenever I shop for my own clothes, I always have the babies’ outfit in mind too.
Here’s today’s cyber-retail therapy in pinks and neutrals.
1. Betmar Carnation Hat | 2. Brown Belly Poncho Top | 3. Lab C. Pink Case for iPhone
4. Panda Robinon Natural Sunnies | 5. Nature Colored Brown Bree | 6. Wabitoy Teddy
7. Rags 2 Riches Chalk Pink Kenmu Clutch | 8. R2R Chalk Pink Hobo Bag
(All items are from Ava.ph)
You see anything you like? Feel free to shop now at Ava.ph: CLICK HERE!
Ava recently launched their Baby Boutique too. Check it out!
So.. how do you like seeing our twin girls? Donned in the same outfit or complementing ones?
I'm Riz. I'm 
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