One of my assignments for the week, from the HR consultant, includes reading and some prep work for networking. "Networking is not asking for a job, it is asking for information" he says. Now, I've never really done the networking thing; My preferred method of looking for a new job is to reply to ads. But according to the materials I've been assigned to read, the vast majority of jobs are never posted publicly, and networking is the only real way to connect to them.

So: I know it's important, and therefore I'm determined to learn how to do it, and do it well, to add it to my collection of strategies, and to work at it enough that it becomes less difficult.

But.

But right now reading about it and seeing that the "experts" recommend that I spend 80% of my job-search time on networking is like being told that I should spend 80% of my job-search time poking needles into my eyeballs. It sounds Very Not Fun.

Anyway, maybe after the prep work etc. it won't seem so very awkward and unpleasant. Either way, I know that after I've done it for a while it will turn into No Big Deal. Or that's what I'm going to keep telling myself.

My completed re-done resume is... impressive. But it's also three pages long and has solid blocks of text on it, which the consultant says is A-OK, but which goes against everything I've ever learned about resumes before. I think I'll show it around to get a wider variety of opinions on it.

As far as Belly Dancing goes: last night was the Good-Bye party my former coworkers threw for me and a couple others who left recently. Important detail: my former workplace was entirely staffed by women. One of the entertainments was a local Belly Dance instructor giving us a demonstration and teaching us some moves. It was an absurd amount of fun, and also a lot of work. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time. The whole party was amazing - I'm really going to miss those people.