Some tasty, tasty apples!

It's official! Kristen has landed a full-time job in Portland! She was working on two leads that she gained through the fantastic networking she has been doing here (big thanks to Jake for providing the first connection in that chain). It looked almost sure that she was going to be hired at a PR company that was considering actually creating a position for her. Then that seemed to fizzle out, while at the same time one of the people she had met with many weeks ago contacted her. He asked to meet with her again, but did not specify any type of job opportunity. That was about two weeks ago. She met with him and had a "job interview" for a position that was opening up immediately. It went really well, but quite some time went by before she heard back from him. Just when we thought it was a lost cause, he offered her the job. Needless to say, we were both ecstatic and VERY relieved!

She will be starting as a Program Manager at Portland State University's Professional Development Center on May 19th. Until then, she is going to keep working at the Aurora Mill (where both of us worked in 2003 before moving to Belgium). She has been helping them set up a website for online sales.

The position at PSU is such a fantastic opportunity for her and it is going to challenge her in all the right ways. It is really good to be affiliated with a university. Good pay, great benefits, many avenues for advancement. She's really looking forward to it.

Proof-positive that networking does work!

Slight change of plans

This is going to sound completely insane considering the state of the economy and the job market, but Kristen has decided to pass on the background investigation job. Her gut instinct was that it wasn't right for her. Plus: there wouldn't really be any potential for advancement; the pay was not very good (especially considering the nature of the job); and it would mean that all the Portland networking momentum that she has built up would cease entirely. And that networking will definitely lead to the job that she really wants. We talked at length about it and she did some soul-searching before deciding to pass. It's a gamble and a half, but it's a gamble that I am sure will pay off. For the moment, Kristen will try freelancing as a researcher. We will give that a try for 3 months or so to see how it goes (networking all the while).

Great News!

Kristen landed a job today! She will be a research analyst for a background investigation firm nearby that does background checks for employers, banks, government agencies, and law enforcement. Training starts on Friday.

I'm really proud of us for getting hired in this economy, amid all the doom and gloom of rising unemployment. At least we know we're hire-able!

Things are starting to happen

*Yesterday, Kristen was invited for an interview (this Friday) at a firm in Wilsonville that does background investigations. A great relief to get an interview!

*Today, she had an "informational interview" with someone at PSU. Sounds like that might lead to something, but we'll see. Keeping our fingers crossed!

*Also today, we got a call from the shipping company to let us know that our shipment will be delivered on Thursday afternoon.

*Thursday, Kristen will have to drive down to Eugene to accept the shipment (I can't get the day off work) because one of us has to be there.

*Saturday (or possibly Friday evening), we'll drive down to Eugene to pick up our stuff. There is probably some that we will donate to Goodwill. Not the stuff we paid a hefty sum to have shipped to the US, but some of the stuff that we stored in Nanny's garage a couple of years ago.

Busy week!

Waiting and Not Waiting

We are very close to severing ourselves from England. The landlord responded to my letter (that was more than a week ago, though) and denied pretty much all of my claims, but he did relent on one thing, so I decided to just give in. It wasn't worth the continued chasing and arguments. All that remained was to send in a signed form to the management company so they can release the funds. We just got an email from them today saying they had received the form, but there is a backlog in the finance department so it would take 7-10 days to release it. Ridiculous! How could their possibly be that many deposits to process? Utter BS. Then again, there's the tea breaks, socializing, vacation, and sick days to account for, so I guess that's how it could take that long. We've waited since November 19th, I suppose we can wait a little longer.

Another thing we're waiting for is the license plate for our car. We started the process of registering the car in Oregon and have sent in all the forms, paid the fees, and so on. There was a little trouble proving that we are Oregon residents, though, so we had to send in some more paperwork. To keep us legal until we get the plate, we have renewed our temporary plate for the third time. The plates will probably come through soon. Then the next step is to change our driver's licenses to Oregon, which requires an address and taking the written test. So, we're waiting to do that until we get an apartment in Portland.

AND we're waiting for our shipment from England. It will have made its way across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal, and into the Pacific. Supposedly, it has arrived in Los Angeles on the 24th. It will take ten days to get through customs and then another three to six days to let us know when it is going to be delivered to us in Oregon. So, it is probably going to be mid- to late- February before we have our stuff back.

Finally, we're still waiting to hear from the jobs we've applied for. The closing date for a few of them have passed during the course of the last week or so. And of course, I had the interview on Monday for one of them and was waiting to hear the outcome.

Well, on Tuesday, just as we got back to Sisters, an email came through on my BlackBerry stating that they are ready to offer me the job, providing that my references check out. Good news, but there was a bit of nail-biting because it was difficult to get a hold of the references I listed from England, so I actually had to give them some alternative people to check with. When I woke up this morning, I was thinking that it was going to be a while before this is all resolved, but while I was in the shower, I got an email and a voice-mail offering me the job. Sweet!

So, I can officially say "I'm employed!" I will be starting next week, probably on Wednesday, if not sooner. They'd like me to start ASAP. Problem is, we still need to find an apartment. We were planning to head into the valley on Saturday, then check out some apartments on Monday. At the moment, though, we're thinking we might need to go sooner. Like tomorrow, so we can look for apartments on Saturday. We're suddenly busy as hell!

Portland Trip #2

So, we're in Portland today. I had my job interview this morning. Went really well (I think) and I'm really excited about the prospect now. It would be a GREAT experience and a GREAT stepping stone. No idea when they will notify me, but they did ask me when I could potentially start. We'll see!

We also checked out an apartment building in the Pearl district. It's a "green" building, brand new. Lots of cool amenities like a fitness center, a "fido field" (an astro-turf area with a fire hydrant) and swanky, common areas with free wi-fi. Unfortunately, it's a bit too pricey, especially since neither of us is employed yet! But it also caused us to re-evaluate our plan of moving to Portland with or without jobs (so that we can be "in it" to do the networking). It's probably a bit over-ambitious, so we will wait until at least one of us has a job. Then we will find a place near that. Another thing we realized is that we don't want to live in a studio apartment or possibly not a small 1 bedroom either. We're done with being squished! This means we will probably have to give up our idea of living downtown. It would be fun and a great experience, but too pricey. We might check some other parts of the downtown area, though.

For now, it's back to Central Oregon again tomorrow.

Good news

I've been invited to an interview for the Americorps job. It's on Monday, so we're heading to the valley today. We'll spend the night in Eugene, after doing some quick clothing shopping for an interview "ensemble", then drive up to Portland in the morning. There are also a couple of apartments we might take a look at.

Things might start happening very quickly now!

Jawbs

There's a lot of doom'n'gloom on the news every day about the economy, job cuts, high unemployment, and so on. Stuff like this:

In December 174,819 Oregonians were unemployed, an increase of 69,966 from the December 2007 level of 104,853. December marked the largest number of unemployed since January 1983 when 176,815 Oregonians were unemployed.

Or this (not a very good article, but the comments are interesting!):

The seasonally adjusted figure -- the highest in more than 23 years -- could well increase further, economists said Tuesday. The recession is dealing Oregon one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, which had a 7.2 percent jobless rate in December.

And this:
Intel announces that it will close or stop production at five of its manufacturing facilities, including plants in Oregon and California. The closings will take place in 2009 and could affect between 5,000 and 6,000 employees once all of Intel's plans are finalized.

In the face of news like this, we must be STUPID to try to find jobs, right? Rest assured, we do realize the gravity of the situation and that we will be VERY fortunate to find a job each, not to mention jobs that we actually desire. I sure as hell will be damn proud of us when we accomplish this seemingly daunting task. Notice I said "when" and not "if"!

The thing is, it's not as dire as it seems. When you see these figures in the media, they don't always qualify the data with further details. For example, in Oregon, the worst hit job markets are Construction, Manufacturing, and Trade/Transportation/Utilities. Take a look at this graph from the Oregon Employment Department:

Notice how Government and Financial Activities haven't really dropped that much? Now look at Educational & Health Services. It has actually been climbing steadily! Furthermore, it has been said that having a degree (I have 2, Kristen has 3) really helps you to stay out of the jobless ranks. There was an article in The Bend Bulletin titled "In hard times, having a degree is a lifesaver". I've included a LINK to the article. Unfortunately, you can only read the first paragraph (unless you have a subscription), but there's also this PIECE from the New York Times which states: "The job situation is likely to weaken considerably for less-educated workers as the downturn persists, however, because employers are likely to raise skill requirements. Employers tend to be more selective in downturns. A study by Paul Devereux, for example, found 'the education levels of new hires within occupations are higher when the unemployment rate is high and this effect is more pronounced in lower-paying occupations.'" This bodes well for us. Sure, we might not end up in the job of our dreams at this point, but that's OK. First of all, we live quite modestly by most standards, have relatively low debt, and don't have any dependents. We're not looking to become millionaires. As long as our basic needs are being met and we can afford to go to a movie or out for dinner once in a while, we'll be happy. The 5 years we spent in Europe really taught us to re-evaluate what's important and to take a much less materialistic approach to life. That certainly has been helpful for us when we got back to the US to find the economy collapsing. People have been living irresponsibly, way beyond their means. That's just how the American society has been for the last 50 years or so. Consume, consume, consume. If you want to find a positive side to how things look here now, the fact that people are starting to change their consumer behavior and re-priortize is a REALLY good thing! Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have had to learn this lesson the hard way and are close to, if not firmly-planted, in destitute. The economy is such a complex organism and things will level off eventually and then we can all start putting things back together and rebuilding. The America that will come out of that will be so much stronger than before. We just all need to be a part of the solution. Anyway, I digress...

Some more evidence that we aren't insane for thinking that we can find jobs in this economy:

• When we went to Portland last week, we spoke to two professionals who told us that Portland has not been hit as hard as many other cities in the country. The city is still thriving. There might be more of an effect in the future, but at the moment, it's OK. There as jobs out there. You just have to be more pro-active in finding them (i.e.- networking).
• We have each applied for 5 to 6 jobs already and there are more in progress. And these are pretty much all for jobs that we would actually want! We haven't started reaching for the bottom of the barrel yet. As I'm writing this, Kristen is sitting across from me applying for two more jobs.
  
• Monster.com, for example, has 1373 jobs listed for Portland, OR today. Sure, they aren't all ones that we are qualified for or interested in. We definitely would have more job options if we had a degree in healthcare, law, or finance, but there are plenty of jobs out there for us to apply for. By the way, we don't use Monster because they don't have a lot of listings for the kinds of jobs we're looking for.
• And one final piece of news is that I have had a nibble on the Americorps job I applied for. This morning, I had a prelimanary telephone interview. There are two other people who are being seriously considered for the job. The interview went really well and it seemed like I made a good impression. I feel pretty good about my chances.
  

So, we might have to go to Portland for an in-person interview on Monday, which will be good anyway because then we can try to find an apartment. Regardless of what happens with that job, we will need to establish a physical presence in Portland soon. There have been several job fairs and other networking opportunities that we have missed already. Plus, if we're there, we can find some kind of part-time job to keep us afloat longer while we continue the search.

One thing is for sure, the Portland momentum has started. The Po Mo, as Kristen has dubbed it.

January Update

We're still out on the ranch in Central Oregon. And LOVING it! When we're next in a big city, it's going to be culture shock!

It was unseasonably warm today at about 55 deg F. That's really warm for this time of year, even in this part of Oregon. Weather like that makes you think twice about moving to the more cloudy, rainy Willamette Valley! Though, personally, I don't mind rain. More water for making beer with!

On the job front, it's looking a bit sparse, but there are definitely jobs out there for us. I've applied for three or four jobs, ones that would actually be pretty good jobs (i.e.- not scraping the bottom of the barrel). Kristen has also found a couple that she has applied for. Sure, under normal circumstances, there would be more jobs out there, but it's not as bad as the Media makes it out to be. Then again, we're not in the industries that are hardest hit. In Oregon, that's all the industries related to construction, particularly the lumber industry.

Oh, and we still haven't fully "detached" ourselves from England. The deposit from our flat is still in hock. Can you believe it!? I've been contacting the management company periodically since we found out that the landlord wanted to charge us for some stuff. That was in late November. It was not until last Thursday that finally received the list of charges. And they were a little bit absurd. I wrote a frank letter back to them to refute some of the charges and to make counter-offers against the rest of them (basically 50%) based on the validity of the charges, the "hardships" we endured during our tenancy, and the long time that has passed since we moved out of the flat (50 days at the time of writing the letter). Still have not heard anything back from them. Hopefully tomorrow.

What else... we are taking the car in for a check-up at the dealership tomorrow. It's still under warranty, so we thought we'd take advantage of that and have it checked after its long road-trip. Also, during the trip, I broke the latch in the center console armrest (I just barely touched it!). Hopefully, they will fix that under warranty.

On Wednesday, we're going to Portland to have a bit of a look around and to hang with Kristen's sister. Also, my renewed Danish passport is ready for collection at the embassy (it was due to expire on December 24th, so I renewed it in Florida and they were kind enough to ship it to Portland). Then on Thursday, we are having a "face to face" with someone who might be able to give us some good job leads in Portland. After that, we'll head down to Eugene to stay the night before driving back to Sisters on Friday. The unseasonably warm weather should allow us to drive there and back without snow trouble.

Keep an eye on the Sisters, OR photo album as we have been adding pictures periodically.