Resilience is an essential skill, and I believe resilience is a strength. A rubber ball is resilient. When you throw it down, you know the ball is going to come back. Depending on what the surface is and how the ball hits it, however, you might be surprised by its return. The trajectory of the ball does not go exactly back the same way and over time the ball might get pits in its surface and bounce differently. The ball might even be slowed or stopped by something. If my career or livelihood is the ball, and I am tossing the ball, I have some control–some tactics and my attitude–and can prepare and execute contingency plans.
After I became a full-time technical writer, I continued to work on the weekends on an on-call basis with a local hospital as a speech pathologist, a job that I enjoyed. This meant that I continued fulfilling my continuing education commitments, renewing my medical license, and carrying malpractice insurance on my own. My speech therapy work was like a hobby that paid for itself plus a little extra. My past speech therapist positions had not given me the income or benefits that technical writing did. It was naïve of me, however, to believe things in the tech industry would not change.
About a year after I moved into technical writing, I felt secure about my career choice. In fact I felt so secure I did something I had never done before—took a 3-week long vacation to Japan where I would have no access to the Internet. While at Japanese language school, the stock market crashed, and my company announced a plant shutdown. All 300+ of us had been laid off, and I had no idea about it. The day I pulled into the parking lot a colleague from Marketing told me I had already been laid off. In my Inbox I found the notification and made my departure. I had been blindsided, but I knew I could bounce back from this. I didn’t have enough direct experience to easily find another technical writing position. My “bounce” was to accept a position as an administrative assistant again, continue looking for a writing job, and increase my availability to work at the hospital. Between the two jobs, it was less than what I had, but it was working.
That gave me some time to find a technical writing job. In a downturn, the competition was fierce for a newbie like me. About four months later, I found a contractor position at a small start-up. The hourly rate was terrible and had no benefits, but the people were nice and the product was interesting. I was determined to get my three years of experience. Less than a year later a big company bought that start-up and let go of all the contractors the day the sale closed, so once again I was starting over again. This was becoming a familiar pattern. Again, my hospital hobby-job helped immensely, and I bounced back again this time as an executive administrative assistant at another start-up.
Start-ups aren’t the most stable workplaces, but I really enjoyed the excitement, resourcefulness required, flexible job duties, and technology. It’s also special to personally know everyone in the company. It took positions at another two start-ups to accumulate the three years of direct experience to qualify for technical writing roles again.
To take care of myself when I wasn’t working or was underemployed, I drew, played with my dog, and did handwork. I also read books and articles about technology and technical communication tools and methods. I kept in touch with my professional connections and spent time with friends. This time was filled with what can be considered peaks and valleys (Peaks and Valleys: Making Good and Bad Times Work for You–At Work and in Life by Spencer Johnson, M.D.), and I read many self-help books because it was angering, isolating, scary and depressing. I also watched a lot of movies that had positive self-talk, such as Legally Blonde. I spent a lot time trolling job boards.
Between part-time speech therapy jobs, technical writing, and administrative assistant positions, I made my way, learned many new skills, and earned my three years of technical writing experience.
The recession and recovery cycle has repeated several times over the last 15 years. Sometimes I saw it coming and started looking and making plans earlier. Other times it included seemingly endless applications and rejection. I have been underemployed and underpaid many times when in the recovery phase. I have also been lucky because I have usually found something within my chosen industry.
Now amid a double-whammy – a pandemic and downturn– I am doing my bounce routine, so I’ll be ready for my next adventure. This time my routine includes staying healthy, mindfulness practice, adding new creative and technical skills to my repertoire, staying connected to friends and family through Zoom calls, building dollhouse miniatures, spending time outdoors, volunteering for content creation opportunities, and applying for new positions and networking. I am ready to step in any direction even if it’s a detour for a while.
Are you ready to bounce, too?