It Was Unexpected

We experience unexpected events, results, conclusions, stories, people's character, and moments in our lives. I want to share a moment and an experience I never saw them coming.

The unexpected moment was I shopped at Toys R Us years ago. I walked to the board games aisles. I saw The Settlers of Catan. Unexpected. Toys R Us sells mainstream board games such as Monopoly, Battleship, UNO, and Clue. The Settlers of Catan is a board game for board game geeks. Examples of board game geeks include Puerto Rico, Dominion, Ascension, Alchemist, Carcassonne, and Tuscany. I'm happy Toys R Us and Target expanded their board game selection selling board game geeks including The Settlers of Catan, Munchkin, Dixit, and King Of Tokyo.

The unexpected experience was job searching in Jul 2011. I graduated with an AA degree in Accounting. I thought a BS in Economics and an AA in Accounting were a good combination. I was wrong. I initially thought I get a job because of my two college degrees and the economy improved after the real estate bubble popped in 2008. The continued slow job market was unexpected.

There were very few job openings. Salaries were on the low end. All of the jobs require years of experience. All of the jobs require acquired knowledge. There was no on-the-job-training. It was the worse time to be a college graduate. It was the worse time to be a job candidate with gaps in his or her resume. It was the worse time to lack job experience. Companies want someone with recent and relevant experience to start immediately. No job training for the new hire. No job education for the new hire. The two questions hiring managers asked which rejected my job candidacy were my resume gaps and my lack of recent job experience. I went back to school for two years which was a negative.

I'm happy the job market is improving, yet the market is still tough. The resume gaps and lack of recent job experience are no longer negatives. One reason is I worked in two companies to fill in the gaps. I thank the two companies for giving me the opportunities. Salaries are increasing, yet some companies believe they can hire skilled workers at below market salaries. One of these days my AA in Accounting is useful.

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