The interview, part I

My new jet-setting friend Carina wrote a fabulous post for “The Interview” that’s going around. I asked her to send me a few questions, knowing that hers would be interesting. And, as I suspected, she did not disappoint. Since she chose a couple of topics I found rather stimulating, I’m going to post in parts.

Here’s question #1.

Q. You went back to work after your youngest was in school. Was it a hard decision or were you looking forward to it?

A. After watching my mother unexpectedly find herself single parent and breadwinner for six kids, I always knew I would go back to work. But when my baby went to first grade I initially thought I’d take a year to put my house in order, get some much-needed painting done, etc. My husband and I had already talked about it and decided it would be fine to wait. And I was good with that.

Then one day I was flipping through the want ads of the local newspaper–not at all something I was in the habit of doing–and I saw this temp job for a Google searcher. Something told me I should apply, so I did. At one point during training something happened that made me question whether or not I wanted to work for this company and I actually found myself trying to quit. And then something very strongly told me not to quit. Within five months the temp job turned permanent and I made supervisor. Here I am a year and a half later and the only regrets I have are not being able to juggle my schedule well enough to volunteer more and get to some of my quilting projects.

The hard part about going back to work was two-fold. One, I had a 17-year gap on my resume. I went to fill out my application and where they request the address of the former employer how exactly do you say, “It no longer exists. They razed the building and built a Wal-Mart built over it.” And when they ask if they can contact your former supervisor is it in bad form to report, “He died in ‘02.”

Two, let me tell you: there was quite a learning curve. Think about stepping out of the work force just as Word Perfect is making it big and stepping back in when Google is taking over the world, everyone has a PC and many people own their own laptops, cell phones, and iPods. And actually know how to operate them. I had been mostly left out of a rather big loop and it took me a bit to catch up. Now one of my co-supervisors who is essentially brilliant in IT tells me I know just enough to be dangerous.

The best part of going back to work is the discovery that I do have it in myself to do this. One of the things I loved about being home was having discretionary time. Not free time, but at least the ability to choose what I would do when. I have had odd freelance jobs in the past where I actually found myself resenting having to make the time to work. Not actually doing the work, but I guess you could say I had commitment issues. But I will be honest and tell you, I like being at work. I find the work–on most days anyway–stimulating and interesting. I enjoy the new friends I have made at work. There are days when I still say to myself, “Wow! People come to me with problems and I solve them. I am respected, liked and appreciated and there is usually someone here who will laugh at my jokes. And I get paid for this?” (Lest you think I am waxing too Pollyanna, I will also tell you I still deal with guilt and ambivalence every day, along with a few snarky comments now and then from women whose business it is not, but who choose to sit in judgment of my working outside the home anyway.)

I work more than is expected of me and that gives me a real sense of accomplishment. I also find it reassuring to know that if, like my mother, I ended up out of necessity having to support my family, I could do it. (But I wouldn’t ever want to.)

(Stay tuned as I ponder a perplexing parenting problem in Part II.)