I left my full-time career in late 2023 with the thought of potentially retiring early (at age 58.5) and devoting more time to working on the 2024 election and other volunteer work. We were all done paying for our kids’ college educations, our investments were looking good, and Trump was safely out of the White House with many pending criminal indictments.
My how things can change in 18 months.
On the very bright side, I became a grandmother. Nothing is better than that.
BUT, everything else is looking very scary and one way to try to protect myself and my family would be to start earning money again. I mean who knows what the hell is coming next with this Mad King in the Oval Office—World War III, a deep recession or depression, another pandemic, civil war—any damn thing can happen with him in charge. Money won’t stop the fall of democracy in the United States, but maybe it could help protect my own family. And maybe that’s all any of us can really do.
Anyhow, I opened up my LinkedIn profile to recruiters and immediately got several interviews. One job looked perfect for me and I made it to the final round of interviews. I absolutely loved the organization. I was sure they were going to offer it to me.
Whelp, I found out yesterday that they decided to “move forward with a different finalist.”
OUCH! How dare they?? I was perfect for the job and I really wanted it!
So much for a great job just dropping into my lap. Am I really up for a protracted, arduous job search? I don’t know. I may be too old for this shit.

Related:
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