When Is Your Right Place at the Right Time?

College book and glasses

“During a parent-teacher conference, a mother insisted I shouldn’t have taken points off her daughter’s English paper for calling her subject Henry 8 instead of Henry VIII. “We have only regular numbers on our keyboard,” she explained. “No Roman numerals.” [Lisa Rich, Milledgeville, Georgia, as reported in Readers’ Digest www.rd.com]

Precious, right? Hopefully, by college, it gets better! This time of year is exciting, and sometimes nerve-racking at the same time, for many people (regardless of age) starting college. Whether we are a first-year student, a soon-to-graduate student, or an older woman just beginning classes, it takes a certain amount of dedication to get to where we want to go.

By the time we start interviewing for a job in our field, life seems to “smack” us in our head with a wake-up call. Unfortunately, “More than 40 percent of college graduates take positions out of school that don't require a degree…and more than 1 in 5 college grads still aren't working a degree-demanding job a decade after leaving school.” [www.cnbc.com]

That may be discouraging, but a degree is still a good idea as it mainly shows we are women who can stick to a long-term project and that is attractive to an employer. So, let’s go ahead and finish that education, even if it requires taking night courses while working somewhere to pay the bills. As single-again women, we must do everything we know to change our lives for the better.

The Right Place at The Right Time

Eventually, we will see an opportunity or an “open door.” It could suddenly be a case of standing in the right place at the right time. Now that we are on our own, we can create our “perfect” life because no one is holding us back any longer! Mostly, we need to remember we are each unique, so one life will not look like the next woman’s life even though we use the same tools.

Basically, we need a plan to follow. A “key” that will open our own door. We can experiment with some of these suggestions to get us on the right track:

What is our field? What did we study in school? Whatever that might be, we can try our best to work (or intern) in that same type of business even if it means an entry-level position and entry-level pay to gain the experience we need for later. 

Networking puzzle

While in that job, don’t be a loner and just clock-in and clock-out and then home again. We will never get to know people that way. Participate in company activities, especially networking (sharing and getting to know others at events). Volunteer for a committee at work. Our face will get well-known and when the opportunity comes along, the boss will remember us for that promotion!

Keep our eyes open for posted promotions and apply for that position even if we have no exact experience for it. We can at least interview for it explaining to the boss we are fast learners and are determined to become an asset to the company.

We have many things we can do to change our lives. In addition to the above employment ideas, we can stay on top of the business (keep researching). Sooner than we expected our lives will change and we will go in the direction we always intended to anyway. Someday, someone will ask us for a job!

Who Are We Following?

In the Bible there is an amazing story of a young leader named Joshua who was promoted to take the place of Moses! His first assignment was to lead the people to the Promised Land (from Egypt to Israel). A big job he was not trained for yet. He did a fantastic job because of his strong belief in God. However, the people faltered, lost sight of their purpose, and basically gave up. Amazingly, out of two million people, only Joshua and his friend Caleb entered the Promised Land! Two people who stuck with it until they succeeded.     

We too have certain beliefs about where our lives are going and what we would like to do with them. As we go about attending our classes, following instructions, and completing assignments, we come to realize it takes much more effort than we thought it would. With a good attitude and a mindset of not giving up, we will reach our goal. Much like Joshua and Caleb. 

"Study this Book of Instruction [or the Book of the Law aka the Torah, the first five books of the Bible] continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do" (Joshua 1:8 NLT).