On the journey
Quitting my job showed me how many skills I had to offer
Since leaving my job, I have made an almost spiritual practice of rewriting my resume. With each new narrative angle, I rebuild myself and want to share some of the experiences I probably shouldn’t put on a curriculum vitae.
So I’ll tell you now in a “What I Did This Summer”-style essay.
Here goes.
In April, when I left my job of several years, I just wanted to work in a nice place, something completely different than what I had been doing in a Manhattan-based community center.
I turned to temping, a throwback to my professional dancing years when I needed fast employment between gigs.
This time around, remote work was part of the temp mix. I found myself making cold calls at home.
Meanwhile, reception work was plentiful in plush offices that surrounded me with multi-million dollar paintings. Free coffee flowed. And my co-workers were supportive!
Office manager roles were more challenging, allowing me to make procedural decisions for companies that were “just coming back” after covid.
Through glass windows looking into other glass windows, I saw empty offices that reached as far as prairies and as high as the weather. I was the new commander of this new frontier, simply because I was willing to get on the subway.
Between interviews, I took one-off gigs.
One of these was religious, a no-no on resumes.
So I’ll tell you about it.
I hemmed St. Mother Cabrini’s apron, a second-degree relic
For a few weeks, I wrote content for a mini church museum honoring Mother Frances Cabrini, a 20th-century saint who started a school in my neighborhood of northern Manhattan. The exhibit was called “A Day in the Life of a Saint” and included tasks she completed from the time she woke in the morning until she went to bed.
In my research, I discovered that Mother Cabrini had a terrific relationship with work — she stayed true to a mission and got out of the way of anything that wasn’t the mission, including resentment and fear. With no medical training, she opened hospitals and schools for Italian immigrants, an underserved population during the turn of the century.
Now I have no museum training, except that I love museums, and I’m a nerd who knows how to sew a catch stitch.
Once, my supervisor had me hem Mother Cabrini’s apron that we wanted to include in the exhibit. I’m not Catholic, but I got a case of the woo woos as my fingers moved through the rough fabric. As a second-degree relic that the saint used in life, the apron is considered to be powerful, an item manifesting health and protection to those who touch it. (A first-degree relic would be an actual body or body parts, like hair and fingernails. A third-degree relic is anything that touches a first- or second-degree relic.)
I had just quit my job, a mortal sin, according to my Midwestern upbringing. Instead of feeling ashamed, I was giving space to wonder, the opposite of burnout.
What did it feel like? Less like the “passion” life coaches describe and more like calmly putting my laundry away. Like I had a good meal — not too much or too little.
Other successes don’t belong on a resume.
For example, I baked my first lattice-topped blueberry pie from scratch.
I also visited Yosemite National Park (that’s me hiking in the top photo) with my whole family (not in the shot). After a long two years of uncertainty, we celebrated my parents’ 50th anniversary by savoring a national treasure.
And I took a part-time job in a spectacular corporate setting that demanded an exceptionally long onboarding.
I guess I don’t mind taking a drug test if I’m going to be driving a vehicle or operating heavy machinery. (I wasn’t.) But if I’m part-time and not well paid, why do I need to go out of my way to urinate in a cup that gets temporarily misplaced in a third party’s lab?
My labs were clear, by the way.
My conscience was equally clear when I told my new employer that we weren’t a good fit for each other. Turning something down felt good. And recruiters could concentrate on finding someone who was a good fit.
I wish I could put that on the skills section of my resume, but how would I craft those bullet points? Let me try.
Skills
Not desperate
Thrives around clear communicators and effective leadership
Strong instincts for distinguishing a toxic work environment from a healthy one
Willing to walk away from bad situations
Career counselors say the best way to find a job is when you already have one. I agree. But during the Summer of the Great Resignation, I gained confidence by quitting. While I do bite my nails over the future, I’ve watched myself be flexible and resourceful. A lot of people appreciate these qualities and can pay me for them. For that, I feel gratitude.
I’m different than I was a decade ago, at the end of the Great Recession when I was willing to take any kind of work. I can’t wait to find my next long-term adventure. But I value my exploration, including false starts and side hustles.
Quitting helped me lay foundations for the next phase of my career life. I can’t get there without going here first.