To Be or Not To Be.....

Well, today I made the “big” decision. It’s coming up next week on six months that I’ve been “retired”. Six long, boring, generally unproductive months that took me through the end of Autumn, the Christmas Holidays, Winter, the end of Football season (through a miracle or two, the Eagles kept it going longer than most people, including myself, expected), early Spring, the Easter Holidays, and now the start of Baseball season. I guess I could add in the Basketball and Hockey seasons, but most people in this area don’t get too excited anymore about Basketball and Hockey, even though both the Sixers and the Flyers each made a brief playoff run.

During that time, I catapulted hundreds and hundreds of resumes and cover letters into cyber-space, made dozens of phone calls, renewed old contacts and made some new ones, and, had one interview. Santa Clause, it seemed, made a bigger blip on the radar screens flying across space than did my resumes. Or, to quote from, and agree with, a letter from a former colleague (also unemployed) which was recently published in Fortune magazine: “There have been more sightings of Bigfoot, than reports of a successful job search”.

Not to sound too dejected. It wasn’t all bad. I knew with the economy as it was / is, it was going to take time to find a job. I did have some fun and good quality time, which I most probably wouldn’t have otherwise had, with family and friends during the Holidays. I was also able to greatly help out with a serious family illness. And, I was finally able to satisfy a life long dream of sorts to do some “broadcasting” by volunteering to record books for the Blind. My voice may not have been heard round the world, but I was sitting in a professional recording booth, speaking and recording. That experience, and some of the really interesting people I met doing it, helped keep me a little sane. Of course, too, there is this blog, which I started, and which, probably like my resumes and cover letters, isn’t making a big impact, but I’m enjoying writing it.

So, getting back to my “big” decision. As I wrote in an earlier post, I was seriously thinking about dusting off and re-activating my Real Estate licenses. I had studied and gotten them about 6 years ago when I was initially thinking of a career change, and while I didn’t do much with them then, always kept them active just in case for the future. Well, I finally decided, the future is now!

Over the past 2 weeks I interviewed with several Brokers to get a feel for the business, their offices, my potential with them, and the type of training and assistance that they would provide to help get me started and hopefully productive. Since Real Estate Brokers have very little real outlay for their agents other than desk space and some business cards, they were all very receptive to talk to me and even “hire” me. Afterall, if I sell a property they get half of the commission, and if I don’t, they’re not paying me a salary, so all they have lost is part of a desk and some business cards.

Today, I made the decision, and picked a Broker, Weichert Realty in Yardley, about 7 minutes from my house. I liked the office and the personality of the manager, and from what we talked about and from my research of the company, which has a presence in 42 states, they can provide me with the tools, support and leads to help me be a success, or at least sell some houses.

It was a big decision. I’m both excited and scared. I’m excited because it is potentially a big new career. I’m scared because it is potentially a big new career and I had tried it briefly before and wasn’t real successful. But, I realized, that while the weather is getting nicer and both my bike and golf clubs are cleaned and ready to go, I couldn’t keep sitting around beating the bushes and cyber-space for jobs that didn’t seem to be there right now. This will at least get me out there “working” with a real potential at a career and at making some money, and even expanding my network.