Skill-Polishing (it's like shoe-shining) Pt. 1

Honing your existing skills can be a very lucrative endeavor as well as a time for personal enrichment. I've recently found that my love for languages & music could be making me money, if only I were more confident & they were more polished.

My under-employed status occasionally frustrates me to the point of The Craigslist Search. I have honed The Search to a systematic quest for jobs that I am qualified. The Search usually leaves me feeling un-employ-able. No, I do not have 3+ years of experience as an Administrative Assistant. And I am not available every weeknight and weekend to start as a waitress. The two key components of getting a job are experience & availability. I am limited in both.
Occasionally, however, I'll find a posting that I am almost qualified for. It is bittersweet: there is a job that I could nearly do but am not quite confident enough to apply for it. Recently, these jobs have been short-term or one-time gigs, but even such transient employment is a start toward paying those mountains of debt! These small opportunities have inspired me to write about tailoring & honing the skills you already have to make them viable sources for income. I'll choose my two skills & passions: languages & music. In this post, I'll talk about my experience with the first of those two.


I am fairly proficient in Italian & therefore was excited to see an ad for an Italian translator. As I read the write-up, however, I became less confident in my ability to fulfill the wants of the client, who was mainly interested in using an Italian translator for business correspondence with an Italian business. She wanted a person who would be able to write professional e-mails to an Italian company. This is where I come up short: my Italian is restricted to the vocabulary I learned in 11th grade while living in Italy. I do not call myself fluent because I am sure I do not know the -___ words that qualify a speaker as fluent. I have no concrete way to measure my vocabulary, but I doubt that I could conduct respectable & professional correspondence in Italians. My optimism for this job diminished as quickly as it had risen.

But, who's to say that I will not have that fluency in the future? After seeing this post, it made me aware of the fact that my deep but dormant interest in becoming a more capable Italian speaker needed to be galvanized by this job posting. As such, I've resolved to resume studying Italian, with a particular focus on gaining vocabulary. With some hard work, the next time I see such an ad I'll confidently click "reply" (or cut & paste the address, as is the case with Craigslist) & extol the virtues of my linguistic proficiency!

I'm sure you have similar interests that are dusty from disuse. What can you do about it? Perhaps you're like my aunt who loves to paint rooms in her house. If you could use the extra cash, take that show on the road! Or maybe you've always loved writing short pieces? I'll be the local newspaper needs some freelance writers. There are opportunities for supplemental work & my bet is that the change of pace is more likely to invigorate you than tire you out!

Pt. 2 of this post will focus on the ways I'm working (that's present tense, not future!) to expand my guitar (et al.) repertoire to be available for one-time & short notice gigs in the future!

Occasionally & Unpredictably Employed

I just got home from a frustrating day of working/not-working. (The not-working was what made it frustrating.) When I walked through the door, I began typing frenetically. Even though I have not attended to this blog for some time, its initial mission is a constant thread in my life: to live life fully but also frugally. I’ll provide a little explanation of why I am once again empowered to live thus:

I have created a new demographic to aptly describe my status: occasionally & unpredictably employed. Over the last six weeks, I have been on the roller coaster entitled “The Job Search.” I thought I had disembarked last week but today I rounded the bend to see that my future could hold another period of unemployment. I am “working” as a behavioral aide for an autistic boy. I was just alerted that, while I was assigned to this position last week, apparently somebody else has been promised the position for the last 6 months. If they cannot relocate her, I will be reassigned to another case. Read: my day-to-day working hours will be put on hold while I wait by the phone to hear if I have a new situation to walk into. In this field, you cannot walk from job to job seamlessly. Each new assignment means an entirely new learning curve due to the fact that autism is unique in each person on the spectrum. For instance, I was previously working with a boy whose main impairment was in his social skills while another client is barely verbal. Enough about my job. That’s not what you want to read; it’s also not what I want to write.

The big question is: what am I doing about this situation?

In the beginning, this blog was devoted to frugality & ingenuity. It still will be but it will also take the shape of a self-help page for myself. Writing is a form of therapy for many & it will also be a way for me to organize, regroup, and direct my energy. From now on, I will continue to suggest projects to do for the conscientious frugaler (made up words rule.); I will also suggest ways for the “occasionally & unpredictably employed” citizens to refocus their energy into productive & mildly lucrative areas.

To get my blog flowing again, I’ve brainstormed about what it takes to regroup during frustrating times. The virtues of the occasionally & unpredictably employed lifestyle are:

1. Habits: maintain some sort of schedule.

2. Diligence: follow-up thoroughly on each aspect of your life. (Don’t let things slide through the cracks.)

3. Inspiration: be creative about ways to earn the green stuff.

4. Crafty-ness: be creative about ways to not use the green stuff!

5. Productivity: even if you’re not earning a paycheck, remember that your time is valuable. Spend time in a productive way so you can be energized by your yield.

I’ll spend a blog entry on each of these topics & I am sure there are other virtues that I will come to. What would you add to my list?