One year of full time work

 So I've been working for a little over a year now.  At this point almost 3/4 from the desk hiding in my bedroom.  

In my dream job I’d make a million dollars a year just exercising and helping people all day. In my second dream job I’d work as a project assistant for the proposal development unit at NC State University. I just can’t get over how kind and encouraging and wonderful they are and how much I'm learning.

The director likes to point out on occasion that I came in a “little cold”  - no kidding! I hadn't worked full time in almost 20 years. He says that before showering me with praise at my performance reviews even though I still regularly make mistakes or run into projects that I have no idea how to do. 

I work mostly with four proposal developers.  (Three with PhD's and one with a Masters degree - they are incredibly bright and very humble) Here in no particular order interesting projects and kind co-workers:

I think my favorite project of the last year is being on the hiring committee with Matt and Molly. We’ve hired two proposal developers and still need to replace one proposal developer who retired and a proposal specialist who was promoted. I love reviewing resumes and cover letters and seeing what makes people hirable.  I love interviewing candidates and follow up meetings to discuss interviews.  Matt and Molly always have amazing insight into what we should be looking for. 

Carla is working on a big proposal and needed to review a bunch of proposal abstracts as background research. She asked if I could help her, “maybe we could each do half,” she said. "Sure," I said, and we split the list down the middle and slowly worked our way through together filling up a shared spreadsheet with highlights. Then I reached out to some principal investigators from some of the successful  proposals, set up meetings and got to participate in the conversations with amazing faculty at Rutgers and Ohio State as we tried to gather information for the proposal. One mentor for the proposal was the president of the research company that invented SIRI. And when I log into meetings I can say “Hey Curt!”  I get to talk with and listen to some of the most interesting people!  I also helped Carla with a bunch of faculty focus groups and then some discussions with dozens of department heads. She would welcome people out and then I would ask questions while she took notes. Baptism by fire! 

Before Patrick agreed to take on a proposal he asked me about my current work load. He wanted to make sure I had space in my schedule before he offered the professor help with supplemental docs.  I don't know that anyone ever in my 20 year stay at home mom job ever cared about my workload.  It just feels so unbelievably kind to care about how busy I am.

Matt is always just super kind, he asks me for help so cautiously and I always laugh and remind him that he hired me to help. It’s my job! One day we were just chatting about a candidate that we were thinking about screening. He was totally on the fence and asked me, "What do you think we should do?"  He's a Ph.D in Engineering, 40 published papers, 1 patent, decades of industry work and high level hiring experience and he values my opinion.  (I did not start my response with a mention that I spent the past 2 decades changing diapers and hanging out a playgrounds, but I certainly could have)

Molly is amazing. Smartest person I know and dying to teach me everything my brain has space for. I was working with some data on an excel spread sheet and she said,  "you need to use pivot tables". Of course I know nothing about that so she has patiently taught me and then answered all my questions and then taught me again and again.  I help Molly with all the logistics for her webinars/workshops. She brings the expertise and the killer slide presentation and I make registration forms, do on campus advertising, update web pages, track registrations, make sure all attendees know the right time and place, help her manage questions during the presentation, follow up with attendance numbers and recordings online and evaluation info. We make a good team.  We are also working together with the web designer to update our team web pages. I’ve loved designing mock ups and making plans together.  The occasional thank you email copying my boss is the cherry on the top.

My mom and I like to laugh that I would totally work just for the compliments! Tyrone isn’t exactly known for effusive praise and this opportunity fills a deep longing to feel needed and appreciated and liked!    

I was in the office for a few hours last week. (We will slowly start heading back- about two days a month right now) And I felt such confidence walking up the stairs and sitting down at my desk. When we left a year ago I was still so new and unsure but now I return significantly more capable and certain about my responsibilities and my ability. I’m really grateful that I got to do a year of growing up on the job in the safety and security of my home and I look forward to getting back to the office!! 

PS:  Also I did a year of at home work with five kids all in various stages of homeschool, work, cooking and causing general disarray in my house - including a 7 year old who spent a big chunk of each day sitting next to me at my desk doing school.  Giving myself a big pat on the back for surviving that!