Deal Breakers

Inspired by a recent list from Social Worker Mom I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my “deal-breakers” in my eternal ongoing job search. They have modified slightly over time, but my goals have remained generally the same for a couple years. Am I being to picky, unrealistic or ambitious? I don’t know, but any jobs I look at must:


1. Be somewhat local to me.

2. Offer regular working hours – I can do the occasional evening or weekend, but not shifts. AM works irregular hours already, so one of us has to be home with the kiddo.

3. Offer pay, benefits and holidays comparable or better than my current job (decent where I am, one of the reasons I haven’t left yet)

4. Not require a vehicle. I hate driving, and am not a fan of taking clients in my car (which I do now).

Besides that, area of focus is important. I’d like to work in a women-focused service, preferably a feminist organization. I’m also interested in trauma and healthy sexuality, and keep trying to increase my experience in these areas but it seems like most of these type of jobs want nurses. I have no desire to go back to school for nursing!

The other main challenges for me are that many women-focused jobs are in shelters, which 9 times out of 10 means shift work (see item #2) or are immigrant based services requiring language skills I do not have. My French is pretty good, but it’s not an in-demand language around here. Maybe I need to suck it up and learn Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu or Mandarin. Or just be patient.