Some people told me that interviewing for jobs is like going on a string of dates. Considering I went to a college that Rolling Stone magazine publicly panned for having an abysmal dating culture, I was uncomfortable making such a comparison.

After sending a few emails that I deemed as life critically urgent and not hearing a response right away, it clicked. Job searching IS like 2009 dating… or something like that. (PS - those “life critically urgent” emails contained a resume and a question as to hiring timetables). My generation went to college with the text message — a simple device that has revolutionized dating, but has also made us the generation most obsessed with instant gratification. You send a text to a friend to grab lunch in the student center, chances are they’ll respond even if they’re in class. You send that Thursday night 1:30am “What are you up to? Want to watch a movie?” text to your gentleman companion (I know you all know the text in question), and the response, or non response, declared the status of your relationship.

We also were the first generation to graduate smart phones in hand. I watched as members of the Duke Class of 2009 live tweeted their graduation ceremony, where Oprah spoke. Really? Live tweeting graduation? We were a generation to tote lightweight laptops to class, and we checked our email about once every five minutes. And we’re a generation who just can’t fathom job searching without the Internet.

In the world where the 13 year old ahead of me at Jamba Juice has a more impressive smartphone than I, I know everyone receiving my resume is getting it on their Blackberry, their desktop mail, their assistant’s desktop mail. Not getting a quick response honestly gives me agita…

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“O When the saints go marching in!” The old-time gospel song provides assurance to the faith-filled of a Hereafter. It’s the place they want to be.

Did you know you can pray to the saints for a job? In fact, you may also not know it but there are patron saints dedicated specifically to that purpose. Usually, there is some outstanding thing they did during their mortal lives that cast them into the light of miraculous when it comes to employment and job seeking.

The patron saints are those “chosen” and named by the Catholic Church because they are highly evolved souls and have given meaning to suffering—while casting a few miracles here and there! I like to call them “saints-to-get” (as in get a job).

The definition of patron saint is as follows:   
n.  A saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven for a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person.*

Saints are known for their abilities to intercede with universal forces of the physical world.

The first saint that pops into mind is St. Jude because while he’s not denoted specifically to work, he is the patron saint of impossible causes and hopeless cases. While we don’t want to think of our circumstances as hopeless, the longer work eludes us, we might be inclined to feel that way! Since it’s not easy to find a job these days…hmmm…makes you wonder.

Whatever gets you through the dark night of joblessness.

The Patriarchal saint of work is St. Joseph, The Carpenter and Foster Father of Jesus of Nazarath. St. Joseph is remembered on several days of the year in his fatherly role but also on May 1st for his skills and hard work. Homeowners rely on St. Joseph to sell their homes. I’m sure he has strengths and skills in helping obtain employment as well!

St. Cajetan, an little-known Italian saint, is a patron of the unemployed or those seeking a job and also for those who struggle financially. Born in 1480 he had a big heart and founded a bank in compassion of those who struggled financially, and in doing so, offered an alternative to loan sharks. His bank later became the Bank of Naples. We sure could use his intercession today. St. Catejan is big in Argentina where he is worshipped as the Patron of Work (Spanish: Patron del trabajo.) His feast day is August 7^th.

St. Xenia of Petersburg was another advocate for and friend to the working person. She was known to help cemetery workmen by carrying bricks up to a scaffold of a church that later became the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. She waited until dark so no one would see her—until someone discovered her in the selfless and anonymous, loving act. Her feast day is January 6^th or 24^th, according to whichever source you subscribe.

There are other saints who recognized the importance of work for human dignity and they all had something in common: a deep devotion to God, a power higher than themselves. They all made great sacrifices so others would come to know love, light and peace, especially those who suffered some material hardship or that of mind, body and spirit. These spiritual champions gave untold kindnesses so others would thrive and flourish—always at their own expense. Many were not given credit due until after their deaths. The Holy Catholic Church canonized them for their extraordinary lives of hardship and blessings to others.

Finally, my favorite patron saint of work is St. John of Kanty, a Polish bishop who came upon hard times and scorn and misunderstanding…

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If you’re contemplating a career move from finance to non profit you have chosen a perfect complement to one another on the giant chess board of work. What interesting bedfellows the world of finance and do-good cause endeavors are! No doubt the finance arenas are “gotta-get” while non profit charitable circle are give.

They seem to be two different worlds. Can East meet West? Will the lion lay with the lamb? Can you serve two masters?

You bet you can. In fact, you can probably do it exceptionally well. Think about it. On the surface the two worlds seem so different as if they would collide. But look closer and you’ll see that non profit has business elements and deadlines. Non profit needs grants as much as Wall Street needs its stock market. And sometimes the pressures are the same, despite the different tactics to achieve their goals.

It is common among laid off financial professionals to feel that other industries, especially the world of non profit, have common fears, misconceptions and prejudices about how personalities honed in one will bode in the other. At first glance, non profit seems laid back and things are slower. Grants take a while to be granted after a lengthy proposal process. If the non profit is government-funded, procedures take even longer. But you’re no stranger to following up and keeping after money matters to survive. If non profits do not fundraise, they do not receive enough donations to survive. If they do not meet proposal and grant writing deadlines and compete for them, they do not survive. Really then, how different are the two fields? Who knows that better than a finance tycoon? Ironically, in many ways, they both speak the same language. And whether you like the idea or not, they are both businesses subject to the same struggles to survive and economic downturns simultaneously.

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Initially I had planned to write about how I found my new job just in time for the holidays, and that I would truly have something to be thankful for. Unfortunately that did not happen so I had to change the subject of this week’s writing. One thing that those who in between jobs are constantly reminded of is the importance of keeping a positive attitude. I have found, however that the hardest time of the year to keep a positive attitude is that time period from the third week of November to the end of December. Perhaps the thought of gift giving when you are trying to make ends meet has something to do with this.

This morning I received an e-mail from Monster.com warning that, although they try very hard to insure that all their job offers are legitimate, they have noted that employment scams may find their way onto their website. If you are interested, the contents of the e-mail I received can be found by pasting the following link onto your browser:

http://media.monster.com/cm_images/xmonnamktx/adhoc/security/091119_US_SecurityAlert_hosted2.html

The e-mail, though critically important (and I recommend it as required reading) did not do much to foster the positive altitude I need to have for the upcoming interview this week. As a result, I began to ask myself, what was I doing this time last year?

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I remember sitting for lunch with some job hunting friends back in September or October, just before I left my last position. We were all discussing our job hunt, which, at the time, felt more daunting then ever.

We had been asking each other if anyone else was noticing a dwindling number of positions posted, which was something none of us were expecting to see. Eventually, someone looked at a calendar and pointed out a “Truth Of The Job Market,” one which, a few months later, I feel might be inaccurate.

Someone said, “You know, we have to get interviews in before Thanksgiving, because no one will hire us until 2010 if we don’t.”

Thinking about the amount of time that goes between the fourth Thursday in November, or really the third Thursday in November because if you follow their logic, who’ll be around to interview and hire Thanksgiving week, and the first work day in January 2010, this was a chilling thought. I don’t know how true that is, and since I wasn’t entirely sure then, I moved forward with reckless abandon in my job hunt. I didn’t treat a day as “two days before Thanksgiving” or “three weeks before Christmas,” I treated it as any old Tuesday.

I’d follow my job seeking agenda: make my to do list for the following day during Gossip Girl, watch some news before bed, and wake up ready to start the “work day” at normal “work day starting times.” I’m a big believer in optimism and positive thinking, and WHY would I tell myself, “Based on the day and month, you’re not getting a job. Time is stacked against you” before I even set down with my computer to search and send out my resume. I don’t believe in that, and I refused to let that job seeking myth impact my Holiday time job seeking mentality.

I knew my industry has been plagued with hiring freezes, is dominated by internal hires and essentially shuts down during the week between Christmas and New Years, so I knew, realistically, I had less days to get my name out there than I would have liked. The thing about me, though, is that I don’t shy away from a challenge. In fact, it actually energizes me.

By treating late November and December as “just any other day,” I’ve found the best reasons to be optimistic in my entire job seeking history. This time last year, people were worried about just how bad the recession and job market would get. Companies didn’t know whether they’d weather the storm, let alone when they’d be able to hire again. This year, it seems to be a totally different mentality.

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I live in New York City and I am currently unemployed. In the last couple weeks since my arrival in the city, I have organized a small advisory board consisting of close friends and their contacts, recruiters, temp agencies, my wide array of stations on Pandora to keep me sane and oh so kind strangers I have met along the way. While I am able to sustain myself for the time being, mission #1 is to get ANY job so I do not fall victim to severe malnourishment and/or acute spaghetti poisoning. While on the hunt for temporary part-time employment as well as enjoying my daily people and squirrel watching, I incredibly had just enough time to come up with My Five Job Search Commandments During a Time of Perceived Armageddon (said with booming voice):

1. Eat generous servings of humble (pizza) pie – I recently read a story about a man who lost his job as a manager of a restaurant and in order to support his family he took a job delivering pizza for Dominoes. He fell into a brief period of depression at his current position in life, but eventually was offered a full-time job in which he was able to better provide for his family. I continually remind myself that no one can ever take away from me what I have already accomplished and many successful people have had to roll their sleeves up and bite the pride bullet. Pizza is also very tasty in New York and it’s fun to dance during consumption.

2. Believe in yourself or no one else will – Ok it sucks not having a job and it sucks even more when someone asks you what you do for a living. I used to hate answering this dreaded question, but you soon realize the importance of utilizing this moment to market thyself. If there was ever a time to show some confidence in your skill set, this is it. And shit, if anything you might get a number from a beautiful woman who salivates over bone-crunching, crack back hits during a football game or a striking man who knows how to spell commitment and has yet to remove The Notebook from his DVD player. Accept your temporary situation and put on your happy face because, in the end, it will be one less day you have to answer that question.

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