Unemployment Chronicles, Day 30: Plan A

Back just a little while, on Day 27, I mentioned Plans A, B, C, and D for my job search, with D being working at Walmart.  D is what you do when all reasonable plans fail.  Living under a bridge would fall under the D umbrella, and would probably be no worse than Walmart anyway.

But let's talk about Plan A.  I have a tendency to put most of my eggs in one basket, because it seems more efficient than putting lots of enegy into backup plans.  Sometimes that has worked well for me.  Right now is a time that it sort of let me down, but nevermind that.

Plan A, as I wrote previously, is to do some contracting work.  If I can get enough work, this could end up being what I do for a living; if not, it could at least be a chance to buy some time before making any permanent commitments.  These are some benefits to contracting as I see them:

• It's different.  I have been working for companies as an employee for a long time.
• It's a chance to always be doing something new.  I tend to be very interested in projects when I first encounter them, but in time I lose interest.  It would be fun to work on different things.
• It's a short-term commitment.  If something doesn't work out so well, it's only temporary.
• I have a really broad accounting background, so there are lots of different things I can do pretty well.  That might be more useful in consulting than it is working for one company.
• Age discrimination probably isn't as big of a problem.
• It will give me a chance to meet some people and observe different companies.  I need to expnd my network.
• Companies tend to get a little crazy after awhile.  They want loyalty and engagement and constant improvement, but their goal is to do as little as possible for their employees.  The contractor role is much more straightforward:  I do work for you, you pay me.  If you don't think it's worth it, we stop.
• It will likely provide some natural breaks, as it's hard to get contracting work without having some down time.

So that is what I really want to do, and I am working on that plan for now.  This means going through recruiters who provide accounting contractors to businesses.  I contacted a second firm today, as nothing is coming from the first one, and I have at least one other in mind.  Let's see if we can make this work.