Some promising news on the job front lately, which has given me hope. There are a couple of opportunities for jobs allowing me to work remotely, which is my main criteria (aside from that holy grail of a job in my field within commuting distance).
I recently had two different agencies put me up for a very good UI Design/Information Architect position for a very large, stable company. Perfect, aside from the fact that I would have an hour and a half on the train each way, plus a 15 minute cabride after that…it would cost more per month than our mortgage, just for travelling costs, and I’d be getting home at 9:00 at night. You know that you are in a desperate situation when you seriously consider positions like that. :/ But in the end, I decided against it.
Another option, of course, is taking a “regular job” locally. Something at a third of my salary that would allow us to get back on our feet. That really, really scares me, though – at my age and career stage, once you get off the ladder, it’s quite difficult to get back on. It’s ok if you are just starting, kids do it all the time. If I did it, I don’t think I’d be able to come back from it. It’s hard enough 1) being female, and 2) being much older than any of the teams that I work with. That’s enough of a handicap without stepping off and doing a crap job for six months or a year.
In the meantime, we scramble for anything that we can…