An Overdue Update on the Dreaded Job Search

I am happy to announce that I will be starting a new job this Thursday!  In the end my dreaded job search was mercifully short, considering the current state of the economy.  The job market here in Juneau is actually quite strong.  If you are willing to work, you can find something to do whether it be in nursing, healthcare, education, accounting, mining, retail, administration, working with people with special needs, hospitality…  If you don’t mind a little rain and would enjoy a small city with a LOT going on I would recommend checking out Juneau (ok, that was my shameless chamber of commerce-esque pitch for Juneau).  I ended up going to four interviews before finding the right fit.  I received a lot of positive feedback from the people who didn’t hire me and even ended up turning down one job offer.  It would be dishonest to imply it wasn’t discouraging at times, but I am pleased with the end result and feel very fortunate.  As I mentioned before, I have a varied background.  In particular, I invested a number of years working on an organic farm (and LOVING it) only to move to one of the few places in the country with zero farming (people here are enthusiastic gardeners, but there is simply not enough flat land for larger scale farms).  I was applying for jobs for which I had very little, if any, experience, but on the whole the interview process was interesting and positive and I met some great, dedicated people in the process.  In the end, I was offered a position with Juneau’s largest employer, the State of Alaska.  I’ll be working for The Department of Fish and Game at their Mark, Tag, and Age Laboratory.  According to their website,

“The goals of the Mark Tag and Age Lab (MTA) are to provide fisheries managers and researchers with timely, current, and historical biological data to help them manage, preserve, protect, and perpetuate Alaska’s fishery resources. The MTA Lab refines and develops diverse methods and means for providing critical data, develops new applications to address management issues and fosters a broad information exchange.”

More specifically, I will be working in the Tag Lab.  For a few photos and a detailed description of what goes on in the Tag Lab, check out their website here.  Basically, the salmon hatcheries insert tiny metal tags into the heads of salmon fry before they are released.  During the salmon fishing season, the heads of salmon that are harvested by the fishing industry are sent to the Tag Lab where their tags are removed and prepared for analysis.  This time of year they are analyzing herring roe and scales in order to make determinations about the herring fishery, as well as doing data entry.  Needless to say, this job will be unlike anything I’ve ever done before.  But I am looking forward to it.  I truly believe the thriving fisheries here in Alaska are one of our country’s greatest natural resources and need our fierce protection.  The State of Alaska has done a great job of managing them and I am excited to be a part of the process, even if that means a summer up to my elbows in fish heads!  The job is considered “permanent seasonal” so I will work through the summer, but most likely be laid off in the fall, depending on the work load.  The ”permanent” part comes in when the job opens up again.  The position will be waiting for me if I want it.  Again, I feel very fortunate and have heard good things about working for the State of Alaska.  Thanks for all of your kind words of encouragement and support throughout this daunting and dreaded task!

Eagle Beach on a Blue-Sky Day

This past Saturday dawned clear with blue skies.  BLUE SKIES.  This is noteworthy in a temperate rainforest, though we have been enjoying good weather all week.  Juneau and Douglas Island are tucked away at the bottom of a fjord,  looking up reveals a narrow strip of sky.  Honestly, it feels a little claustrophobic at times.  But on blue-sky days, a short drive north out of Juneau on the Glacier Highway, past Auke Bay, reveals wider vistas, bigger skies, sunshine, and amazing views of the Chilkat Mountain Range.  One of my favorite places to go on a blue-sky day is Eagle Beach.

 

Looking back at Eagle Beach from a long sand bar.

Ice on the beach.

Vitamin D!

The Eagle River, looking southeast, away from the beach back towards the city of Juneau.

The mouth of the Eagle River, looking northwest back toward Eagle Beach and the Chilkat Mountain Range.

“Avalanche Blocks Thane Road”

From the Juneau Empire this morning:

“Around midnight Wednesday, an avalanche large enough to reach the tide line ripped down the side of Mount Roberts and across Thane Road, blocking all traffic according to a release from the Juneau Police Department.

Since the incident, further investigation into the size of the avalanche was done from the Douglas Boat Harbor. According to a release from the JPD, the avalanche appeared to have come down the chute that is historically most active and the snow and debris had reached the tide line. The depth and width of the avalanche is being determined this morning, Thursday, according to the release.

JPD said that the Alaska Department of Transportation will be responding to clear the area as soon as it is safe to do so.

There have been no reports of persons or property being injured or damaged as a result of the slides.”

A good reminder that despite our best efforts to control, manipulate, blast or nudge the forces of nature into doing our bidding we will inevitably be made fools of. 

 

Avalanche!

Going south out of downtown Juneau, Franklin Street turns into Thane Road and goes on for about six miles before ending.  There are homes and a couple of businesses “out Thane” (as a Juneauite would say).  There is one very avalanche-prone stretch of Thane Road that requires the Department of Transportation to implement control measures on occasion.  After closing and clearing the road, my understanding is that they use a 105mm Howitzer with live ammunition to create an avalanche in a somewhat controlled environment (rather than letting old mother nature decide when she wants to bury Thane).  The snow is then cleared off the road.  (This is a really fun photo of a Howitzer in action.  It’s from the Internet.  I’m sorry to say I didn’t get this close to the action yesterday).  Yesterday was an avalanche control day.  We have a great view of the area from here on Douglas Island.  I trudged down the beach in the rain in order to position myself directly across the channel from the avalanche and capture some photos.  When each shot was fired there was a large Boom! and then a sound like rolling thunder as the it echoed off the mountains, then one more Boom! as the round exploded on the mountainside.  There was a small avalanche at the beginning of the process and then a larger one later on.  There were a number of shots fired that seemed to have no effect.  I was expecting and hoping for one HUGE, very dramatic avalanche, but it was still fun to watch.  When I finally decided I was too cold to stick around any longer, they were still shooting as I walked home.  It’s kind of hard to see in this first photo, but if you look closely you can see the avalanche starting on the top left.

(P.S. As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve changed this blog to a new format.  This is the format I used for North to Alaska and I’ve found that I prefer it.  I’m afraid the switch has made some of the previous posts look a little wonky, but I don’t think I’ll bother fiddling with them.)

Winter Beauty

Please pardon the long absence!  Christmas and New Year’s has come and gone and I hope yours was blessed and filled with family and friends.  We were able to travel home to Minnesota for the holidays and it was wonderful.  Since the last time I posted we have moved into a place of our own, a condo on Douglas Island.  We love it.  It is such a comfort to be surrounded by our own belongings.  When we first discussed this move, we talked about the possibility of renting a fully furnished apartment.  I’m so glad we didn’t!  There is something so reassuring in the familiarity of our own things, whether it be a valued piece of artwork (goodbye Taz!), a beat-up old bookshelf, or a shabby, well-loved blanket.  We are settled in and finally feel that we have “landed” here in Juneau.  The emotional roller coaster of the job search continues for me, but I’m feeling hopeful about a particular lead and hope to have some good news soon.  In the past week we have been buried in snow!  We watched the past month as Anchorage and Prince William Sound to our north and Seattle to our south received a record amount of snow and now it’s apparently our turn.  I went for a long walk around our neighborhood here on Douglas Island today to enjoy the snow.

The view from our balcony…

Near our driveway…
Douglas Island Harbor…
Sandy Beach…
Even ravens like to play in the snow!…

 

 

 

 

The Dreaded Job Search

I don’t know if there is anything more demoralizing than searching for a new job.  If there is a better way to discover the entire myriad of things a person is unqualified to do I have yet to find it.  I will admit that I have yet to settle on a career.  Like all high school and college students I was urged to choose a trajectory at a young age, but the path I have taken has been a bit more meandering.  This makes me barely or slightly under qualified for many things and very qualified for practically nothing.  Last week I had two job interviews.  On the way to the first it dawned on me that I hadn’t been through a real job interview in a couple of years.  Gulp.  I stumbled awkwardly through a long list of standard interview questions I should have been more prepared for and left feeling discouraged.  (The first thing that came to mind when asked, “Where do you see yourself professionally in five years?” was “Oh!  I’d like to have chickens and goats!”)  The second interview went more smoothly after the practice of the first, but the whole process has a way of making a person feel about two inches tall.  I went to both interviews clutching a resume that has my entire adult life boiled down to one page.  I look at the odd collection of jobs I’ve had and I don’t see the straight line, marked with accomplishments, of someone pursuing a profession.  It’s easy to let this rattle my self-confidence, especially when having to explain it to strangers, under the microscope in an interview setting, when I only have 30 minutes to make an impression, to prove my worth.  However, when I look at my resume again, when I really look at it, I see an odd collection, not of jobs, but of life experiences that I wouldn’t trade for anything.  I see dear friends, a million lessons learned, a billion belly laughs, many character-building situations, trips and adventures, and the invaluable and inevitable joys that come from being willing to try something new.  Someday I might finally settle on a career.  Or I might not.  But I will always be willing to work hard and be open to learning.  I have to believe there is greater value in building character, relationships, me as a person, than in building a resume.  So, to all of my fellow current and future job-searchers take heart and keep an open mind.  And if you have to take that job as a potato-sorter to see you through (yes, this summer I dabbled in potato-sorting) give me a call.  I will be here to commiserate.

Taz

I have to admit I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the hotel room lately.  I guess living in a temperate rainforest really does mean it rains all the time.  This, in combination with the fact that it’s dark by 3:30pm and that I’m into a really good book has made the couch incredibly inviting.  I’ve also had quite a bit of time to gaze at this baffling piece of artwork that hangs above the couch and keeps me company:

Isn’t it lovely?  And yes, it’s very stuck to the wall.

Sandy Beach

I visited this aptly named park this morning for a stroll.  It’s on Douglas Island, not far from where we will be living.

A guy with a gun (naturally)…

The tide was rushing in very rapidly.  I took these shots standing in the same place over the course of about a minute.

Giving Thanks

We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day!  We have truly been blessed during our first two weeks here in Juneau.  We have been warmly welcomed into this tight-knit community and have made wonderful new friends already. 

The truck arrived without any problems and we’ve made good use of the four-wheel drive as it hasn’t stopped snowing since we arrived.

 We found a place to live!  After a short search we were put in touch with a friend of a friend (the word-of-mouth network here is a great resource) who is moving south and was looking for renters for her condo.  It will be a perfect arrangement and we were all grateful to have found each other.  It’s a beautiful place on Douglas Island.  Douglas Island is directly west of Juneau, across the Gastineau Channel.  The two communities are connected by a bridge.  This is the view from the front window of our new home.  It is a view of downtown Juneau, looking east from the eastern shore of Douglas Island.  We won’t be able to move in until December 17^th, but we will simply extend our stay at the Juneau Hotel, which is more than adequate and more like a small apartment than a hotel room.

 I successfully cooked my first turkey and made gravy (with a little over-the-phone coaching from my grandma) and we had a simple, but delicious Thanksgiving dinner here at the hotel. 

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have found much to be grateful for as well!

First Impressions

We arrived safely in Juneau Saturday night.  Our flights from Minneapolis to Seattle and then from Seattle to Juneau, with a brief stop in Ketchikan, were long, but uneventful.  Our arrival has coincided with a winter storm!  It snowed all last night and off and on during the day today for a total of 15 inches and it is expected to snow another 10 inches tonight.  Here are a few snapshots from our first two days in Juneau.  There will be more soon as we settle in and begin to fully absorb our new surroundings!

A co-worker of Pierre’s gave us a warm welcome and a tour of Juneau yesterday afternoon.  She has lived in Juneau for 25 years and is a wealth of information.  She patiently answered all of our many questions and we learned a lot about the area – everything from the best place to buy Xtra Tuff boots to which neighborhood sits directly under an avalanche-prone mountainside.  This photo was taken at Mendenhall Glacier.  It’s just barely visible in the background…

A photo of our hotel.  It’s a great place for an extended stay!… 

Shots around town during the snowstorm…

This is a photo of the bridge that connects Juneau (which is on the mainland) with Douglas Island, home to the town of Douglas…

The large building in the background of this photo is the Federal Building where Pierre’s office is located…

Looking south from very near our hotel…