Between a Rock and a Time Piece

IF you're lucky like I was, your former employer will give you an advisor as part of the severance package. This person will be a practical professional who will guide you through the process of a job search. This can be a fleeting association or long relationship depending on the length of your severance package. It can also be a life line if you have not made any connections in the job market for a long time.

There are two general philosophies of job hunting in today's marketplace. One says networking is the primary focus. The other suggests an ever expanding contact process on the Internet hiring sites and specific company websites. Get on the merry go round and ride it until an employer picks you off. The first focuses on human contacts at the highest levels possible, the second focuses on volume contacts in venues many employers go to hire. They both take time, in this economy lots of time.

Either way you go, you need to know yourself first. Job loss is new territory psychologically. First, its a no fault situation. Whether you could have prevented it or not, performed better or not, been more valuable or not, its all in the past. Focus on finding a past time you enjoy. You now have enough spare time to take an emotional rest every day. Second, find an activity to get you out of the house each day. A volunteer effort, a service organization of some kind. Regular activity and the regular requirement of keeping an appointment sharpen or maintain the discipline required on the job.

In terms of time that leaves the job search itself. Whatever path you pursue, make regular appointments with people. Whether its headhunters, networking contacts, job fairs, keep getting connecting with people. Practice speaking to others. These efforts are similar to an interview. You stay in a comfort zone with people so the interview will not be a shock when it comes.

Searching for a job is as much about inside your head as whats on your resume. Getting in to the interview is a step, getting through it and out of it with a job envolves skills you have always had. Keeping them sharp for when you need them is a lot like keeping a fine time piece working, constant care and attention.

Arizona's Idea

The House of Representatives of Arizona has a novel idea. Let's copy the U.S. constitution. Let's not waste our time drafting, debating, editing, debating again, adjourning for a holiday, recessing, campaigning, then going home to hodl town hall meetings to here why the voters elected him or her, then reconvening and voting, ad nauseum. Let's just take one simple idea written in the 18th century and put it ours. What's the idea? In order to serve as President you must be an American citizen.

What does the United States Constitution say? Article 2, section 1 states, "No person except a natural born citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States." In order to serve as President, you must be an American citizen. The Constitution does not prescribe how to prove such citizenship, nor who must judge such proof to be adequate.

The Arizona House has proposed the obvious solution. Require anyone entering the state's Presidential primary to show up with a valid birth certificate. Only with that proof can the Presidential hopeful be certified as a candidate. If not, under the state law propossed, he or she would be allowed on the ballot and also would be deprived of Arizona's delegates to any party convention. Presumably this would apply to any electoral votes the state has in the national election.

Why is this important at this stage of the O'bama presidency? Do we really want to go through the "after birther mess"? O'Bama's situation has shone a light on an omission. Up to this point, no official process to prove citizenship for Presidential candidates has been established. That has always been assumed. Since the consitution is silent on the process, it must fall to the states to fill the gap.

Arizona's solution is really the only practical way to go about plugging this hole. You simply can't run without proof. It should provide for consequences if citizenship documents are found to be fraudulent. Withholding electoral votes earned in the national election or delegate votes from primaries earned in should be part of that.