Week 61: 1965 Austin Mini Van

Marking one-year since losing my paying job, this week's Daddy's Tiny Cars is a tribute to paying employment, a 1965 Austin Mini Van with Royal Couriers on the side. While it has only been a year since losing that paycheck, it feels like it has been since 1965.

Now don't get me wrong: I have not been lounging about, bunny-slippered feet on the ottoman, watching daytime television (and by being unable to name any daytime TV titles I hope you believe me) -- in fact I have worked on a variety of very challenging projects. I simply have not been compensated for them.

Call them pro bono, volunteer, experience-building, projects of passion, or just plain unpaid (I use different terms depending on the audience -- pro bono sounds so much punchier than free in a job interview), these assignments have challenged me not only to learn new skills quickly but also to face my identity in regards to employment.

What I mean by this is that once away from the doughnut on a stick of a paycheck-and-benefits package (I like doughnut better than carrot even if that ignores that the original metaphor was for a horse or mule), what I do is driven by internal motivations. In other words, there are less have-tos. Even though volunteer work may boost my marketability to an employer, that connection is so nebulous and far-off as to be almost negligent as a motivator. Perhaps the resume-building factor might come into play while considering undertaking a project, but once involved, not so much. Even this blog can falls under that category -- 61 weeks of regular weekly posts -- trust me I'm not doing it because I think it might land me a job.

Other unpaid jobs include being the financial secretary and voting member of the board for East Shore Unitarian Universalist.  I'm a words guy, so pouring over financials was new to me. The work of a financial secretary is tedious, time consuming, sometimes confusing and often frustrating, and required learning a clunky software program (I kid you not it is called PowerChurch). Board work can be email and meeting intensive.

I have learned much about both my working self and personal self (if there truly is a difference) from these experiences, and I can never hide behind the idea that I'm doing it for the paycheck. This, I feel, is a very good thing. There is an honesty and inner-reflection built into these experiences that has forced me to better see myself and my relationship to work and motivation, particularly when doing the not-so-fun stuff.

That said, at this one year anniversary of parting from paid employment, I would really like some cash. While I have had a couple of absolutely amazing job interviews over the past few weeks, I have not yet landed a job, so if you are reading this and have a job lead, let me know, particularly if it involves tiny cars. (You can reach me at luckwitz (at) gmail.com.

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Holiday Gift Ideas:


Another project of mine is an online vintage store on Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/Nickadizzy. Please consider doing some holiday shopping here for some odd yet awesome gifts including a collection of mid century / West German art pottery. I'm sorry to say I have unfortunately already sold the stuffed piranha.


Photo of Austin courtesy of Phil Pekarcik, who, like me, is uncompensated in this venture yet continues to deliver the coolest tiny car pics on the planet.