From Jobless to Job Bliss

I had a profound realization today: I love my job.

I guess you could say that I've known this for some time, but today was just one of those days where I found myself engaged in exactly the kind of work I had hoped for upon graduation. While in school, I had a tough time articulating exactly what I wanted to do, but could easily recite a lengthy list of things I knew I didn't want to do.

Even though I didn't know what I wanted to be or precisely what I wanted to do, I had ideas about how I wanted to spend my days. Basically, I wanted to use my brain in some capacity, I wanted to conduct education and outreach in the community, I wanted my work to be relationship-focused, and I generally wanted to work towards putting a meaningful dent in a problem that affects individuals and communities. I currently find myself doing those things in my day-to-day, and I've gotta say, I feel quite satisfied.

As you may know, I am a volunteer coordinator for a Medicare fraud prevention education program. The program utilizes seniors to teach other seniors about Medicare fraud, and it is my job to find those senior volunteers, train them, and then find venues for them to go out and share the message of fraud prevention with their peers. One really great aspect of our program is that it's federally funded while also being relatively grassroots in nature, so we have quite a bit of autonomy in terms of how we choose to meet our goals. While there are best practices, there is no mandated or prescribed formula that we must follow. As long as we have an active volunteer force statewide and are reaching certain numbers of folks via presentations, community events and media placements, we're good. I'm generalizing, yes- but you get the point.

On any given day, I can be out in the community educating folks about fraud and our program; I can be creating new marketing materials; I can be recruiting and training new volunteers; I can be handling fraud cases that come in to our office; I can be creating new partnerships with other organizations; I can be writing press releases and articles; I can be developing new trainings, etc. Each day is different, and each day is challenging and rewarding in its own way.

Today I went out to speak to a group of professionals and community leaders of a particular ethnic and cultural background to tell them about our program; to offer programming to their clients, residents, constituents, etc., and to ask for their help in growing our program in their communities throughout Philadelphia. When I've gone out and done these things in the past, people are usually interested, engaged, and talk about partnering in the future while we exchange business cards and make promises to email each other at a later time. Today, people approached me right away and asked me to come to their agency after the meeting. I met one incredibly passionate community leader who took me to his agency where we met with four other people, and within 30 minutes we set up an action plan for not only bringing the message of fraud prevention into this particular community, but we also identified potential bilingual volunteers and even discussed a current, potentially fraudulent case. Wow.

Now this is what I'm talking about; we went from education to action in the course of an hour, and we set in motion something that could potentially expose fraudulent activity. We built relationships and forged new partnerships that will hopefully put a dent in a major social problem. Yes, this is what I wanted; this is why I went to school. And the icing on this goodness cake? I have some seriously awesome colleagues whom I admire, respect, and genuinely enjoy being around, whether we're engaged in some serious silliness or some silly seriousness.

Anyway, I'm just feeling all sorts of grateful for my job and for the people who make my days what they are. I think we tend to give a lot of energy to dissecting and analyzing what's wrong with our lives and what's lacking; I just wanted to give a shout out to what's right in my life, and to give thanks.

So, thanks job. You rock.

Love,
Jen