considering a run at a "promotion" - 2 readings to untangle it all

[yinwithjim]

I left full-time work in 1999 due to illness. I went back to school at one point for a new more rewarding career after my health improved. And as happens, time flies, life happens, pandemics happen, and we age, and here I am still existing and working part-time and doing some dog walking on the side. My health is good and doc has said since before COVID that if I felt like trying full-time work again to go ahead. My part-time job for the last 3 years has been in retail for a very large retail chain. I've done well and am well liked. Unfortunately any type of full-time position where I am right now wouldn't keep the rent paid and lights on. A job at corporate headquarters has opened up that is full-time and my resume prior to 1999 fits the position really good. Sure I have been away from that kind of work for a while and I am no spring chicken anymore, but, having worked in the trenches for this company for 3 years gives me a leg up on knowing how the company works. I've thought about applying for the job and wondered as I often do about what life would be like for me in this new role, and then even deeper, i wanted a deeper understanding about my wanting to go to work full-time for this company. So off to Yi I went.

q1 - What if I tried full-time work at the company as an analyst? Yi responded with 61 UC.

Reading the unchanging hexagram threads I found myself relating to many of the posts regarding INNER TRUTH. My take about 61 in this situation is similar to others - the answer is inside of me and that i already know the truth. That said, I wondered, as I always do, what really was behind all of this and if my interpretation of 61 uc as favorable, as in, "yep you know this is a good thing" isn't what i want to hear vs what i need to hear. So off to Yi I went again.

q2 - What do I need to understand about my wanting to go to work full-time at corporate headquarters? Yi responded with 22 UC.

Grace. A word I hear a lot, probably used too much, and really don't know what it means or how I "feel" that word.

I have to admit that I don't know what to really think about 22uc in this situation after reading everything i could about experiences with 22 uc.

At first I saw 22uc as Grace has success. In small matters it is favorable to undertake something. But as I read on I found interpretations relating more to FACADE and ADORNMENT which led me see this reading differently. Am I in fact looking to "adorn my facade" with a better job and salary, to simply look better on the outside? And if so, adornment/ornamentation should be restrained by substantiality.

I find no fault in anyone looking to better themselves by getting promoted or seeking a better job. Am I back to meditation on even deeper issues/questions?

 

[Liselle]

I find no fault in anyone looking to better themselves by getting promoted or seeking a better job.

I don't either!

This is just me, not the readings, but is there any harm in applying if you want to? I'm guessing the worst that could happen is you don't get any response, which would be disappointing but not the end of the world, right?

Unfortunately these are the sorts of unchanging-hexagram readings I have a lot of trouble with. I guess what runs through my head...were you in computers, do I remember that right? Is that what you meant by analyst? If I'm misremembering then ignore this obviously.

If so, I wonder if this might be a tough sell, depending on the job requirements and how well you've kept up with the field. The best of experience from 1999 might not matter much in 2023. Then again, you never know. During the pandemic COBOL programmers were suddenly hot stuff as I recall.

61 generally means truth and confidence and trust and being provided for (the piglets and fishes). Hilary has specifically said about the fishes that it can mean being in the right place at the right time with your fishing nets. So that's all encouraging, but unchangingness can be a force unto itself, a giant question mark...or it could be a very simple one-word answer, "Have confidence!" But also every possible theme of a hexagram won't apply in every situation, so maybe the timing angle is irrelevant to this. I just don't know about the readings.

Another possibility I can dream up, maybe for 22, is adornment as a qualification you could get, dress yourself up in so to speak. If you've become excited about this opportunity, maybe take a cue from that and see if you can bring yourself up to date in some way. Maybe not for this job but for the next time they need someone, or for some other employer. You wouldn't be starting completely from scratch, so maybe it'd be quicker, easier, and less expensive than, say, nursing.

But I'm guessing, I really don't know.

 

[Liselle]

Didn't you post a reading once before about continuing in your prior field? I think I vaguely remember that.

Please could you find it and link to it here? It's important because readings are a conversation - so whatever Yi said to you before is part of the conversation. It might help with understanding these. The readings here might be like coming into a conversation that's already started, so of course they'll be hard to understand.

Also if you ever did readings about resuming your former line of work that you didn't post - could you look and see and maybe post them? (I guess I'm hoping there aren't two dozen...um...if there are, could you at least post the first one or two, as well as linking to any old threads on the subject.)

Thanks.

 

[yinwithjim]

What a journey simply seeing my past posts here in the forum. As far as I can tell @Liselle, from the quotes below I have not asked about going back to my pre-disability career prior to 1999 as a statistical analyst/research analyst. There definitely seems to be a theme in over 95% of my posts - a sense that I am unhappy with my circumstances and considering change. The first quoted post below is about going back to counseling which, in many ways I never really started as a career except for a master's degree in counseling. I wonder now with your post above stating "whatever yi said before is part of the conversation" -- taken this way I of course am wondering what the deeper or most basic question is for me under all of this?

15 years ago I went back to school after 5 years before that leaving a long career due to medical disability. I finished a degree in counseling but never used it. Now, at 59, I'm considering going back to (or actually beginning) a new life as a counselor. I have posted previously about going back again to graduate school to finish a doctorate.

Going Back to School Late in Life

Over 20 years ago I left the workforce due to medical disability. 15 years ago I started a PhD program and quit in the first semester. I haven't done much since besides "exist". Now, as I near my 59th birthday, I want to use my life and education experience to give back to the world? I am...

www.onlineclarity.co.uk

All of this is hard to discern - I'm definitely older, definitely have a big gap in my work history, etc.

My most recent post I asked the opposite - NOT going back to school

letting go of a dream - 59.1.3 changing to 9

I have posted several times with regards to the question I have concerning going back to school (at aged 59) including whether or not my idea of the finances are in line with the endeavor. This morning I decided to ask the opposite, "What if I just forget all about ever going back to school?"...

www.onlineclarity.co.uk

This morning I asked the I Ching, "What would life be like if I go back to counseling?" - receiving 7.2 changing to 2.

Hex 7 - Discipline - makes sense - that I would have to be very focused and intent...line 2 changing - I see as showing that working with others (colleagues) and the people I would work with - and that I need to remember humble

The resultant hexagram 2 - the receptive/magnetic - and the mare - as in following - again following my calling as a counselor and submitting to this life

Am I reading this all appropriately? I know that I tend to "want to find" the "answer/guidance" that "fits to what my ego wants".

Also, my prior readings have focused on going back to school for the doctorate - how would i form an appropriate question about both going back to school and going back to counseling?

For about 2 years now I have worked 2 part-time jobs which at times are more like 2 full-time jobs. One of the jobs which I really love is walking dogs. This morning, walking a pair of dogs I had the thought, which I have had before, what if I just walk dogs? My other job is in retail and at my age, the retail job, on the cement floor, and very early hours, is tough to handle. So, I came in from my dog walk and ask Yi simply..."What about me just walking dogs?"

I received 23.5 changing to 20.

Hexagram 23 according to Legge tells me that is NOT advantageous to make a movement in any direction whatever, while Wilhelm/Baynes agrees with, Splitting Apart - it does not further one to go anywhere.

Is keeping things as they are for now then the best?

Waking gives me another view..."there's old, defunct stuff that needs cutting away" which is hopeful? however immediately after - "it's not good to head in new directions or even to thing about doing so, until that work's complete".

So, I am unsure what to make of this - especially since I tend to read more into the reading than I probably should.

Line 5 changing? string of fishes? as Legge puts it, but then it continues with "in the end there will be no grudge against her.

The resultant hexagram of 20.

Legge tells me "a worshipper who has purified himself but must still present his sacrifice" And the symbol of wind blowing over the earth? Ruler at the top with subjects below? Again my lack of long term use of the I ching has me leaping to me as the ruler and the dogs i walk as the subjects.

Can't say then overall what all this means.

As always, your insights and experience are welcome.

Part of my income is an early morning job that is physically strenuous. While the extra income is always helpful, I leave each shift in pain. In addition getting to and from this job now has become a problem.

My question was "what if I leave xyz job."

I received 23 unchanging. Reviewing WIKIWING I see, "stripping away", and "There's old , defunct stuff that needs cutting away."

I find it is interesting that then I find, "it's not good to head in new directions", and, "23 unchanging is really not the time to be forward-looking"

I have considered what else I might do for a second job - something a little less physical - but I had also thought that at this time, what I really wanted to do was just stop working the second job and let things settle.

23 unchanging - cutting away makes sense - and as it is unchanging - NOT having a set new plan nor ending this job with a new one in the wings seems wise.

Any other ideas?

My ongoing "struggles" with employment continues. I have asked Yi about me leaving my current situation due to the physicality of the position and my aging bones and body --> https://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/friends/index.php?threads/leaving-a-job-23-unchanging.33761/

unsure whether or not I have ever shared this fact - I have lived with a medical condition for the last 30+ years that in 1999 put my on full disability here in the U.S. which means that I receive a monthly SSDI check, but like most, the monthly check does not keep a roof over my head and the lights and heat on. So, I work part-time - able to earn about $1000 per month gross to supplement my SSDI. Part-time service industry work which I currently do provides a fraction of that and it's literally killing me.

My former career entailed data management in the health care industry. One of the "benefits" of the COVID pandemic is that many jobs that required relocation and in-person type of work are now remote. Doing a quick search in LINKEDIN I found a number of positions that are part-time and remote and that I am qualified for.

A question for Yi rose up and I asked - what about me going back to a research data type of job part-time?

I received hexagram 1.3 changing to 10.

The Wilhelm translation gives us, "When an individual draws this oracle, it means that success will come to him from the primal depths of the universe and that everything depends upon his seeking his happiness and that of others in one way only, that is, by perseverance in what is right." - which makes sense - finding a part-time position remote or otherwise where i am "doing good" for the world and it's inhabitants has always been important to me - money or not.

Changing line 3 makes a lot of sense as well - first, the immediate excitement I felt when I saw the various positions my crazy head could very easily become consumed with "what ifs" - and second, the process of actually applying/interviewing and even accepting a position with more responsibility would easily have my mind and soul working overtime.

The resulant hexagram 10 - the wiki wing statement “i’m concerned about missteps, about doing the wrong thing, I need to tread carefully so as not to lose patience and get really ratty” - follows well with this situation and question for me.

Of course trying to "contain my brain" and stay firmly planted on the ground - I wonder - "I'm about to be 60 and have all that I really do I need, so, do I need to proceed?

Have a wonderful day and your comments and insights are always appreciated

 

[Liselle]

Thanks for finding these. I'll have to come back to them later (maybe not today, or even tomorrow...), but one thing I notice is the one where you were having trouble just a year ago with a strenuous part-time job.

Wouldn't that seem to imply nursing wouldn't work? As Trojina has pointed out, most nursing jobs are quite physically demanding.

Unless you know something we don't, which is possible. Of course that still leaves the fact that you wouldn't be eligible to start work for several years yet.

Resuming your prior career - I don't know anything about it, but my knee-jerk guess is to figure statistics itself probably hasn't changed much - math is still math - but the software people use surely has, and maybe how companies use statistics. Analytics and data science or what-have-you (I really don't know the words to use beyond what I notice in passing on the internet) seems to have become much more of a thing since 1999. So you might have to brush up, learn new software, etc. As best as possible, you'd want to go to interviews not sounding like someone who last worked in this 25 years ago, if you see what I mean. Although experience and judgement and such that you might have and a 22-year-old wouldn't - that might be good.

I really don't know. Do you know anyone currently in the field who you could talk it over with? Or maybe ask someone at a company for an informational interview? Maybe a company who doesn't have an opening and/or one you'd never apply to, just so they don't think it's a thinly-veiled "hire me" request.

 

[Liselle]

I'm dithering over whether I would or wouldn't talk to whoever's in charge of the current opening at your own company. I still don't know what to do with 61uc or 22uc so I'm just thinking by myself here, not about the readings.

Options:

• Just apply for the job. If you get an interview, you might get useful information even if you don't get the job. Problem is, if they see your last experience was in 1999, you might not get an interview. Unless you think you could bring yourself up to speed that fast.
• Don't apply for the job, but ask to talk to the manager anyway. Make it clear you're not applying for this job because you're not ready, but you'd like to be prepared if there'd be another one sometime. What would he/she recommend? (Anything from "learn this software" to "get this-or-that sort of experience somehow" to who-knows-what.)
• Some other option.