my rutland job[s]

Everyone always seems to be talking about the lack of jobs in Rutland or at least the lack of good jobs. I realize I've been blessed with a fairly privileged life and my parents priority was always education. My family and husband have always supported my crazy ideas and overactive imagination, allowing me to follow my dreams in any direction. So, where are all the jobs and why can't millennials seem to find them? I searched long and hard and applied for anything and everything so maybe I just have good luck or good timing? I'm not totally sure but here is my personal experience with finding jobs in Rutland. 

I graduated from Ithaca College a semester early in 2009 with a B.S. in Communications Management and Design (fancy for marketing, leadership and graphic design). Many of my classmates were taking any job they could to pay their student loans, a significant number of them not related to their degree. My husband (then fiance) and I made the move to Rutland in December 2010 after he also applied for jobs in upstate NY that paid anywhere from $15-25k less than the job he had applied for and taken at Rutland Regional Medical Center. People are shocked when they hear that because most assume that every job in NY pays better than in VT but, for Physical Therapy at least, that's far from the truth. RRMC has also provided us with amazing health benefits that we have not seen elsewhere and even comparable to other local businesses they are pretty extraordinary. 

My mom and I at graduation. A slightly terrifying time for college graduates looking for jobs. But I'm determined and when I want something I go for it and I wanted a job using my degree.

But back to me and my marketing degree and a little history. By my sophomore year in college I had decided that I did not want to move to LA and work in entertainment like many of my classmates had. It's a running joke that LA is owned and run by Parkies (what everyone in Ithaca calls students in the Park School of Communcations). After taking many environmental courses and traveling to Copenhagen for the COP15 United Nations Climate Control Conference, I knew I wanted to use my degree and career to make a difference. I attended SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry for a semester of grad school before we left for Vermont but decided that environmental marketing was not the career path I wanted to take. And hello, VT was full of tree huggers so I'd be good!

Ugh, so young! Our first visit to Rutland when Tom interviewed. Having a chicken of wine at Three Tomatoes.

Moving to Vermont I was honestly scared if I'd find a job related to my degree given how small Rutland was in comparison to Utica, Ithaca, Syracuse and Rochester (everywhere I'd ever lived prior). But by mid-February I was working part time as Community Relations Assistant for Rutland Area VNA and Hospice where my boss took me under her wing to make sure I succeeded. I was managing all areas of graphic design, rebranding all marketing collateral and heading a state wide marketing piece with my manager that is still in existence today 5 years later. My boss taught me the ins and outs of not just the VNA but of the community, making sure I was involved and attending everything I needed to. She'd introduce me to everyone as her prodigy letting them know how amazing I was and to keep an eye out for me. When I applied for my job at RAVNAH I had also applied to about 20 others, a few I knew I wasn't qualified for and many I was over qualified for. 

Laura, my boss from RAVNAH who was at my wedding just 8 months after I started working for her. I'm still not sure she understands what an impact she's had on my career and life. And since I know she'll read this - thanks Laura :)

2 years later I took a full time graphic design position at the Mountain Times newspaper in Killington. As much as I loved my boss at the VNA I knew I needed to push my design to the next level and honestly needed a full time job (I was 30hrs at the VNA). The Mountain Times may be a small town newspaper but it's look and feel was anything but as the new, and young, owners had taken over a few years prior. To say that I grew during my 2.5 years there would be an understatement. Not only did my design skills expand but I had learned what the word deadline actually meant. After 18 months I took it upon myself to go to the owners with a new position for myself as Creative Director and for the next 7 months I worked harder than I ever had before. I was completing projects like the yearly magazine from start to finish, managing layout, content, sales leads based on content and the overall look and feel to really push us to the next level. I loved my job but crazy deadlines and not always predictable hours were becoming hard now that I was pregnant with our second son. As I sat in my publishers office in January 2015 telling her I had to give my 2 weeks notice, I'm pretty sure it took me 10 minutes to get it out through all of the tears. I still tear up thinking about that day as I left some of the best friends I had since coming to VT, amazing people that argued like family but would do anything for one another - something I truly feel you can only find in a small Vermont city like Rutland. And how lucky I was that not once, but twice, it was exceptionally hard for me to leave a job because I loved my coworkers and managers that much.

This was my baby while at The Mountain Times. It pushed me to my creative limits and is still one of my favorite pieces.

Two weeks later (and 25 weeks pregnant) I started my current job at Heritage Family Credit Union as AVP of Marketing. The salary and benefits along with the more predictable work hours had, at first, been the main reason I switched jobs. In all honesty I had no idea what a credit union was prior to being hired and had assumed it was a type of bank. As I quickly learned, all credit unions are a non profit, cooperative financial institution that were founded to help the under-served in its communities. Remember my short lived time in grad school? Well my thesis was to be about social responsibility and the effects of climate change on the under-served populations of the US. My inner hippy couldn't contain itself as I'd found a career in my field where I was also helping to make a difference.

Working at HFCU has pushed me in a direction career wise I didn't think was possible. Getting involved with the community on a more meaningful level, allowing me to professionally develop beyond what I thought possible. 

So in 5 years I have managed to have 3 jobs, using my degree in the so called city that doesn't have any jobs, in a time when many companies needed to cut their marketing department in the rest of the US. Did I work hard, of course I did. Did I make sacrifices, take salaries that were far less than what I had paid for a single year at Ithaca, you bet. I went in taking what I could get but put my stamp on everywhere I was, pushing the envelope and pushing my companies to do bigger and better things. I had a degree, I had knowledge and I wanted my companies to use it, to benefit from it and to hopefully make lasting changes.

Just a little plug for the National Credit Union Marketing award we won this year :) 

I cannot speak for other industries, but I have seen some amazing professional jobs available in Rutland. And the most amazing thing about the Rutland workforce is that they want their young employees to succeed, they push their young professionals to do more and be better. When they find someone willing to work hard, they see their future and foster those relationships, even if it means letting them go on to bigger and better things.

Find what you want and go get it, be willing to make sacrifices and work hard. The right job is out there, it's in Rutland, now you have to go get it.

end of year house update

I figured I should give you all an update before the year is over. Selling, buying and renovating our new house has by far been our biggest adventure of 2016 and I must say I'm a little happy we're finally at the tail end of it all.

This post will be a lot of pictures so here ya go and happy new year!

 

Our cabinets came in [that's the new island] so it was time to deconstruct and have them install two days later [we were going to install ourselves but for $300 it was worth it!].

Cabinets everywhere!

Two days with no cabinets is not as fun as it seems...

And the boys thought this was their jungle gym :/

Love at first sight! Thanks to Kitchen Encounters!

Left our mark before attaching the island - hopefully when we sell [very far in the future] those owners don't want to remove the island since this is in sharpie :)

Everyone is a helper now.

Finally tiling our bathroom that has been without a toilet or a sink since we moved in.

 

So black grout for your first grout job may not be the best idea...

But we love it :)

And it's done! First room in the house to be 100000% finished!

 



And the plywood countertops are still there but that should change in 3 weeks for a grand total of about 11-12weeks with no countertops.



We love our slate colored stainless steele GE appliance - thanks Best Appliance for all the help!

 

Added lights over the island [they weren't there before so we had to run new lines] and over the dining room table [we've since shortened the rope]. The house is soooo bright now!

Holy crap we have molding! We now have molding on the entire first floor minus the bedrooms [that will get finished up in the next two weeks] and now all we have to do is fill in the nail holes and paint another coat - yeah that could be awhile!

In case you were wondering what has kept us going the past 3 months! Plus logging ALOT of running miles too!

We finally got around to painting the entryway.

 

From this angle we look like the house is totally put together - just don't look to the right!

And will finish it off with a cute 1.5yr old who is playing with his sleeping brothers legos that say they are for 4-7yr olds :)

a very vermont thanksgiving

We have gone home to NY for Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. But this year was our first year celebrating in Vermont due to a sick baby so we made the best of it and tried to relax and enjoy a four day weekend.

Tom started off Thanksgiving brewing beer, we started drinking some beer at noon [traditions people, traditions] and because we're vegetarians we made some stuffing, with lots of veggies, from scratch and that's it! We did however go to 4 breweries on black Friday :)  Tom's sister came in on Friday so of course we made our brewery rounds - we started small business Saturday early ;) We also decided to brave the crowds [16,000 people!] and head to Killington for the World Cup on Saturday. We didn't stay long but it's cool to say we went, plus Finn's life was made riding a bus! Besides that we painted the entryway and just hung out. It was kind of nice but we definitely missed being around a big family and really celebrating - next year!

First stop, Foley Brothers Brewing. Faire Maiden is easily one of the best beers and none of their other brews every disappoint either!

We figured we were only 20mins from 3 breweries/ciders in Middlebury so headed up North. We stopped at Drop-In, Woodchuck and then Ottercreek before heading back to Rutland for dinner at Vermont Tap House.

Every brewery needs Hungry, Hungry Hippos and a massive bucket of Mr. Potato Head. Well done Drop-In, well done!

Always good and ended up taking home some cider/whisky reserve too.

Littlest helper knows what's good.

And Ottercreek just became their favorite brewery...

Finn was upset he couldn't ride the gondola and ski the World Cup...next year buddy, next year .

Now it just needs a second coat...

What's your Thanksgiving traditions?

the rutland i know [and have learned to love]

I realize I'm technically an outsider and am certainly not a "Vermonter" by local standards so my point of view is vastly different from those who were born and raised here.

So often I hear locals complaining about how Rutland was once this great small city with no drug problems or crime. Honestly, I think every town and city, big and small, says the same thing. Our populations have grown and changed drastically over the past few decades. We have access to information at our fingertips and even the smallest happenings are posted all over the internet - something that was impossible a few decades ago since you can only fit so much into an hour of news or in a newspaper. I do believe that drugs are a national issue and unfortunately Rutland has seen this epidemic first hand.

However, I will say that as an "outsider" [ who has lived in cities such as Syracuse, Utica and Rochester, NY ], Rutland is an extremely safe city. As a runner I feel safe running any street in the city and often run through the "gut." There were streets in Syracuse and Rochester where I knew I shouldn't go and never did because my life would actually be in real danger. Tom went for a run in Syracuse while I was living there and got extremely lost. He was yelled at and mocked while running down streets he could tell were not safe and he was actually scared. He came back having run 5:30minute miles and when he told people the streets he had run on they were scared for him.

The streets in Rutland are fairly well maintained and yes there are some boarded up houses but for the most part the lawns are mowed and people wave. An older runner once told me that you can tell if a street is safe or not based on how many lawns are mowed - not sure if any other runner follows this standard but I do and I've never been down a Rutland street where a majority of the houses have hay fields out front. Actually, the only time I have ever not felt 100% safe while running in Rutland [ on a lonely back country road, not in the city ] was because I had watched too many Criminal Minds episodes and thought "a farmer could feed me to his pigs right now and no one would hear me scream." Trust me, your mind would go there too if you were running 10 miles on a single back country road in rural Vermont!

Every city and town has their problems but it's how we deal with them that defines us. Rutland is by far the most supportive place I have ever lived. We all want to see it continue to improve and everyone is there to help. Most people live near their families so they have help when and if they need it which was a huge concern of mine when we started our own family 3 hours away from our hometown. But ya know what, Rutland has been there for us through every up and down - Rutland has become our family when we've needed them the most. Rutland has made us feel like we are in fact Vermonters through and through. We moved here for jobs and have stayed for the Vermont lifestyle which Rutland embodies perfectly.

Running through Downtown Rutland.

Running down Grove St from McKinley Ave is by far my favorite stretch of Rutland to run.

1 month progress [and lots of pictures]

I know this is supposed to be a blog about all things Vermont but right now our lives are consumed with remodeling and the only beer we're drinking comes from our new beer fridge! I will say that we've been doing a lot of ordering out and by far Little Harry's Restaurant in Downtown has been our go to. Their vegetarian burritos are huge and filling and so good, plus the boys love their veggie chili and unlike most take out food, the sizes are as if you are eating in the restaurant. So, there's my Vermont pointer for this blog.

Now onto our renovations over the last month. We've done ALOT in the last month. Everything is painted besides the entryway and basement and as of Monday we now have hardwood floors upstairs, our beds are no longer in the basement and Finn has bunkbeds! Our new cabinets will be here this week but of  course we're gone this weekend for a half marathon so we'll be putting them in as we can. After they're in then we order countertops and hopefully the kitchen will be finished in about a month - or that's the plan. We're slacking on the bathroom remodel and we need all new molding throughout the first floor but besides that it's looking good!

And that was our lives for 1 month, plus a toddler bed.

The side panels and top drywall are now up, but it's still lacking a toilet, and floors and the blue sink still exists.

Two doors since we removed a random closet to expand the bathroom

 

RIP blue toilet and tub, you will not be missed.

 

Wall removed!

Yeah, lets not screw that up!

Tom drywalled where the closet was and we now know his one shortcoming :P

And we have wood flooring! They had to acclimate for about a week so of course they turned into a jungle gym.

Finn with his worker belt.

Please note the name of the paint color for our front door is Nacho Cheese :)

And finally paint!

I came home from a day long event to wood floors and I became a very happy wife!

 

Master bedroom wood floors.

And as of last weekend we are finally sleeping in our rooms!

Finns bunk beds that he LOVES!

Even Ubu is loving the new house.

 So, there ya have it, a house update. It will probably be another month before you get another but hopefully by then there will be a kitchen and maybe a bathroom, just maybe!