Name

Elizabeth Allen

Location

Fairbanks

Company

Yak Beads

Which best describes your profession?

Independent, Manager

How many years have you been in the business?

Less than 1 year

Which industries do you work in now?

Other

Are you interested in split placements?

no

What kind of networking are you open to?

Open networking, Very targeted/niche

How do you introduce yourself to people you meet in business?

My training has been as a biochemist and marine biologist. My graduate program was designed by my advisor and myself around research I had done as a undergrad on DNA binding proteins and visualizing techniques in order to determine binding site, binding strength and affinity of a particular protein. I spent 7 years as a research assistant, a teaching assistant and even taught my own chemistry for non-majors class as a summer class for advanced high school students. I made the decision to give up the work when several crises in my life all occurred at about the same time, and something had to give. School gave. I miss it, I enjoyed the academic environment, I enjoyed teaching biochemistry.

I worked for several years after that in a marine biology lab, as a taxonomist, on projects that were analyzing the sediments of different regions of coastal Alaska. Part of the analysis was identifying who lived in the sediments and that required ID'ing near microscopic critters. That was also a fantastic project, working with taxonomic keys for polychaete wroms, molluscs, crustaceans to Id to at least the family level, and preferably to the genus, species level. Cool animals!

I have worked as a substitute teacher in local schools, as a math tutor for fifth grade students - i like teaching.

Now, I'm working as a legal assistant in a small law office and learning a whole new language-legalese-and how to write in legalese. however, this is not a field I want to stay in.
And I won't be, I got laid off last week and now I'm unemployed! I'm bummed, and a little scared. No income this year is not a great place to be.

But I do believe something will happen for the better - maybe a new job I really like, maybe a home business that is real and actually works.

My business experience is small-I have worked in retail stores, restaurants as a cook (once as a waitress and will never do that again) and baker.
I would like to have a beading shop, selling my jewelry, beads, maybe have classes locally. I have some ideas how to fund this idea, but they require more expertise in online marketing than I have now. I am willing to learn, but again, it means learning a new language-viral in online business is not the viral I'm used to! - and a new way of thinking, believing and acting.

As yet, I have not settled on any particular business to be a part of, I've been learning about advertising - wording, writing ads, how to advertise and where - all on minimum income. So far, it's been fun, but I'm ready to settle down and get to work on defining what I want as a business, what fits with ethics and beliefs, and then the important step is getting started!

Name someone you most admire

Barack Obama

Which blogs would you recommend people read?

Squidoo

What do you like best about RecruitingBlogs.com...

I will find out soon

Website

http://shadowylynx.etsy.com

LinkedIn Profile

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/10/ab2/606