It's been three months since I last updated this blog. I would have to say that 33% of the reason was due to laziness (watched a lot of Euro 2012 (June), Tour de France (July), and London Olympics (August)), 33% due to low morale (finding it difficult to figure out what to do, who to speak with, what to say), and 33% due to concerns about privacy (I began to interview and meet people and didn't want to discuss any specific details). Anyway, I thought it appropriate to give my few readers a quick update.
Starting next week, I'll be working in a finance position for a large sports entertainment company. The position is temporary (until early 2013) and part time (3x a week). One of my friends who works there is taking maternity leave, so I am coming in to back-fill for her while she's out. I found out about the position availability directly from her since she knew I was looking for jobs. I went in for an interview a couple weeks ago and was hired last week.
I've been telling family and friends that I am "cautiously optimistic" about this opportunity. I am passionate about sports. I'll be using my MBA and developing a broader finance skill set. I'm intrigued by a lot of the spheres that come together in this job: sports, finance, journalism, the internet, blogging, etc. The main drawback is the pay cut that I took, exacerbated by the fact that it is a temp position and I'm only working part-time. However, after talking with my wife about it, we decided this was a really good opportunity for me, to try something new and work in an area that I'm passionate about. (Again, I'm very thankful that my wife has a well paying job that she enjoys and is fairly stable which provides me this opportunity to take a part-time position while supporting a child.) We are viewing it sort of as an internship. (I remember reading somewhere several months ago that job seekers who are trying to figure out what their passionate about should be open to doing temp jobs and internships to try out something). In this regard, I think this is a great opportunity for me to try it out and see if I like it. Even though it's a temp position, it'll help develop my skills and add a more diverse experience to my resume.
Besides doing well at my job, a secondary goal for me over the next few months will be to interact with a lot of different people, learn about their jobs, and hopefully get on people's radar. First, to see if this is something I want to do long term. And also, so that if/when a full time position becomes available in early 2013, they consider me for that position.
I think the various outcome scenarios all have good up-side: I love this job, and come early 2013, they want to hire me full time, then everything is great. I love my job, but they can't hire me in 2013, it's okay. I have added experience and I continue along with my job search then. If I find out that I don't like this job, then there's no hard feelings because it was a temp job anyway, and I tried it out and became better aware of what I'm looking for, what I like/dislike.
One concern the company had about hiring me was that they wanted to make sure I would commit to the entire time frame instead of flaking out if I found a full time position. I told them I would not accept full time employment elsewhere until my commitment to them was completed. This was something I was happy to commit to anyway because this was an intriguing opportunity and also since I was working with / referred by a friend. Ironically, just a few days after I accepted this position, I received a call back from a city government job I applied for several months ago, asking me if I was still interested in that position. Maybe they hired someone and it didn't work out, so now they were asking me, or maybe a new position opened up. Anyway, I let them know that I was locked up for 5-6 months, but would appreciate being considered if the position were still available then. It was encouraging that I was considered for that position as well.
If I were to grade myself on my level of effort in job searching over the last 3 months, I'd have to give myself an F-. Oh, I was horrible, embarrassingly bad. But, like so often in my life, God was ever gracious to me, so much more than I deserve. Even so, I think the process I went through back in February-May prepared me to jump at this opportunity when it came up. If I look back at what I'm passionate about and what my strengths are, this position meets a lot of the things I am looking for in a job. On paper, it looks like a good opportunity, and I hope it becomes one in reality. Also, I'm not sure, but I may not have considered this opportunity had it come up earlier in the process; I may have just dismissed it as another finance job. It's hard to know for sure though.
I don't think this blog will end just yet. I still need a full time job in 2013. And I also still need to figure out what I want to do with my life. There's still a lot of stuff to do. Perhaps I will post some updates when applicable, and restart this blog when I restart my full-time job search in 2013, For now, I am temporarily employed.
