Words. Ideas. Actions.

24 March 2023

There’s this strange, liminal space that happens while looking for a new job. And I’m deep in it now. Offers are finally starting to come in. But so are replies to opportunities that I got excited about in the early stages of my search. Obviously, these are good — and privileged — problems to have, but I’m finding that I don’t really know how to approach finding the right decision. The idiom “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” keeps popping into my mind, and I feel like that logic is weighing heavily into my decision. And I just don’t know what to do.

Part of this decision paralysis is on account of my fear of making mistakes. But what really qualifies as a mistake in this instance? Let’s say I pick the “wrong” job. What does that even mean? Knowing that I’m really the only one making the judgment, I’m at a loss for how I’m even grading myself. I can compare pros and cons, but as the impending deadline of no more paychecks looms, isn’t the “right” choice the first offer you get? Again, I know what a luxury it is to have multiple offers, but that deadline also means that there were questions which went unasked during the interview process. And not knowing those answers may lead to regretting my decision. Which, I guess, then means I made the wrong one. Right?

I would love to be able to quiz my potential new managers more about how they think about career development and learn more about their management styles. All I hear in my head, however, is that ticking clock, counting down the seconds until I’m officially without income. I’ve been lucky to pursue new opportunities without this pressure in the past. But the job searches I remember most are the ones which came right down to the wire, and I had to balance my ability to negotiate with my need for a more immediate start date. If I look back at the summer of 2015 as an example, I had two offers to lead content strategy teams in hand when I finally got an offer from Twitter. It was the one I really wanted, but I know it stunted my career growth. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of almost every piece of work I was part of there, but content strategy at Twitter was not a real discipline yet. There was no career ladder. No appreciation for the craft from other teams. No real understanding of what we did and how we could help. The three of us, at the time, helped establish all those things. And more. Those factors led to being years and years away from a promotion, however. And now, I think, I’m paying for that.

There are a ton more nuances to that situation, and a pretty long story about the first job I took right after leaving Twitter where I only stayed for 29 days. For now, though, I have a lot of thinking to do. And options to consider. And, also, bills to pay. With less than ten of these posts left scheduled to be published, I assume I’ll have a decision before these end. At least I hope so.

See you tomorrow?

17 March 2023

When I thought about writing tonight’s post earlier today, I had a couple of ideas. Almost too many ideas. There’s the half-finished content design-related notion about where to put settings which don’t fit into obvious labels. Then, there was the one about that recently unearthed band I found in the used section at Amoeba which is right up my alley and a complete mystery about how I missed them. Another is the rant about consequences and who we, as a society, extend forgiveness and second (and third and fourth) chances to. Still another was the tension between our ability to use ingenuity to solve problems but not the incentives to bring about real changes which aren’t tied to someone’s profits.

They are all worthy of further exploration here, I think. But they take time and consideration, if I want to do any of them justice. And I do. I know that I wouldn’t be satisfied if I didn’t do my best to explore any and all of those. And that pressure I put on myself, which I talked a little bit about last night, means that I’d look back at a lackluster post and regret having done it at all. Even as I sit here now, I am lamenting the fact that I forgot to include one of the points I wanted to make in the post about naming and identity. 

So, instead of trying to struggle though trying to craft one of the posts I mentioned, we went out for ice cream. And I think it was a much, much better use of my time tonight, whether we were wearing green or not. My hope for you this weekend is that you don’t have to struggle as much as I do when trying to decide between a weighty task you’ve assigned to yourself, or a waffle bowl filled with a scoop of coffee ice cream covered in hot fudge, whipped cream, peanuts and a cherry (that your daughter will definitely steal from you, so you should probably get two). 

See you tomorrow?

22 December 2022

To be honest, I don’t want to spend a lot of time here tonight. Basically, I am ready for a break. Not that these haven’t been fun. And therapeutic. But we spent some time tonight baking and decorating sugar cookies for Santa, and it was a good reminder about where my priorities should be.

Although I mostly write these after everyone is in bed, tonight has been a little chaotic. Since nobody has any real responsibilities tomorrow, we’re all up, bouncing off the walls after eating about as many cookies as we decorated, and getting into stuff that we’re into. I’m here typing this, sitting next to my daughter who’s drawing portraits of herself doing gymnastics, and my wife is telling me all about a new Madame Tussaud wax figure of Travis Barker. We each have our interests.

So, this is just a little reminder to take some time to enjoy one of yours. If it’s reading the internet, then great — welcome! But if you get joy from something else in your life, this is the sign you need to go do that instead of this. These posts, and all the other parts of the web, will be here when you get back. Have fun, and let me know what you got into, maybe.

See you tomorrow?