Season of the Witch

Must be the season of the witch. Or is that the season of the switch?

I'm trying to switch gears from backpacking in SE Asia to being a job-hunter here in America. Somehow the former felt better I think.

Being unemployed - how one must define one's self while looking for work - is not a whole lot of fun. Just consider the gap between what you might want to do and what is available. An even bigger gap if you don’t really know what you want to do in the first place. I never have really, at least not in very definite concrete terms.

[ why yes mister HR person, I have ALWAYS
wanted to manage channel sales for a
company that makes channel sales management
automation software tools... ]

Yeah right.

I want to grow a business that melds TV and the web with conventional programming forms on an XML-based hosted services social software networking platform. B2B only, please.

I consider it to be harmful to define my career goals in such a restrictive fashion. What industry? What discipline? Marketing? What kind of marketing? Channel marketing or product marketing? Please... give me a break.

My goals are much more generalized and they always have been. The criteria by which I assess a job are something like this:

- Intellectual challenge, potential for stimulation and engagement
- Growth and learning opportunities and potential
- Co-workers
- Customers and partners
- Salary and incentives
- Benefits
- Esteem/Status
- Acceptability of downside/risk/problems/ etc.

And then there are the issues of what value I provide to my employer. Rather than extremely specific and highly specialized skills or relationships in a particular industry, I believe that my value is much more generalized along the lines of:

- Ability to learn quickly and effectively
- Ruthless intellectualism
- Sharp analytic and problem-solving skills
- Ability to articulate, communicate and listen
- A deliberate, methodical, iterative approach
- A positive, helpful, good-humored outlook
- An open-minded, criticism-seeking attitude
- Willingness to take calculated risks
- Management and leadership skills
- Deep and broad experience with building value,
creating advantage and delivering results

My bottom-line is that I'm me. And damn I'm good when I'm faced with big challenges, but boy do I suck at being under-utilized.

Glad I got that off my chest.