If and Almost
Twice in year? Must be some sort of miracle.
Mercury just finished another retrograde and I always feel more thoughtful coming out of the gloom. I'm coming up on nine years at this company and that's a great milestone which also means I need to do the work of cleaning up my resume. It's a good habit to keep things somewhat current.
"Just in case," I tell myself.
I just finished reformatting and updating it with the last 3-4 years worth of duties and achievements.
When I take a step back, I've been able to reduce my entire working life and fit it on a single sheet of paper. Sure the font is a bit smaller and there isn't as much wasted space but it's amazing to condense things down and try to be succint about what I've done.
Now get ready for some moody, existential crisis stuff. Then again, LJ seems to be a constant repository of mostly melancholy or sporadic updates.
I look back at all the work I've done over the last twenty years and I wonder if I should have been more directed or intentional in plotting the course of my career. Or maybe the act of not exactly aiming for a particular location, but just somewhat forward is good enough? Of all the things I put down, all the KPIs and measures that prove I'm employable, I'm not particularly proud of those items.
What I'm proud of is something less tangible, but I feel like I've really come into my own in realizing I enjoy connecting things together. Far and away, the most memorable parts of every job are my interactions with my colleagues and I've been so lucky that I get to sincerely and genuinely call many of them my friends to this day.
The job market isn't great in tech right now, but it reminds me a bit of the same type of fear and uncertainty in 2008 when Kindle first came out and publishing was all abuzz. I made it through fine and I'll continue to figure it out.
In the meantime, I'd love to figure out how to reframe how I think about myself relative to my working life. The things that I'm good at, or think I'm good at, need to converge with what companies want. I'm lucky I'm where I am today.
I'd love to figure out what's next.
Future self - hope you are well. Regardless of how you're feeling, you'll be fine.