Career path/search lessons learned
I don't need to be a drone in a big, enterprisey company to excel in my career. I will be the agent that makes my career -- not my company.
Location + salary. I don't need to move to France to explore Europe. I can work remotely. Plus, socialist countries have lower salaries....I had three phone interviews in the last two days with a company in France, who is pretty international and thought to be a bit more wage-competitive, only to have them say that the initial salary requirement I gave them was about 35K higher than what they could pay. Waste of time! I could do loops back and forth to France for that much money. I already took a major pay cut for my last job, and I'm not going to do it again.
Money. It facilitates good things. A comfortable lifestyle is worth working for. The last few months were not comfortable. They were incredibly uncomfortable, because of money issues, not getting paid / being owed backpay, etc. On the other hand, there was a time I was working two jobs at once, and earning a huge monthly salary...but I had a panic attack from all the stress. Several attacks, actually. That was unhealthy. There is a healthy balance between work and life. I'm healthiest when I work hard, then play hard, and can fully separate the two, and have good amounts of time for the two.
Teams. I loved working in a team at my start-up company because I loved the people I worked with, in a flexible, relaxed environment. That hasn't always been the case. Teams are just there out of convenience for a company to produce what it needs to produce. When deciding where to work, a team environment shouldn't be a distinguishing factor, unless it's my former team.
Freedom. Where am I in my life? I'm still very young, not tied down to anyone or anything, but more aware than ever that the Twin Cities are my home, my home base, the people here and my parents across the river are my family, my network is here, my support group is here. I did think of taking a vacation away from everything and spending a year or 6 months in France...but why? Why move? I lived and worked from Tokyo for a month. I could do that again. Anywhere. If the reality of some of these jobs I'm interviewing for allow that, then why not? I could work for a local company here for 25K less than what I'm targeting...but why? I love flying solo, or at least being involved with a company that values me enough to grant me the freedom to do so, fairly often, and a local web design firm doesn't sound like such a place.
Entrepreneurship. I want to create my own company. Maybe companies -- plural. I don't have the financial footing to do that right now, because of my last job...but taking a remote job with a higher salary could allow me to regain the proper financial footing. I have plenty of ideas, plenty of leadership capabilities, and now I have start-up experience and contacts, which is really invaluable.
Career path. I was a C-level executive, do I need to stay on that path and build it? You can't really be a C-level executive (CTO / CIO) remotely, and the Twin Cities doesn't really have any of those types of jobs, at least not right now, especially not in the type of technology I'm looking for. Well, there was a lead / project manager role that I applied for, that was somewhat in the right professional domain....But, why do I need to build a CTO career path when I could build a CEO career path? I'll start my own company, and be good at it. I don't need an MBA or another CTO opportunity to do that -- I started my first business at the age of 16, and have had enough experience now that I'm fairly sure I can do things right. Most of all, I know I have the skills, knowledge and connections to start a business *sustainably*, which is not the case for most startups, and is why 9/10 fail in the first few years.
Time. How much time do I want to spend working? That is a serious question that I can ask, now. There is a 20hr/week contracting gig that seems rather tempting. I'm currently doing a gig where I can work *up to* 15hrs/week. A 35/hr workweek sounds absolutely amazing. I'd choose that over a 40+hr workweek with slightly better pay/stability/benefits in a second. "Ooo, you're offering me healthcare that costs you $450/month as an employer? I can buy decent coverage for myself for ~$100/month." That free time will be a better investment in the long run, as I sure as hell will use it to do much cooler things than regular, every-day work. That reminds me, I have to contact a venture capital guy I did some consulting for that was thinking of building a social network....
Job. The job itself, what I'm doing, is less important than what it allows me to do outside of the job. Yes, I like working with Drupal, I like web development, but outside that, I could be working for the most boring company, and making a great salary with the ability to work remotely, and I'd be ok with that. Of course I will give a little preference to the job itself, what I'd be doing, but really, all I'm targeting right now is salary and freedom.
This concludes my thoughts and lessons learned thus far. I think I'm heading in the right direction, now, after a week's worth of deliberation, and am excited by the possible prospects! Thank goodness for the ability to take this time to reflect and deliberate.
Location + salary. I don't need to move to France to explore Europe. I can work remotely. Plus, socialist countries have lower salaries....I had three phone interviews in the last two days with a company in France, who is pretty international and thought to be a bit more wage-competitive, only to have them say that the initial salary requirement I gave them was about 35K higher than what they could pay. Waste of time! I could do loops back and forth to France for that much money. I already took a major pay cut for my last job, and I'm not going to do it again.
Money. It facilitates good things. A comfortable lifestyle is worth working for. The last few months were not comfortable. They were incredibly uncomfortable, because of money issues, not getting paid / being owed backpay, etc. On the other hand, there was a time I was working two jobs at once, and earning a huge monthly salary...but I had a panic attack from all the stress. Several attacks, actually. That was unhealthy. There is a healthy balance between work and life. I'm healthiest when I work hard, then play hard, and can fully separate the two, and have good amounts of time for the two.
Teams. I loved working in a team at my start-up company because I loved the people I worked with, in a flexible, relaxed environment. That hasn't always been the case. Teams are just there out of convenience for a company to produce what it needs to produce. When deciding where to work, a team environment shouldn't be a distinguishing factor, unless it's my former team.
Freedom. Where am I in my life? I'm still very young, not tied down to anyone or anything, but more aware than ever that the Twin Cities are my home, my home base, the people here and my parents across the river are my family, my network is here, my support group is here. I did think of taking a vacation away from everything and spending a year or 6 months in France...but why? Why move? I lived and worked from Tokyo for a month. I could do that again. Anywhere. If the reality of some of these jobs I'm interviewing for allow that, then why not? I could work for a local company here for 25K less than what I'm targeting...but why? I love flying solo, or at least being involved with a company that values me enough to grant me the freedom to do so, fairly often, and a local web design firm doesn't sound like such a place.
Entrepreneurship. I want to create my own company. Maybe companies -- plural. I don't have the financial footing to do that right now, because of my last job...but taking a remote job with a higher salary could allow me to regain the proper financial footing. I have plenty of ideas, plenty of leadership capabilities, and now I have start-up experience and contacts, which is really invaluable.
Career path. I was a C-level executive, do I need to stay on that path and build it? You can't really be a C-level executive (CTO / CIO) remotely, and the Twin Cities doesn't really have any of those types of jobs, at least not right now, especially not in the type of technology I'm looking for. Well, there was a lead / project manager role that I applied for, that was somewhat in the right professional domain....But, why do I need to build a CTO career path when I could build a CEO career path? I'll start my own company, and be good at it. I don't need an MBA or another CTO opportunity to do that -- I started my first business at the age of 16, and have had enough experience now that I'm fairly sure I can do things right. Most of all, I know I have the skills, knowledge and connections to start a business *sustainably*, which is not the case for most startups, and is why 9/10 fail in the first few years.
Time. How much time do I want to spend working? That is a serious question that I can ask, now. There is a 20hr/week contracting gig that seems rather tempting. I'm currently doing a gig where I can work *up to* 15hrs/week. A 35/hr workweek sounds absolutely amazing. I'd choose that over a 40+hr workweek with slightly better pay/stability/benefits in a second. "Ooo, you're offering me healthcare that costs you $450/month as an employer? I can buy decent coverage for myself for ~$100/month." That free time will be a better investment in the long run, as I sure as hell will use it to do much cooler things than regular, every-day work. That reminds me, I have to contact a venture capital guy I did some consulting for that was thinking of building a social network....
Job. The job itself, what I'm doing, is less important than what it allows me to do outside of the job. Yes, I like working with Drupal, I like web development, but outside that, I could be working for the most boring company, and making a great salary with the ability to work remotely, and I'd be ok with that. Of course I will give a little preference to the job itself, what I'd be doing, but really, all I'm targeting right now is salary and freedom.
This concludes my thoughts and lessons learned thus far. I think I'm heading in the right direction, now, after a week's worth of deliberation, and am excited by the possible prospects! Thank goodness for the ability to take this time to reflect and deliberate.