(533 words, 2:39 minutes to read.)
At any given moment, if you are an information worker nested in a cube farm, the idea of getting on the next flight to Paris or Fiji can strike hard. Imagine aperitifs along the Champs-Élysées, mai tais on the pink sand beach, your manager is half a world away—and you have Wi-Fi. But because you have a weekly standup with the Agile project team at 3 P.M., you won’t.
When 2016 started, I found myself at a crossroads. The online store that I was managing as a technical producer adopted a follow-the-sun publishing cycle where both front and back-end updates occurred in three places on the globe. The workflow consisted of initial updates in Seattle, then switched to the team in New Delhi and to Dublin for quality and assurance.
That eliminated the concentration of content publishers in Seattle as production efficiencies were distributed among the three locations. I completed nine months working on the Asia-Pacific and North American stores and survived Holiday of 2015: Black Friday and Christmas. The experience of working with global teams of merchandisers, marketing, and project managers was gratifying. Then there’s making new friends at work—a wonderful bonus in a fast-paced and transitory business.
On the first day of employment freedom, you look in the mirror and ask: “What’s the next gig going to be?” Your mind wanders. You think that growing a face rug is a good idea. Nobody wears lamb chop sideburns anymore.
Looking for the next gig can be daunting and full of hope at the same time. There are lists of contacts to build, calling on colleagues who may help with connections. Filter the jobs in LinkedIn. Sort old email from technical recruiters. And of course, divide time for personal growth and reading. Do you cancel the gym membership? But you need the endorphins to keep a positive headspace. Not the least, you need to make an inventory of your interview wardrobe. Beyond these concerns, the possibilities of new adventures abound.
I discovered When to Jump and my brain kicked into gear. It’s a community of people whose stories are about making fundamental changes to their lives to get to a certain level of happiness and fulfillment. A CEO of a national bank decides to make handcrafted furniture. A mid-level manager packs up his bags for a romp around Asia. Stories abound and inspire the rugged individualism that we all seem to want.
For me, I wanted to ground my choices with some prudence. By now, we all agree that the internet is a trove of fantastic ideas—and the best example is the abundance of available training—from dog obedience classes to boot camps on Node.js or Drupal. I am now completing certification on Front End Web Development after pitching myself as an online marketer. Soon, I will be able to write code with ease and hope to be more marketable in my field as I marry management and individual effort. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. It could be from the technology corridors of Seattle (more likely) or blogging about tapas and bebidas from Las Ramblas in Barcelona (moonshot). Or I can just ride my bike.
