Ideological differences at work may be a problem

This part time job I've taken may not be the answer to all my problems after all. While I like the work and am growing more comfortable with the hours, I think my President isn't the kind of guy who can be comfortable with a telecommuting communications director. He's made a few comments lately that have me questioning how long he'll put up with the part time thing. He's from the old school, where everyone who worked for him served him, so despite being a nice guy, he likes being able to walk down the hall whenever he's in the office (which is less than half time in my experience so far) to ask a question, and is less comfortable with phone or email for that kind of thing.

So I'm starting to wonder if the solution for this company is really me, or if they really want a full timer. And now that the economy has tanked, even in our Olympic city, the job market has likely changed enough for him to find a full timer that meets his needs.

Then there's the ideological differences between us. I am generally a progressive, liberal thinker. I work for environmental causes, support all thing sustainable and generally lean away from conservatism. But this association is all about conservative, pro-business, anti-labour etc. While not every issue challenges my morals -- so far the biggest issue that might I'm okay with -- I can't see me doing this full time or long term when I don't agree with their ideology. And frankly, I think the President sees that too.

It's not that anyone has told me it's even close to over. I think we all think it's too soon to judge. And the personality fit so far is okay. I just think it's starting to come to light this week that my ideal work situation and their ideal communications situation may not be aligned in the long term.

So now what? Do I restart the blog as 41-now what? I'm a bit down about it all today. While I'm growing comfortable with the job, I'm also realizing that it won't last. So I'm back to the big question of what will I be when I grow up. And I have more questions now than answers. Plus, a year later my economic options are more limited than they were last year, which in itself raises more issues.

Perhaps I'll go back to my list of women in my field with more experience than me and restart my conversations with them, in order to gain more perspective and more clarity. The job isn't going anywhere in the next month or two, so I have a bit of a cushion to sort it out.

Or maybe I'll change my mind and decide this is the job situation for me, or even the employer for me. Or maybe they'll decide they like the challenge my ideals bring to their way of thinking, that having me around keeps them from "drinking their own bathwater" and offers an alternative point of view. Maybe they like what I have to offer skills-wise so much they work around my part time status.

Maybe... or maybe not...

The downside of taking this job

I have a few more days to consider this job offer, and while there are a lot of pluses, there are also negatives, and I'd like to consider them.

Devoting half my work week, plus commuting time, to the job, might be pretty consuming. I'm sure I'll still be able to do other work, but will I still have time to look for other work? Will I be able to network, go for coffees, go to events? Those are usually pretty useful in the long run to get me more business, and if I'm not doing them, will my incoming work dry up? It would be pretty easy to let a half time job fill my whole week, what with the whole home and family thing on top of it.

And what about the whole home and family thing? Will I have to shop for groceries on Saturday afternoon with all the other working moms? Will I have to do laundry in the evenings? Will I be exhausted every night racing home on the bus to make dinner? Will I have any time left to exercise?

I know it sounds like I'm being lazy, giving up my days at home and having to enter the work world, and it does seem a lot like that. Hopefully with only two days a week in their offices, I'll be able to overcome it.

My other worries are about reentering the office life. It's been about three years since I worked in an office. All the politics, the other people. It's easy to be businesslike and nice when you only have the odd meeting, but when it's all day, that's a lot tougher. And it's hard to go back and forth from the home office to the office office. And then there's the wardrobe. I don't have the clothes for it, even two days a week. And I hate shopping.

And then there's the commute. Their office is clear across town, which I'm pretty sure is two transfers from home, for about 45 minutes each way. I could possibly bike, but I know when it's cold and raining, I don't think so.

On the bright side, I'd need to access my emails on the go, so it's an excuse to buy a new cell phone.

If this is the answer to my worries, why am I still worried?

A job offer -- part time

Back in April I wrote about having lunch with a couple senior women in my field who suggested I try to find a part time job. They said it was a good way to gain the stability I'm seeking without giving up my freelance freedoms altogether. They also both thought I should find an employer who had been looking for someone less experienced than me, but full time, and convince them to hire me part time for the same money.

The day after my second of those lunches, the woman I'd met ran into someone in exactly that position. His association had been trying to hire someone full time, because consultants weren't working for them -- they wanted someone in house. But after looking they were having trouble finding anyone with enough experience and hadn't hired. She recommended me.

I heard from this association the next day, asking if I was interested. I told the guy I might be, but then didn't hear again. Then last month, I got an email from his colleague asking again was I interested. I said I was. We arranged a phone call to explore how it might work and whether there was a fit. Then a couple weeks went by with no word. Then last week they asked to meet me to discuss it more.

Now, at this point my freelancing is going pretty well. Turns out I had a pretty good year financially after all, and with the new informal partnership going well, I'm feeling a bit more secure about the near future. But this option still intrigues me.

And today they made me an offer. The money is not bad, certainly better than half of a full time job. Their offices are not terribly close, and it would be a 45 minute commute on the bus or bike each way, but they're only asking me to do two days a week in their office, with some additional time at home for them. Their area of business, while not sexy or exciting, interests me and touches on a lot of hot political topics that I like. I'd still be able to take freelance work, I'd just need to look for less of it. And they're telling me they'll be plenty flexible about it all.

So did I find my magic bullet, a way to survive the next 25 years of work? Keep the stability in part time work, keep the freelance in the rest?

I don't know. I've got a lot to consider here. I'll post more later this week while I hash out more details in my head. Opinions?

Is instability stable for my business?

I was bemoaning the up and down nature of my freelance business yesterday, when my husband said something interesting. He said, "The instability is your stability." Let's think about that.

It's true that every freelance business has busy times and not so busy times. Well, it has been certainly true for me over the last decade. I can't really plan what my workload will be very far in advance, because just when I think I know what's on my plate, something gets canceled, or moved ahead or pushed back, or something else drops in my lap that I couldn't turn down. I think it's part of my charm, and part of my success, that I take on last minute work whenever possible. But it's also to my detriment that every slow period gets me very bummed out.

Yet if I look back on my total billings for the past five years (this is my judgment period, because in the years before that I worked less cuz I was having babies), they've been pretty steady year over year, and in a good way. Even this year, when things were scary slow for, I thought, two or three months, I'm on track to do as well as I did last year. And even my month-over-month billings haven't varied too much this year.

So is my husband right? The one constant in my work life is that it's inconsistent, that I go through peaks and valleys, that these ups and downs make me alternatively depressed or stressed? I guess so. Now the big question, is that a stability I can live with?

Hmmmm. Gotta think about that one. Although I guess in truth, that's what this blog is all about, thinking about whether I can stand another 25 years of instability as the basis of my work life, in return for the freedom freelancing allows. I don't know the answer today, but I'm still young, I'll keep trying to figure it out.

Happy long weekend!

Mid career = 2 years?

A job posting crossed my desk last week from my professional organization. It was with a government organization I'm interested in working with (not necessarily a job, maybe consulting), so it peaked my interest. Right away I realized it wasn't for me, because the salary offered was at least 30% below anything I'd consider. But the part that has me bugged this morning is this:

You are an experienced mid-career ... professional who thrives in a fast-paced environment....You hold a post-secondary degree or diploma in communications, public relations or journalism and have two years as a Junior Public Affairs Officer or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Since when is two years experience mid-career? And since when do "mid-career" jobs pay just above entry level salaries?

Who writes these things?!

Part time job options

There seem to be a lot of jobs advertised in my market lately looking for someone in my field with 5-7 years experience. This is recruiter code for an intermediate level employee. You know, not the kid fresh from university with no experience, but someone who has worked a few years, learned a bit, but not so much that they'd want to be paid well.

I am of course over-qualified for these jobs, and don't bother even considering them. But there are lots and lots of them in the past months, and some I see advertised more than once -- as if they didn't find anyone and are trying again to find someone. I don't know where are the people with 5-7 years experience are, but they don't seem to be job hunting very much.

Last week, two different senior women in my profession, each of whom I met for lunch as part of my questioning, said the same thing to me in regards to these jobs. They suggested that if the company can't find an intermediate to work full time, why wouldn't they hire a senior person to do the same job part time. Or even as a consultant. And why didn't I think about going after a job posted as full time for an intermediate and try to write my own ticket doing the job part time or through consulting.

It's an interesting proposition. I'd get a steady wage, albeit not a huge one, but if they had XX dollars for a full timer, it might not be so minimal for part time work. I'd have stability, which if you're reading my blog you know I crave. And I'd still be able to consult on other projects, keeping a variety of work going. I'd also likely keep a good deal of flexibility, which I really want given my two young kids.

Is it that simple, just call up the person advertising a job and suggest they rethink their entire proposition in favour of hiring me on my terms? I can easily picture the negotiations part and how I'd do that, but the cold contact part seems like a bigger leap.

Reinventing yourself is like a good marketing campaign

My nomination for best re-invention is the Diamond Shreddies campaign. They took something that worked just fine as it was, and found a way to reposition it so people could connect with the brand in a better way. They added excitement without changing the product.

How can I make that kind of re-invention work for my business life? I like the kind of work I do and how I do it, but I need to get myself better situated to bring in clients at a different level. I want to be perceived in a different way so that I can attract a more stable kind of client, or a stable job situation. I'd like potential clients and employers to see me as I see myself -- senior, strategic, great writer -- but in a package that attracts the big money.

Should I give my company a new name and brand? Rewrite my resume? Turn myself sideways and call myself a diamond?

Everyone has a story

I was watching the news this morning with my kids, when my five year old asked me, "If there's nothing happening, do they just make up the news?" So I talked to him about how if nothing is happening anywhere in the world, the news people will just tell good stories. Everyone has a story to tell, I said.

Now my son, being five, said "What's my story?", and then I spent the next ten minutes making fake news reports about each member of my family: My five year old's story was about the trend of his daycare situation (he's in two different programs because as a January baby, he's too old for the 3-5 year-old program but too young for kindergarten); My seven year old's story is about his prowess at such a young age as an indoor rock climber; My husband about how obsessed he is with neat and orderly that he mowed the neighbor's lawn.

Later this morning I got to thinking about how true it is that everyone has a news story in them, even if it's just a profile or interesting angle about their lives. I had lunch yesterday with a journalist friend, and when the subject came around to my career questing, I asked her if she thinks about leaving journalism to join 'the dark side" and work in public relations, a move many, many of us PR types have made. Her answer was that she wasn't ready to give up reporting yet, because there are too many great stories out there to tell.

I've worked in PR for most of my career, but from time to time I do take journalism work, just to keep my hand in. And while it never pays well, and is never glamorous stuff (my last assignment was a profile of a machining shop, for example), it's fun to find the story in every person, company or situation.

I guess that's what I do in PR as well. I help clients find their stories, tell their stories, and get their stories told by the media and their customers. And I do it well, I think. It's one of my favourite parts about my work. I should remember that when the time comes to make any career changes.

What's your story?

Introductions

A couple weeks ago I met someone who works in advertising, which is outside my usual field but not so far away that a transition might be made. Anyhow, she mentioned a few people I might talk to about that kind of transition, but she didn't offer to introduce me, she just pulled some phone numbers off her blackberry. And I admit, I haven't followed them up yet.

And then today, the New York Times Shifting Careers blog has a great column on introductions.

I'm a big fan of this blog and read it regularly, and love when Marci Alboher writes something that directly relates to my career discovery. Today she talks about following up on introductions. She discusses the different ways people follow up those kind of "You should meet..." and why it matters.

I've had a lot of meetings lately where people are always naming other people I should meet. I have tried to follow all of them up, but sometimes I don't. It has really depended on the type of introduction offered. Marci has her categories of introductions, but I see them a bit differently. These are the types of intros I usually see, which apply equally to networking for more freelance work as they do to my career discovery.

Type 1: Contact offers to introduce me and does, usually copying me on intro. These I always follow up, and usually find immensely helpful. Sometimes I have to prompt the introduction later, with a call or email asking my contact to make the introduction, but still they do the first intro so when I get in touch, that person knows who I am.

Type 2: Contact suggests someone I should meet, then emails me name and contact details later, but leaves me to introduce myself. I usually follow these up, but it does feel a bit like a cold call so my ego has to be strong the day I do it.

Type 3: Contact names someone and says I should talk to them, but doesn't introduce me or even pass on contact info -- usually saying something like "I can't remember his contact information but I'm sure you can google him and find it." Or they throw a phone number at me during our meeting (nearly always off their blackberry!)., like my advertising contact did. I don't always follow these up. This feels worse than Type 2 because it almost seems like I'm being flubbed off with a couple names. This feels like an even bigger cold call, which means my ego has to be super strong to make this kind of call.

Of course this is what networking is all about, and whether the goal is more freelance work, a new job, or even a first job out of school, this is how you do it. For my part, I'm going to resolve for the next month to follow up every contact given to me, and to make every introduction I promised a "Type 1" introduction. So I guess I have some calls to make today.

Happy Monday!

Timing the job market, post Olympics?

A friend told me this week she thinks that the job market will freeze up in my province after the 2010 Olympics are over. There's been so much hype about job creation and business booming because Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics, that I found her comments surprising. But she makes a good argument.

In the buildup to the big event, everyone is optimistic, spending money, staffing up. Then for a month or so we all work and play full out during the event (well, events plural, really, because the Paralympics are also coming here). But after that, all those people whose jobs revolved around some aspect of the games then become out of work. And suddenly the labour market gets overrun with people looking for jobs.

I had seen it differently. I thought that between the much-talked-about labour shortage and the boom in business from the Olympics and resulting economic development, the job market would stay constant before, during and after the games.

If my friend is right, perhaps I should think about finding a job sinecure before the fall of 2009, because after that I might find it harder to land a job. Or maybe not...

Asking potential clients what they think

Have you ever considered hiring an outside person to survey potential clients about you and how they perceive you? I know I've written previously about the idea of a perception audit, but this is different.

I met yesterday with a researcher who has his own business, who recently rebranded and refocused what he does. He talked about having spent nearly a year figuring it all out (and I'm not even at half a year, so I guess I'm doing okay). As part of his investigation of what he wants to be when he grows up (still the way I think of all this!), he actually hired an outside researcher to talk to CEOs at companies with whom he wants to work someday, as well as some of his past clients, to find out what they think of him and his skills. It all turned out okay for him, but that must have been really hard to do. Not only do you put yourself out there, but imagine hearing things you don't want to, like maybe you're not perceived the way you want to be, or that they think you're not as good at certain things as you thought, or that they wouldn't contract you at all.

I don't think I'm courageous enough to take that kind of step, but it does bear thinking about. Would you get an outsider to research your prospects?

How am I perceived?

I read an article recently about whether you really are a strategist, and one line really jumped out at me:

If you are a strategist, then quit talking about it and do it.

This brought me back to a conversation I had with a senior woman in my profession that I wanted to share here. I've been having a lot of these discussions in the past couple months, trying to get a better handle on my career goals.

This one woman, who I've known for many years but with whom I haven't worked in more than five years, was illuminating about how others in my profession in town view me. She asked about my recent work, and seemed a bit surprised to learn about the senior level of work I've done in the last half decade. Of course, my career has advanced a great deal since last I worked with her, and my projects and clients bear that out. But in her mind, I was not necessarily at that senior level.

She suggested I conduct a "perception audit" -- find out what people think of me. It's a common tactic for public relations, to gain a benchmark of understanding of how the client is perceived by their target audiences, stakeholders etc. But I had never thought of applying it to myself. But when the lightbulb went on, I realized that perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough to project the career image of myself to others that I held in my own head. I've always looked young, and because I've been a freelancer for so many years, I haven't had job titles to build public perception of how my career has grown.

Then there's my physical image. I tend to be a casual person, and I am not a big one for dressing up if I don't have to. But my colleague made the point that it's not about suits and heels, but about how I carry myself and the confidence I project. And I think it's true that when I look more professional and senior (not in age, but in career responsibility), I act that way just a bit more. And that may improve how others view me.

If I want to find either a job or better freelance security, to make the money I think I deserve it will have to be 'senior' work. So it's important that people like her view me at that level. I'm going to do a bit more asking around on this topic when I do more of my 'career goals conversations' from here on out, and I've already begun to dress up for ordinary meetings, if only to boost my own self-confidence.

How would you go about doing a perception audit for yourself, or your own "brand"?