Month: April 2009

Perhaps you would think that being unemployed leaves me with heaps of free-time. You would be mistaken. My days are extremely full. And I was filled with all kinds of ideas, like being able to catch up on my reading, maybe even digesting the daily paper. Ha! I have been mildly frustrated by this, but no more. Fortunately, I do a good job of keeping track of my time, so I don’t end up wondering where the day went.

I love mornings like this, though, where everyone else is still tucked safely away in bed and I’m able to enjoy quiet. Now, if you excuse me, I’m diving back into Scoble & Israel’s “Naked Conversations”, which has been long on my “to read” list. Getting some good insights into blogging’s potential, even though the book was published back in 2006. Much of their basic premise, though, I’ve long agreed with. These notions of transparency and anti-marketing/anti-hype, in particular. I’ve long believed that our ability to filter this stuff has grown, and that the most prevalent response to most marketing is simple annoyance. Or, perhaps, extreme annoyance. Anyway, the long-term affects are this general sense of distrust of “business”. And so many executives are surprised by this tendency to assume the worst of any company in the news.

Via BlackBerry

So, in the interests of expressing my interest in blogs, public affairs and communications, I’ve launched another blog, Digitized Collective. My goal is to focus this on how communications is being changed by the “digital medium”. Sounds cool, eh?

The past few weeks has been one of serious self-evaluation. Though I liked my last position, I suffered from a lingering sense of “blah”. I’ve been trying to figure out what I’ve wanted to do in order to grow. Getting laid off provides a crucial moment to dive into this self-assessment. Besides the time (which hasn’t been as present as I hoped) to do so, there also is the element of necessity. Knowing that I need to find another job, and wanting to ensure that whatever I land next is something with more satisfaction, has compelled me to be deliberate.

So, after all this, I’m thinking of diving into the “communications” space. Particularly, I hope to blend my love of writing with tech and blogs. We’ll see what comes of it. I have seen some companies searching for folks with this background.

With all this, I’ve had several tools recommended to me. Particularly, LinkedIn, Jobster and Indeed. I’m just starting my dive into these sites, so I’ll keep you abreast of my learnings. I can tell you that I’ve found Jobster very interesting, at least as far as the jobs it’s presented.

One last idea that I’m coming to terms with is this notion of “Me, inc”. Basically, I need to look at my career in terms of, well, myself. My attachment to a company needs to be conditional.  I guess another way to look at this is to think of myself as a contractor. As you can see, I’m just developing this notion. Expect me to flesh this out more soon.