Monday, November 4, 2013

New beginnings and new inspiration

It's been a while since I posted anything to this blog and I think it's time started using this space again. Over the last few months I've been engaged in a job search and it has been a very discouraging experience. Between the state of the job market and the fact that I had let myself get out the habit of staying connected professionally I was not feeling very confident in terms of finding my next gig. I knew from a strategic standpoint that one of the most critical times to strengthen and build your network was while you were employed but I had allowed myself to ignore that advice from a tactical point of view.

In September in an effort to re-connect professionally I attended a meeting of the MID NJ ASTD; my local chapter. Now, it's important to note that I'd been highly engaged with the chapter in the past but with family obligations and work I'd let my membership and participation slide. While at the meeting I was approached with an opportunity to re-engage with the chapter. I was asked to take on the role of Technology SIG lead. After consulting with my wife I agreed. One of the benefits that came with accepting a board position was that I was able to attend the chapter leaders conference in the Washington D.C. area in October. It is this opportunity of chapter engagement and attendance to a conference of like minded professionals that has given me renewed energy and purpose in my job search.

There were a lot of great ideas and energy floating around the conference. The focus of the conference is to engage the leadership of local ASTD chapters. Things like engaging your membership, increasing volunteerism within the chapter, leadership development plus things like programming ideas, technology considerations for events and a whole host of other topics too numerous to go into right now. The long and the short of this is that I have found new energy in my job search. It's amazing how easy it is to lose your energy and once lost how easy it is to forget what you need to do to get it back. I had gotten complacent in terms of maintaining my network, keeping my eye on the job market and basically being ready the next time I needed to use my network. I'm hoping that by writing about my recent experiences with my job search I won't forget so easily next time. I hope to post at least once a month and more often if I think I have something more to say.  Till next time.