It’s been a month since I last wrote about my “transition”, so I thought it might be time for an update. Why the diffidence? Mostly it’s because one obviously(?) doesn’t want to reveal all of the gory details (“met X for lunch”, “phone interview with Y”, “brush-off email from Z”). The fastest way to end a discussion about a prospective job is probably to blurt it out all over the blogosphere.
Nevertheless, I think I can safely say that I’m having a pretty good time. I’ve been talking to people from a wide range of organizations about a diverse collection of jobs, and I’m really enjoying the various conversations. They’re all moving at different speeds, from glacial to torrid. In some cases, I’m pushing to get things moving, while in others I’ve found myself getting swept along. Mixed in with all this are the cold calls from people who have found my details from LinkedIn, Dice, my blog, wherever; most of these are wildly inappropriate, but at least one has turned into a serious exchange.
LinkedIn is proving to be an invaluable resource in various ways. For example: suppose that I’m interested in company P, and start talking with a former colleague, X ,who’s working there. He or she passes my resume to a colleague of theirs, Y, who is the (potential) hiring manager. How do I find out what kind of person Y is? I check corporate bio and other resources, find out that Y used to work at company Q. Then I can search LinkedIn for people in my network who were at Q when Y was there; usually there’s someone that I know well enough to ask about what Y was like to work with/for. Etcetera.
And I’ve (mostly) stopped referring to Sun in the first person plural….