Dave Mitchell

I received an email from a William Baxter this evening.  Looks innocuous enough…

Dear Mr.  Mitchell

I have recently noticed your online resume. Your background does not match our current needs, however I would like to direct it to one of our affiliate career search firms. They are based out of Toronto and specialize in assisting experienced professionals like yourself. If you wish, please reply to william@baxterdevelopments.ca and attach a recent version of your resume.

Best Wishes,

W.Baxter

William Baxter

…but my Spidey Senses were tingling.  I’ve been on the Internet long enough (long before the days of SLIP and PPP) to know when something isn’t quite right.  Searching for “William Baxter” or “baxterdevelopments.ca” yields all sorts of red flags.  Try a search on “RD Group International” as well.  No need to go into detail here, go ahead and see for yourself.  Suffice it to say that if you are looking for work, and are approached by someone who wants YOU to pay THEM to find you a job — say thank you, and walk away.

I guess the bright side here is that I’m getting noticed… just not by the right people, yet.

Newsflash! Social networking is what’s now! And unless you live under a rock, this is old news.

The extreme growth in this sector has been staggering, though short of advertising I’m still skeptical that companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc will be able to properly monetize their offerings and keep their respective subscription base. But that’s not the point of this post.

I’ve been connecting and reconnecting with colleagues via LinkedIn of late and found it to be an empowering experience. A few people have even written recommendations for me, which is both empowering and humbling.

Here’s my question – Will we see a consolidation event, like we did with ISP’s for example, within the social networking services sector? Will one large entity come along and scoop up a few smaller ones? Why hasn’t it happened yet? Sure, the valuations are astronomical at the moment, however they mean nothing if they can’t drive revenue. If this event happens what will become of our previous social networks?

Speaking with someone directly is still my favourite way to connect. It’s nice to have everyones information at your fingertips but, like all the data on the Internet, it means nothing unless you do something with it.

But people love to connect, network, talk and gossip don’t they? There’s still that slight veil of anonymity when you’re kvetching via Facebook, or ‘tweeting’ on Twitter. Are you more likely to say something via a social networking site than you are in person? And is that a good thing? Think about it.

You can browse my Facebook page, make a comment or two, or download my resume and look at my glowing recommendations on LinkedIn, but I’d much rather grab lunch or a drink with you and discuss it in person!

Have your people call my people!

In the pit of my stomach…  You know the one, you’ve had it before.  Your first big game, first day on the job, first kiss.

This is a first for me. My 16+ year daily routine has been broken and I’m filling time with something I’ve not had much experience with. Looking for work!

The butterflies aren’t ones of panic, fear, or dread.  They’re of the unknown variety.  I’m waiting to see what’s next, what challenges the future holds and, to be honest, I’m anxious.  Anxious to get to that next place.  When it comes to ‘doing stuff’ that is fairly well defined I can be somewhat impatient. Allow me to explain — I know what I am good at, and I know companies are out there who need my expertise.  So let’s get to it already!  Yes, that was an oversimplified explanation of my uneasiness, it runs deeper than that.

All of my friends and colleagues tell me to be patient.  I understand why this must be. It allows me to see the forest from the trees and will ultimately help me make the right choice in the end.  I’ve taken a few days as a breather, concentrated on my basement reno project and will be back at the employment-hunt tomorrow.  I’m looking forward to ticking off this week’s to-do list.

The weather in Toronto has been terrible for cycling (my usual head-clearing activity) but hanging drywall, affixing corner-bead, mudding and taping have all been excellent diversions.  Unfortunately, it’s just not as good a work-0ut as a hard 40K sprint on the bike.  Spring can’t come quickly enough!

Being currently unemployed is certainly strange.  I have been gainfully employed, full time, since I was 19 save for a brief period in late 1992.  That’s when I switched gears and began focusing on a long-term career.  Here I am 16 years later, and I feel I accomplished my goal but I’ve not yet seen it’s logical conclusion.

This is a bump in an otherwise long, winding and fun road.

I’ve had thoughts of switching it up again, looking at other lines of work, changing my career.  However, after some time to contemplate this, the areas in which I hold other interests will remain just that; interests and hobbies.

I love doing what I do on a daily basis, I love the world of IT.

Don’t get me wrong.  I also love renovating my house, playing my drums, taking pictures, riding my bike and listening to music.  But I got into IT because I loved doing it.  I turned my hobby as a teenager into a career, and I’m pretty damn good at it if I do say so myself.  What more can one ask for in a career (besides the obvious stuff) ?

I’m not looking at this speedbump as unemployment,  I consider this fun-employmenet!  I’m working for myself right now, and this is a chance to reconnect with myself, my love of IT and my other interests.

I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out the other end.

Throughout my career I’ve been aware of what a title means, not only to myself but amongst my peers.  People say, “a title is important”. I ask why?  Sure, in terms of rank or chain of command a title is absolutely important.  It defines who you are and what you do in a word or two.  Certain titles carry respect, others elicit responses like “so, what do you do then?”.

The big ones, CxO, President, VP, Director, even Manager are all reasonably defined.   It’s the lower ‘ranks’, if you will, that allow for wiggle room and even some fun.  In the absense of a formal title structure within an organization I’ve often assigned titles that instill a certain level of pride within the employee.  Take for example a recent employee of mine.   We created a department around his skills and expertise, but the board was not keen on assigning him a Manager title.  He was “Web Applications Developer” when he started, but his role expanded well beyond that and encompassed all levels of internal applications, workflows, CRM integrations, etc.  So we formed the Internal Applications Group and he became it’s Supervisor.  I would have loved to have made him “Internal Apps Big Cheeze”, or something like that,  but a formal title was requested.   It’s a stepping stone kind of title.  It shows that he has the ability to lead, and manage, while being a an effective practitioner.  I do hope his department expands and he becomes manager soon.

So what am I getting at here?  Titles matter, but the mean different things to different people.  To the employee it could mean a career path, or a dead end.  To a peer it’s judged differently.  Think about it, if you were introduced to a VP and a Technician but let’s say both were the same age, had the same length of career and even similar education, how would you see each of those people as individuals.

Put some thought into assigning titles, they have meaning!

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ve not yet decided what I’ll do here, but suffice it to say that some of my personal and most of my professional life will be on display for all to see.   I’m on the hunt for work and this is where I’ll write about that process.

Yes, those are pictures from my Flickr stream.

Come back soon, and I’ll let you know how things are going.

Cheers!

-d