The Princess Bride goes out into the working world

The question of the day on everyone’s lips seems to be – do you have a plan from where you go here?

The answer is an unequivocal, not sure.

I do know the role I want to play in a company –strategic marketing & business development. But what industry do I go to work for as I have made a decision that it’s time to move on from this one. I have not strayed from this industry for years and have really started to realize that the working world around me is a much bigger place than the small place I have been living in. From What Color Is My Parachute I was reminded that you can have a fulfilling job doing what you love in a variety of industries some of which are likely doing better than the one I’ve been in. When it comes to my next job and my next company and industry…I do have one key criteria that I am digging in my heels for –I want to be on a winning team.

I want to be a Yankee, a Jayhawk, a Wildcat, a member of a team that is known for being a powerhouse and that greets each year with enthusiasm for “where are we taking this from here!” Not every new year is greeted an Eeyore-like delivery of “how bad do you think things will get this year” punctuated with a biblical retelling of the challenges we face and the requisite how lucky we are to have jobs since people in our industry are losing jobs left and right. Ha!…well now they won’t say that to me anymore (Good! I always hated those emails).

I had thought the world was like this everywhere. I did because you immerse yourself in something and you work as hard as you can and love it and forget that there are other things, other companies, other challenges to meet and problems to solve and relationships to forge. It’s hard to keep perspective when you are trying to stay relevant to your company and as soon as you are cut loose, the working world shows a lot of possibility.

I can work hard doing this somewhere else and maybe find the rumored to exist 401K matching, educational credits, raises…and not be made to feel like Wesley from “The Princess Bride” whose captor The Dread Pirate Roberts would end each day with a “Great job today Wesley but I’ll most likely kill you in the morning”.