They Say that when a man turns 40, something happens to you.
They say you see the world with a new focus
and with greater meaning. They say you see the world with a reflection of the
things that are more important to self, community and the world at large. They
say you become more settled, more in touch, more involved in the making of the
world forward. Reflections and lessons of the past are applied for the future.
I think I agree.
I started my job with Calix just before I turned 40. A Corporate Contract Recruiter on a hamster
wheel of a Career. There are hundreds if not thousands of people out there like
me. The job is always evolving. It’s a changing industry and if you allow yourself
to remain complicit to your original technique, and do not evolve your
understanding to match the times, you’ll become an ineffective and undesirable dinosaur.
I have to wonder what they think of me. The praise I get
from candidates is great, but because I’m not a member of the staff- full time,
regular- I can’t be brought into the family as they would expect I should be. They
probably can’t perceive the difference and difficulty of being a third party.
Separate but Equal comes to mind. But it may be more appropriate
to say Equal, but Separate.
A livelihood as a contractor.
It’s tough to live your professional life without a future. Every
day there are questions. What’s next? How do I pay for Health Insurance? What
about Retirement? What is my career path? Where will I wind up next?
How does this year over year resume turnover affect my long term employment
prospects? How do I break out of this cycle?
Different Questions; Difficult Questions.
I look for answers to hard questions from all the resources
around me… the company is the first, since they are paying the bills. But
really it’s candidates mostly that give me the most insight. They have an honest agenda of need for the Right Now and the Long Term. The unique nature
of the individual and their problems is fascinating to me. I see threads that connect
us all. I believe it’s a byproduct of the third party nature of my life and livelihood.
Like everyone, I have to first be true to myself. Circumstances
around us swirl and we can sometimes feel caught up in a world that is moving
on without us. But in the stillness of that isolation, if you can fight off
that feeling of panic and dread, you can learn to see new opportunities and discover
new strengths in yourself. I think these are the strengths that underscore our true nature and get to the essence of what we can, should and will become.
A job is the work you do for someone. A career is the knowledge
and experience you gain from that work applied to your own life and livelihood,
over time. It’s more than the daisy
chain of jobs strung together to say where you have worked. It’s about your impact
and what solutions you can make to the world and community around you.
A career is a valuable thing. Valuing one’s Career is a good
idea. Employers who value Career value their communities and their employees.
Career then becomes an important word. The people who talk about that Word
(ie, recruiters) are important then too. It’s a problem then when the word isn't valued. It’s my problem at least.
SO what’s Next??
What good is knowledge and experience if you don’t use it…? Or
don’t share it? It seems like an awful waste, so right now, I’m feeling my ground
for what I can do with my knowledge and experience for what I want to do NEXT.
One thing’s for sure… In true Libra fashion, I’m going to
see if I can help people and companies through and from my experience. I had
one full year with Calix. It has been a great run. I have LOVED every minute of it, and believe in this company, but it’s definitely time to leave this job behind and get on with the mystery
of what Next is for me.
41 is right around
the corner… Another set of experiences under my belt, more perspective on the
world around us, tons of experiences, tools and ideas to leverage and most of all, a lot of important decisions to make. NEXT is on its way. Stay
Tuned for what that will mean to me. Things are moving fast now so hang on.
More to come, but for now it’s finish up with Calix. As
always- thanks for being there and most especially for forgiving the typos. Stay
tuned.
Cheers to the future,
Rob Segall
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