Dodging Bullets with the Headhunter

Back during the Job Search of 2016, I found Nick Corcodilos - the dude who runs a website called "Ask the Headhunter" - and it changed my life. I read all about how to "do" a job search while I was in the middle of a job search. 

Fast forward to 2021 and my Job Search of 2016 has been complete for over 5 years. However, I still read or scan his weekly columns in the hope that I can still learn something. This week, on August 3, 2021, Corcodilos published an article named "Rescinded Job Offer - Did You Dodge a Bullet" and I felt compelled to mention this article, not because of any personal relevance to me, but because it tells a story about being pressured into accepting a position. My initial reaction to the article was "Wow, it would be really cool to have a company that wanted me that bad." 

But, then, I realized something. 

There's no reason to long for that with a company that is not my current employer. I should be working every day to make my current employer want me that bad by demonstrating my skills and abilities in my daily work. It's an ambitious goal and it requires tapping into the motivation I keep within myself. Tapping into that motivation is not one of my strengths. Typically, I am content to simply go from day to day, doing my work, without really focusing on matters outside of my day-to-day work.

For example, a co-worker asked me about the Knowledge Management project yesterday. I found myself saying things that surprised me, such as, my co-worker is retiring on September 1, 2021, which is 4 weeks from yesterday, I don't know who her replacement will be, and I don't know when the system changes that we submitted years ago have been placed on the back burner while the system changes for other ITIL processes have been placed on the front burner. All three of those items are not good for the Knowledge Management project and are not good for me, as an employee. What am I going to do about it?

Another example is that I had a meeting with the Directors and CIO on July 13th about Disaster Recovery documentation. There were action items, from that meeting, that have been delayed due to summer vacations. The action items that I needed to complete are now completed and relevant changes to the way I do my work on this project have passed my own testing - the changes are in Production so that means that the action items that others have been assigned need to be worked on. Plus, all relevant vacations are over. Yet, I have not seen the results of those action items. What am I going to do about it? 

Finally, my Director is out of the office until the week of August 16th. I have a list of tasks that I created during my last status meeting. Basically, I have 7 workdays to get those tasks complete. I have worked on some of those tasks, but, honestly, I am not complete with the majority of them. What am I going to do about it?

If I had a long sleeve shirt on, I'd answer "Roll up my sleeves and get to work." Instead, I'll simply say, "Get to work!"