Since 2015, I have been trying to get selected for the Empire State Building Run-Up. I just learned that I’ve been accepted for the first time. I’ll be climbing 86 stories to the top.
Believe it or not, this is almost as exciting to me as getting picked for Jeopardy. My history with climbing stairs for fitness runs deep, and it goes back about as long as my love of Jeopardy. It certainly had a bigger impact on my life.
Continue reading “Up, up and away”
I truly hate to say it, but Meta is crushing it with Threads. I have avoided it until now, disinterested in investing any more of my attention and data in Meta products, and annoyed by them injecting Threads posts in my Instagram feed. But having tried most of the Twitter alternatives, Threads instantly set itself apart in the immediate experience.
Continue reading “Threads is a winner (ugh.)”It is always helpful to have a roadmap for an unfamiliar experience. I did not, as I embarked on an intense job search. But maybe my reflection will be useful to others.
I noticed that the process has followed an arc. Much like chess, it has a distinct opening, middlegame, and endgame. Each of these phases has a very different feel, and has required me to optimize in different ways.
Continue reading “Arc of a job search”
“I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.”
This is one of the big takeaways of my job search, as it nears its end. This is hard for me to acknowledge, as someone who can get along with nearly anyone and with a track record that highlights my versatility.
I don’t mean this in terms of getting along with interviewers. I mean in terms of people’s vision for the role they’re hiring for and whether I’m a high confidence match.
But I think that’s OK.
Continue reading “Rejection is a gift”
Last week I learned of the death of one of the grownups from my childhood church, George Shores. Mr. Shores was my assigned mentor for an academic competition. Winning it may well have been the first event in a virtuous cycle1, setting me up for a tremendous amount of opportunity. Learning of his death made me reflect on the ways in which relatively small acts of altruism can make a huge impact.
Continue reading “The butterfly effect of kindness”
For the first time in my life, I am unemployed without having my next occupation lined up. For years, I have felt that this would actually be the best way to search for a new job. I have never felt I had the chance to see more than a glimpse of the market. For months, I’ve been considering taking the plunge into a full-time job search.
As 2024 arrived, events overtook me, and the hypothetical became real.
Continue reading “Leaving the nest”
Protect your notification space. This is my #1 tip for managing time and attention.
My goal is to to only get notifications for things that require my timely action or awareness. Everything else needs to be out of my notifications, especially marketing and news. Unfortunately, enforcing this is a continuous job.
I want to talk about why I think this is critically important and then some concrete strategies I apply.
Continue reading “Silence is golden”
It started 6 years ago as an improvised chant.
My oldest daughter was learning to pull herself up with the help of her play pen’s fence. She would respond to my wife and I gleefully shouting “up!” and “down!” at her, but she was always more interested in “up”.
Continue reading “Never down, always up”
Vulnerability doesn’t come naturally to me. While I really enjoy sharing and discussing things, I do not like attention. It makes me feel unsafe. So, it was hard to post my #OpenForWork post. It’s also hard to post these sentences. But I just want to say that it’s been incredibly heartwarming to receive check-ins, solid leads on roles, and warm intros. It has made a huge difference in the opportunities that I’m aware of and my ability to make progress through those early stages of the application funnel.
I’m sharing this because if there’s anybody else who can relate, maybe this is a nudge to push through the discomfort and ask for support. And if there’s anything I can ever do to help anyone, please let me know.
And as an update, the search is ongoing, but going well. My concern level is not “zero”, but I’m pretty sure things will work out. I feel very fortunate. My worries are with folks who are earlier career or do jobs that have less demand. It’s a wild time.
Like many Jeopardy contestants, I find that people love asking me about the experience. I, in turn, love talking about Jeopardy! A question nobody has ever asked me is “what’s it like to answer a clue?”
Why answer this unasked question? First of all, folks might find it interesting that something that looks so simple on TV is actually quite complicated. Secondly, for future contestants, I think that figuring out how to optimize each tiny aspect of the “clue loop” could help them perform at their best.
Continue reading “Everything, all at once: inside a single Jeopardy clue”
Never Down, Always Up 