First Steps for my "Next Step"
Just over a week ago, I found myself looking at the above “No more events today” message on my phone, an extremely rare occurrence for a weekday at 10:30. The day before I had written this on LinkedIn:
After almost two great years at Sentry, I'm ready to take on my next challenge! With over 10 years of experience leading product development teams for SaaS web startups, I'm excited to see what's next. If you or someone you know is looking for someone with my skillset, let's connect! Thank you!
<aside>Actually, I shouldn’t say that I wrote the above. I used LinkedIn’s “Draft with AI” feature, which takes a 30-word content prompt and it spits back a post written in distinct "LinkedIn-Voice" style. I’m not sure yet if I hate it, or appreciate not having to actually write in that style myself. I am a little surprised the text didn’t suggest that I was “thrilled” though.</aside>
So I’m doing all the standard things: upgrading my personal website (look I have posts now!), updating my LinkedIn Profile, revising my resume, and I’m curious if it might be interesting to do some of this work “in public.” This post is the first step in experimenting with that.
Articulating a vision
Week 1 was all about getting those basic items off the ground. Week 2 is where I want to start establishing a rhythm and habits. In my management roles, I value the clarity that comes from having some simple and clear goals connected to key objectives. Let’s apply that to this process, and start by identifying those objectives,
- Find my next job (obvious) 💼
- Take advantage of my extra time right now to,
- Experiment with publishing a mobile app 👨🎨
- Tackle some long-neglected home improvements 🏠
- Maintain or increase overall health & well-being ❤️
Making a plan
Those seem reasonably simple, clear, and achievable. Let’s set some goals that will help measure progress towards those objectives. I have some ideas about what each of these objectives could look like on a medium-term time horizon (e.g. within a month, or by the end of the year), but since applying this kind of rigour to personal pursuits is new for me, setting weekly goals should provide the right balance of accountability and simplicity, and allow me to integrate new thoughts/information in a timely fashion.
This week’s goals
- 💼 Submit at least 5 job applications
- 👨🎨 Build a prototype game board for a game app idea I have
- 🏠 Complete 2 household improvements
- ❤️ Close my Apple Fitness Rings every day
My current To-Do list
- Upgrade website to support writing posts
- Write a post about setting weekly goals
- Pick a framework for rendering the game board: SceneKit? SpriteKit? Something else? 👨🎨
- Figure out the base set of tiles needed and sketch some examples 👨🎨
- Audit & reorganize the storage container cupboard 🏠
- Figure out a simple way to do activity tracking to support weekly goal accountability
Is this “Job Searching in Public” a bad idea? Something you’re interested in seeing more of? Let me know either way. You can find me on Bluesky, shoot me an email, or I’d be thrilled to get a message from you on LinkedIn!
Parting Thoughts
- Speaking of Bluesky, need an invite? I have a few.
- I wonder if there's a job search equivalent for “gym, tan, laundry”?
- I bet there are a ton of reasons I shouldn't be making a Jersey Shore reference in 2023... I don't even want to look it up. 😬