Impending Change

I have had the most extraordinary couple of weeks; people working for someone dream for something like this. As mentioned in my last post there is a lot on my mind to do with impending change. What is the impending change one might ask. Let’s get the cat out of the bag; I have been contemplating a change in my employer. Let me be explicit here; there is nothing wrong with my employer and I love the work that I do and enjoy the company of folks that I work with on a daily basis. In some ways it is a dream job for someone who wants to be driving strategy , ensuring that the systems designed and delivered are future proof for the next decade. Then why the contemplation of change one might ask ? There are a couple of reasons for it. 

Let me get to one in this post the other can be left for the future. I have always believed in my ability to deliver solutions in the most difficult of circumstances. There could be limits on resources , limits on budget , limits on whatever one can think of and I instinctively know what is the best solution possible in those circumstance. Conceited ? Yes. It is this very ability that sets me apart from my peers. Makes me arrogant too; the drawbacks of which would be the subject of some other post. 

Herein lies the contradiction for me. How do I know that I am delivering to the best of my potential ? I believe that I deliver to the best of my ability but am I selling myself short ? If for a little while we agree that I have no clue of my own ability and have been selling myself short then the question is how do I put a value to the work that I do or am expected to do. In this case the value is the salary that one takes home. For the last 27+ years I have always decided on work based on the joy one gets; it has never been about the salary. May be its time to think otherwise ? But then the flip side is that my core belief of work being joy and me being blessed to do work that is a hobby really would have to be thrown into the bin. I am not ready to do that.  Some of my current and past colleagues have told me that I don’t know how to communicate i.e don’t know how to blow my own trumpet. But then I have always believed that the results speak for themselves. 

I want to find the time to do all the nothing I want to do. Yes you read it right - Do the Nothing. I value time and joy above everything else. How do you quantify that with a salary ? After all one has to support their family. Something needs to change. 

It has been immense learning when I interviewed with two different organisations a couple of months ago. I was taken aback with the value that they saw. Maybe I was able to communicate and get across to them better that my existing employer. The impact of getting my first offer and then the next has caused immense confusion in my head for sure but then all of a sudden my existing employer values me as much as the completion. What !? Now it seems like I have been selling myself short. 

I appreciate the fact that my existing employer and 3 potential new employers (yes it is 3.. 2 have made an offer) would love to have me on their payroll contributing to the vision they have; but I am no closer to discovering what is my true value is to an potential employer. All I have discovered is - articulation of ones ability and achievements needs to be done on time and in the correct way. If you don’t do it you will miss the bus and your value could be zero. 

A non philosophical post for a change 

a partly confused C