one post from the defunct transitions blog on typepad
what shall i say to a reading public deprived of reading my words for almost two years? (in this case, the reading public of previous blogs consisted only of one regular reader in late 2005-early 2006 ;) what excuses can i offer?
truly no explanations can completely exonerate this lapse. i neglected writing as a therapeutic outlet and means for creative self-expression and became occupied with other worthy and less than worthy pursuits, but certainly ones that took away from the inordinate amount of time that had been devoted to styling and perfecting the blog.
today when logging into typepad, i was reminded that the account is on a continuous billing cycle.
an entire 12 months are now paid up as of January 22, 2008, so why not start another blog?
this "new" blog ("new" in January-February 2008) consisted of three or four entries and like previous forays into the blogosphere were summarily abandoned. for some reason, selected images uploaded in 2008 remain on the typepad servers, even after canceling the typepad account in January 2009. a list of these photos is provided below.
for this blog, the focus turns to career development and new opportunities to make a difference in the world. career development became increasingly significant to me last year, when the company i worked for changed owners. i started on and completed several management-driven projects last year which would never have been possible in years previously.
as i re-enter the employment market again after six years of continuous employment first with WebSideStory, Inc. and then its successor Visual Sciences, Inc., it occurs to me that work is not merely a set of tasks that a person performs for several hours a day in an office or a kitchen or telecommuting from home. work also includes the less tangible aspects of verbal and written interaction with colleagues, managers, and on occasion, executives. work is a uniquely social endeavor.
these interactions are at times directly related to the occupational domain, but often not. certainly participation in lunches, after-work drinks, and other events qualify as work-related, whether a person actually discusses marshaling errors and the production staging environment over oksusu cha and all-you-can-eat sushi at Yoshi Sushi, or trades witty repartee with colleagues who need a smoke break companion outside the building.
but beyond these activities lies the notion of building -- and maintaining -- a network of professional contacts. a recent career transitions seminar through Lee Hecht Harrison in San Diego illuminated this point, painfully. the facilitator in his opening comments about networking mentioned that we often think about building the network only after submitting a UI claim to the EDD. the establishment and renewal of relationships with current and former colleagues must be an ongoing process, but a recursive process that requires progressively less maintenance.
one online tool for easing the maintenance of professional networks is undoubtedly LinkedIn. another is NotchUp (launched only this month). my LinkedIn profile has been completely revised twice in the last seven days, with plans to add more eye-catching self-marketing content soon. stay tuned for here's the updated and remade résumé, or check in the left sidebar for a link to the résumé.
