Job Criteria, The Second Time Around

Unlike most of my college cohorts, I stayed at the same job out of
college for ten years. I used to joke with people who asked about it
that "either I had good job satisfaction or was too incompetent to
find a better job; hopefully more the former than the latter." In
truth, I had great job satisfaction at my first job out of college.

One downside to working at the same place for ten years right out of
college, though, is that you don't have a very large sample size of
job searching experiences to draw from when you're searching for a job
the next time around. In fact, part of my job at my first job was to
be the interviewer. So this time around, I went to my job interviews
with a lot more insight on the perspective of the person on the other
side of the table from me than on my side.

To compound matters, job searching in your thirties is more complex
than in your twenties. It's easier to be idealistic, for example, and
take a job to change the world, when you don't have a family and
related obligations to worry about.

I hope that I am no less idealistic now than when I first graduated
from college; I've just added a little realism to the idealism. So
when I was looking this second time around, I knew I didn't want to
settle for a job that I couldn't wake up every morning and know I was
making a positive contribution to society, to people, and to the
Kingdom of God.

But this second time around, I added two other criteria. First, I had
to be around people smarter than me, doing work that challenged me
intellectually and expanded my professional experiences. And second,
the particulars of the job – pay, benefits, commute, hours, stress
level – had to work for my current station in life.

Although God has been remarkably faithful to me in my job searching –
I count my internship during grad school in this, so we're talking now
about a sample size of two – I doubted along the way that I could find
such a job. But once again, God has provided. I'm happy to announce
I will be starting next week at a small but active consulting firm
called Econsult.

The job will have me on projects that I believe will be beneficial for
urban Philadelphia and other localities we'll be tackling. I couldn't
ask for a more intellectually stimulating workplace and co-workers.
And did I mention the office is twelve blocks from my house?

While I haven't been steady in my faith in God to provide, He's been
steady in His faithful provision. It just goes to show you that the
more we change, the more God stays the same.