Not One But Two Cool And Almost Exactly The Same Positions

So I had an interview with a company on Monday that is starting up a website for entrepreneurs. The idea is that they will help them with a one year plan to take the business to the "next level". The interview was great and the business owner and I had a good conversation.

It would require commuting to Toronto, but I’ve done it before.

So just this morning I did my regular job search and what do I find? Another company in Toronto who is hiring for almost the same position with the same business model in mind! How every unusual. I’ll send off an inquiry, sounds good.

On the other sites (monster.com; procom.ca; wowjobs.ca) there’s just the usual suspects of PM roles, noting that really sparks my interest. I may have to lower my expectations of the "awesome, cool, fun" job to a more realistic, "job job", but not just yet. I’ve got one decent idea to get some job leads, but it won’t happen for about a week.

The more that I think about the website for entrepreneurs, the more I like the idea. When I was "younger" I had many business outlines written down. I had one for a mail order business (before the internet was even close to main stream) for selling fossils; another one marketing this speaker device that swore (there was a "G" version too). Somewhere in the basement are a few small binders full of these plans. I remember seeing it a few months ago while tiding up.

I’ll have to look at them again to see how many of those ideas are now other people’s business!

The Search for Work

So why am I searching for a "job"? I’ve got my tea company on hold until I find a new supplier. It took me many months to find a supplier that met my needs. It’s difficult to find a replacement.

Don’t get me wrong, I like being an entrepreneur, but I also know when I need to make money. Right now the tea company is not the place for money making. When I do find a new job, rest assured employer, you will have a dedicated employee on your hands! As I mentioned in a previous post, the only thing that could pull me away from a full-time job, would be a call from Oprah’s people to me on the show (and I don’t think that’ll be happening any time soon!)

My search for work is not just for finding a job job. That I already have. What? You though I wasn’t working? Feh! I like working and making money, I’ve got responsibilities that take money to pay for! The job that I have is doing computer work at a local business. The work is easy and quite boring since there is not much of a challenge to the position. It also only pays $15/hr. You’ve got to be creative to support a family with that income. But I am thankful for the work as I know that there are others that don’t have any.

Each day I spend about an hour look for work surfing various websites. I got my routine down in this department. So far in the five months that I’ve been looking I’ve only applied to about a dozen positions. Some people do a blitz, applying to almost everything for which they are technically qualified. Not me.

I want a job that I’m going to enjoy, something that in my opinion is fun and cool. Some of the positions that I’ve applied for are:

• PM with a foreign exchange company for developing new e-commerce applications (was one of two final interviewees, didn’t get the position, too bad, the work sounded great);
• Sr PM in for a health care company for e-learning. Told the company after the first interview that I wasn’t interested as because I didn’t feel I could passionate about the work (even though they liked me and my experience);
• PM for a start-up company that would be helping entrepreneurs getting their business to the next level (just had the interview yesterday)

The nice thing about the start-up role is that I can do more marketing. My marketing skills are still developing, but they show promise. With the tea company I had dozens and dozens of articles, blog posts, magazines, newspapers articles written. I was responsible for finding the companies, pitching them, everything! I even got a few minutes on a national TV program. Not too shabby eh?

Still looking for the company that needs my skills that has the fun, cool, je ne sais quoi (but I don’t know what it is) elements I’m looking for.