Perserverance Pays Off

Regular readers of this Blog (both of you!) have been subjected to my occasional whining about my dissatisfaction with my current employment situation. Well, it's time to share some good news - I am getting a new job! It is a finance job, but it's also in the environmental arena. I don't usually get into specific personal information in this Blog, but tonight I am excited to inform you all that I will be working for both the Maine and Vermont Chapters of the Nature Conservancy, right in downtown Brunswick, Maine.

I couldn't be more pleased with this development. When I was unemployed last spring and summer, I went through the excercise of identifying my "ideal" job. While acknowledging that "Powerball Winner" would be a wonderful job description, my reality-based answer was "Finance manager for the Nature Conservancy in Maine". No kidding! At the time, I met with a former banking associate of mine who is now employed by the conservancy. This meeting was primarily to strategize my efforts to transition from the for-profit sector to the not-for-profit arena (which he had done recently), and to help expand my job search network. At the time I expressed how much I would like to work for TNC, but (as I expected) there was no position in the offing.

Eventually I landed my job for which I was highly qualified with a "Good Maine Company". Alas, I wasn't all that thrilled about the company, but the bills don't go away just because your severence does, so I accepted the position. As my friends and family are well aware, the job turned out to be worse than I had anticipated. Quite a bit worse, actually.

Shortly thereafter I saw an ad in the paper for exactly the job I was looking for - Finance Manager at the Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. I called my contact and expressed my interest. I was given an interview, after which I started composing my resignation letter. Not exactly true, but I was starting to fantasize about what I would say. Unfortunately, management turnover and budget concerns led the Maine Chapter to try a different approach. I was quite heartbroken, and left to spend the following months moping and complaining to anybody who would listen, and occasionally my reader(s) here.

It turns out that things didn't work out quite the way the Maine Chapter had hoped, and so my friend gave me a call and said that they were looking to fill the position again. The long story short is that I was on the short list of people they were considering. To make this a full-time position, the Maine Chapter partnered with the Vermont Chapter, which is about half the size of Maine. I spoke with several people in Maine and my "boss" from Vermont and was offered the job, which I accepted on the spot.

This is a very exciting time for me. I will be taking a pay cut, but not as much as I was willing to accept, and it is completely worth it to know that my days will be spent helping to preserve the natural beauty, and natural resources, of this great planet of ours. I start in a couple of weeks and just can't wait to begin.

Readers of this Blog will remember that I have stated on several occasions that I wish to write for a living, and this isn't a writing job. But I will have an extra two hours a day, because the work day and commute are both shorter, which I plan to parlay into more writing time. I hope to begin freelancing on the side within the next year. I am taking a "how to freelance" class this weekend, and I have also completed a book review that I will be pitching to a couple of publications in the next couple of days (more on that in the near future). Things are moving forward in this area as well. Just as "keeping my eyes on the prize" seems to have paid off in this job endeavor, I believe it will pay off for my writing career.

This move doesn't mean that the Land Blog (yes, it's still alive) will turn into a series of TNC press releases. While the Conservancy does remarkable work in protecting "The Last Great Places on Earth" and I am excited to be a part of that effort, I still have a strong passion for exploring and advocating sustainable energy sources, and for finding ways to conserve fossil fuels. This will continue to be a central focus of the Land Blog (the soon-to-be published post that references TNC work notwithstanding!).

So thank you to all of my friends and family who stuck by me and believed in me and helped send positive energy my way as I have gone through this process. I am very grateful for all of your well wishes, and I look forward to this next step in my life's adventure.