The Gift Of Work

After a five year stint during which I divided my time between consulting, family, and non-profit work, I have decided to return to the full-time work force.  I have been privileged to find fun part-time work with some terrific clients for the past five years, and it enabled a once-in-a-lifetime chance to spend a ton of time with my two boys as they grew into their teen years.  The past five years have also given me the freedom to help raise over $1M in donations for Global Hope, a charity providing homes and care for abandoned and orphaned children in Romania and Kenya.  However, it is time to turn the page. 

Some of you probably suspected that's what I was preparing to do when I started this blog last October, and if so, you guessed right.  But you are probably wondering why I would choose to work full time again, when a great many people would gladly jump at the chance to make ends meet by working part-time. And it's true, there have been wonderful benefits from being the master of more of my own time.  The time I have spent with my family has been priceless.

So why change it?  For me, it's about being put to my highest and best use.  How can my time on this earth be best spent?  It's a question I ask myself all the time.  Five years ago, the answer was simple: my kids were 8 and 11, my wife wanted to start a new career, and a non-profit that has done a world of good for dozens of children was in desperate need of new leadership.  I weighed those opportunities against the opportunity to continue in a senior role at Level 3 Communications and, with a ton of support from colleagues at Level 3 and from my friends, I launched into a part-time consulting practice as an interim phase allowing me the time to focus on other needs.

Now, the boys are 13 and 16 and my wife is established in her career and new leadership is ready to take the reins at the non-profit, and I'm itching to get back into full-time work in telecom.  To be totally honest, I think that work is a gift, and I've missed it.

I discovered telecom early in my work life, and it was a truly lucky find for me.  Not everyone gets to work in a job that they love.  Sure, there were days when the work wasn't fun, and sometimes those days turned into weeks and months of drudgery, but more often than not, I was excited to go to work.  My telecom roots are with MCI and Level 3, companies with reputations as upstart competitors, which suited my personality well.

But why not just stick with part-time work?  The truth is that part-timers are never really full members of the team, and that daily interaction with a team that you respect and admire is a big part of the reward I get from working.  Also, part-timers often don't have full ownership of a task or function.  I miss that, too.  Lastly, I'd be telling a white lie if I left out the fact that I am looking forward to the full-time paycheck.

So, sometime between here and January, I hope to join a great team and put my shoulder to the wheel again.  If you are interested in talking with me about an opportunity, please contact me at ike@practiq.com.

      

Comments

[Parkite]

Good luck getting back in the saddle!