Hi Kumud –
When I was in ninth grade, I filled out a form for the school counseling center with the title that approximated to “What I want to do when I grow up.” It was a one page document and I filled in What I enjoyed doing, What I felt were my gifts, What I wanted to do for recreation, and What I wanted to do for a potential career.
I recall very little about my replies except that somewhere on the page I wrote the words “Writer”. Now being a writer is a challenging career path and I’m not sure if I would recommend that path for my children. My parents certainly didn’t recommend that path for me. I ended up in Engineering and when it didn’t work out, I transferred to a major called Communications.
For the past 3 months, I have been looking for a new career job. My recent titles have been Project Assistant, Project Manager, and Business Analyst and I consider myself a very seasoned technical communicator. This past Monday I received a phone call and I was offered a permanent position with the same enterprise that paid me as a contractor a few months ago. The problem was that this was the second job offer within a week and I was already entertaining the other position. I was in the humbling position of having two positions “on the table”.
The world is full of choices and paths. Late yesterday I wrote the hiring manager at the enterprise where I worked as a contractor last year and turned down her job offer. The hiring manager wished me well on my journey. I enjoyed seeing that word, “journey”. We are all on a journey. I selected a career role with a very visible government agency that I consider perfect. Maybe that journey will be 15 or more years or maybe the journey will have twists and turns before then.
Each year I am surprised and grateful that my wife and I have enough (income) for food, shelter, and a modest bit of entertainment. While I am not fond of job transitions, it always works out. I am grateful the path led me to an incredible opportunity where I will enjoy growing and contributing in areas very closely aligned with my technical communications ability. I am grateful that I had two offers at one time and in a small way, the universe allowed me to evaluate and confirm “Yes, position A is the perfect fit”. When presented with multiple choices, we are able to confirm that a selection is not arbitrary or just good enough. And that’s what makes me thrive – trusting there is a perfect fit – and it certainly happened this time.
Best,
David Tumbarello
Today listening to Forest Birdsong 2.
David Tumbarello is a technical communicator with over 50 years in the growth industry, with 49 of those years communicative and on two feet. When he is not technically communicating, he enjoys hiking, biking, and writing. Feel free to connect with David on LinkedIn.
