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12/06/2004: "lo, I am Janus"

January is named after the god (Roman? Greek?) Janus. Janus has two faces, one that looks forward, and one that looks backward. Fitting for the month that begins a new year, no?

Well, my personal Janus-esque-ness comes from my current career search. (Note how I didn't say, "job search".) It seems that I'm being pulled in two different directions at the same time...

Today, I had an appointment to meet with a recruiter about an engineering job. That went quite well. Once I had completed that, I headed back and dropped in on a dealership that was recently advertising a sales position opening, where I happen to have a good "in" with the business manager. Despite the cold call, it went quite well, but not well enough to the point of leaving with product literature and being told when I start.

Tomorrow I will call another dealership, and likely get some contact information for yet others that may require further sales assistance. Concurrently, I am preparing for another engineering interview for tomorrow that came from the interview from today. Wednesday I'm sure I'll be talking to yet more auto dealers in the area, and that is also the day I have a phone interview for an engineering position out in Calgary.

Ugh. A jobsearch by itself is bad enough, but when you're trying to do two different job searches at the same time, it's downright exhausting. I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I guess I'll find out when I see who's the first to say, "You're hired."

One item that I have yet to decisively clear up is whether going for a wholesale career change will be an irreversible choice. My wife is worried that after a year in auto sales it would be damned near impossible to get back into engineering if I so desired. Not wanting to close any doors, I'm exploring this option by asking various recruiters, former employers, and career counselors their opinion on the matter. So far I've got two differing opinions.

Sigh. I just want to make a living. Is that so bad, really?