Yesterday was four weeks since my last day at Automattic, and I’ve been keeping busy.
Selected Activities since October 3, 2024, by the numbers:
- 15 calls or in-person meetings with former colleagues and/or fellow travelers somewhere on the continuum of labor at the moment. THANK YOU to everyone I met with in October for your kind words, thoughts, and advice so far.
- 3 Job Search Council meetings. The Never Search Alone community has been solid so far. I’m now the moderator of my group, and it’s good practice for all my meeting facilitation skills.
- 12 webinars or networking calls. My learning this month was focused on climate, sustainable software, and partnerships, with a few briefings on open federal government roles mixed in.
- 4 calls with folks looking for jobs at companies where I have connections: I’m fielding questions about listings from people in various communities and networks I’ve joined. Gotta feed the karmic beast.
- 4 cross country meets, 6 soccer games, countless practices and swimming classes. Because the youth sports parenting grind stops for no one.
- 6 blog posts. First, a flurry about leaving Automattic, and then, I’ve been trying to post something weekly. (Like the blog post you’re reading… right now.) You can subscribe by email, but this isn’t an email newsletter, really. But you can think of it that way if you like those better than blogs. I’m a standard WordPress.com email feature, nothing fancy. I don’t have plans to move my personal site right now, but the next professional site I build might be on a different platform to diversify a bit and learn something new.
- 12 job applications. This is an intentionally low number, as I’m trying to spend my time focusing on deciding what I want to do next, rather than wildly spraying resumes across a wide range of roles at tech companies. 5 out of 12 of these applications were already declined. 8 out of 12 of these applications are for partnership roles. 3 out of 12 of these applications are at sustainability companies or sustainability divisions in larger companies.
- A gazillion podcasts: As previously noted, I’m listening to Lenny, Green IO, The Scope 3 Podcast, 20VC, and of course, 60 Songs That Explain The ‘90s: The 2000s.
What’s next for me:
Registering an LLC, grabbing a domain, and opening a bank account to get set up for a consulting business.
A question for you:
If you’ve done consulting work, how did you land your first customer? (Email is a fine way to answer, unless you want to leave a public comment on this post or the LinkedIn version.)