Manifesting Me Some Destiny

Work. There is a reason they pay you, right? I don't buy into the "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" thing, but it shouldn't suck.

When I was in high school I had a position about dating: If it isn't fun >90% of the time, bag it. This was advice for friends in tumultuous, angsty, drama-riddled relationships and also for myself. I think the general principle applies to a lot in life. It doesn't have to be sunshine and unicorns all the time. In fact, working for or through something that is hard is a wonderful growth opportunity and can be incredibly satisfying and character-building. But there is a difference between challenging and soul sucking.

I wouldn't say work for the last year-ish was "soul sucking" exactly, but it was severely dissatisfying. My non-profit was acquired in Q3 2014 by a for-profit company in the same field. I wouldn't have applied to work for this new company, but there we were. I still believed in the work, I definitely believed in my team and there were some good professional (and character-building) opportunities. They fed us some nice words during and after the acquisition. I was optimistic.

Then this last summer my boss, my former boss, my first boss and my mentor were all laid off, along with others, with no notice and my optimism was replaced with disillusionment. People with incredible value were tossed away as a "cost saving exercise" to save a bit of cash on the short-term balance sheet. The true cost was the undermining of our ability to get the job done, let alone do great work, and decimating morale.

There had been a gradual accumulation of warning signs but at this point I started to understand that the company and I had irreconcilable values.

I started with my work there in 2008 and over the course of seven years had a few opportunities to think about whether I was in the right place and what I wanted out of work. In particular, The Dip by Seth Godin, got me thinking about "when to quit and when to stick" and "under what conditions will you quit?"

I didn't have super clear answers but my thinking basically boiled down to values and for me they shook out as:

• Be Transparent: Be open and truthful about what is going on and why. Have integrity, especially when it is tough.
• Do Great Work: You have to keep the lights on but value excellence over bigger profits. It also means making the world a better place in some way.
• Treat People Well: Consider what business decisions will mean for the people in the company. Don't lay people off right before Christmas. 
• Have Fun: There should be regular bouts of laughter.

In my mind these add up to a much more humane and enjoyable place to work and I don't want to waste my abilities on a place that doesn't appreciate these values. I'm also dead certain teams and organizations with these values are better equipped, and more likely, to be successful.

My company was way off the mark on all these fronts, but how does a gal with very general abilities (great motivator! good communicator!) go about a job search for a "Good" company?
Randomly. Patiently.

My plan was:

• August: Get resume updated and go to Iceland. (See here too. And here. And here.)
• September: Be open to possibilities and let my network know I was thinking about my "next step." Casually look around at companies and job postings.
• Q4: Let my immediate boss (and dear friend) know we should plan for 2016 without me. Finish out the year and prep for my team and the work to be as successful as possible without me. Practice applying for jobs.
• Q1 2016: Leave. Take a couple months off to run, do pottery, read, write, see friends.

Amidst casual conversations and looking at random job postings and lists of companies I got a job pushed to me from Glassdoor or LinkedIn. It was for a company in a totally different field I have zero experience in. But the job was a blend of people management and operations and I was thoroughly qualified (weird right?) I was also about to start practicing applying for jobs.

In looking at the company's website it looked like a fun place, they do great work on a lot of levels and are a leader with regards to women in the workplace (and doing it for all the right reasons.) So I applied.

In stalking connections on LinkdIn there was one person at the company with whom I shared a handful of connections. I was still in casually-curious mode so figured I would wait until after the phone screening with HR to reach out. I wanted to make sure it was actually someplace I wanted to be before getting others involved. In the phone screen it turned out the person I had a few connections to was the hiring manager for this position.

I reached out to a mutual friend for a referral and intel, got a response that same day and Friday had a 30-minute chat with the hiring manger. 30-minutes turned into 60 and by the end of the chat I had shifted from casually-curious to seriously-interested. The following Thursday I had in person interviews with a handful of people and came away with the agonizing feeling of "I really like it and want the job but I don't think the interviews went well." However, a few days later they invited me back for a second round of interviews, the next day I got a verbal offer and we signed the papers the day after that.

From the time I spoke with the hiring manager to signed paperwork was just under nine business days. I started my new job three weeks later.

I'm about to start week seven of that new job and feel so incredibly great and grateful. I could wax on about the ridiculous benefits (beer on tap, unlimited PTO) but it is so much bigger than the perks. My first three weeks were almost all training and included a week in CA at HQ that was 99% training. I've been there a matter of days and already had the opportunity to drastically overhaul, improve and relaunch a major system and process that impacts everyone (25 people) every day and informs how we make business decisions. They value and appreciate what I bring to the table.

In the interviews and my interactions since starting it is clear to me that my larger team, and the company as a whole, share the values I articulated for myself late summer.

In short, I feel like I'm in the right place.

Photo from the Redwoods two years ago. That also felt like the right place.

2015 Reading

I've been keeping better track of my reading the last couple of years. Here is (most of) what I gobbled up in 2015!  For reference, here is 2014 and a partial list from 2013.

Linked books are my top ten recommendations. What do you recommend for 2016?

Fiction

Queenpin, Karen Abbott.  Contemporary writer doing the 1950's noir thing.  Very well done, good writing, quick, fun.

Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen Oyeyemi.  Exquisite.  Gorgeous story-telling, lovely recasting of some of our deepest fairy tales and a damn fine writer overall.  Best book I've read in a long while.

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr. Best thing I've read in years and maybe ever. The structure, momentum, story, characters, imagery and writing were all independently brilliant and then woven together and played off each other so beautifully.

Still Life with Breadcrumbs, Anna Quindlen.  Lovely work and some fascinating things with story timelines.

The Patron Saint of Liars, Ann Patchett.  Great book. Love Ann Patchett.

Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood.  Excellent.  Layers and layers.

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula LeGuin.  The first in a series of fantasy, magic-y young adult novels pre-dating Harry Potter by a few decades.  Super fun read.

The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula LeGuin.  The second Earthsea novel and very well done.  Dark, earthy, feminine power.

Reykjavik Nights, Arnaldur Indridason. Set in Iceland by an Icelandic author.  Didn't really do much for me but was fun to read as we prepared for our trip to the land of ice and fire!

Beloved, Toni Morrison. Finally got around to reading this Pulitzer winning amazing work. Like reading a poem.

Taft, Ann Patchett. Lovely.

Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout. I like short stories in theory more than I find I actually enjoy them. This was, essentially, a collection of short stories but added together for a portrait of a woman, a town, a life. I didn't like it after the first few stories but then it grew on me.

You Suck, Christopher Moore. I love Christopher Moore and this is him in his element. It can be hard to find quality writing that is fun and funny. Christopher Moore is one of my go-to's for that. This is the second of the Bloodsucking Fiends SF vampire trilogy.

Skin Tight, Carl Hiaasen. An oldie but goodie, fun and funny. Classic Hiaasen if you are into that, which I am.

Death in Holy Orders, PD James. Classic PD James.  Loved it, love her.

The Cartel, Don Winslow. So so good. Fiction inspired by the real-life doings of Mexican drug cartels and our War on Drugs.

Lucky You, Carl Hiaasen. Not my favorite Hiaasen but entertaining.

Bite Me: A Love Story, Christopher Moore. The final installment of the Bloodsucking Fiends trilogy and solid Christopher Moore ridiculousness.

Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie. A rift on 1,001 nights and hectic, weird and so much fun. A bizarre combination of timelines, perspectives and stories within stories within stories. Didn't quite work but I enjoyed it.

Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie. Intricate story lines and a fascinating mixture of cultures, histories, fantasies and more. So odd in some ways and I liked it but am not sure everyone would.

Non-Fiction 
Smart and/or useful stuff (or at least that is the hope)

Manage Your Day-To-Day, Jocelyn Geil. A collection of very short essays by really smart people on how to be and work in this world.  Some real gems.  Also the physical design of the book was truly lovely.

You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike in a Seminar, David Sandler. A book for work about sales and while I didn't love the tone or some of the approaches he has a lot of really great perspectives and approaches.

The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg.  It was everywhere in 2014 and was really well done.  Interesting, useful, engaging. Very highly recommend.

Give and Take, Adam Grant.  Very interesting and useful.  Strongly recommend, especially for all of you inclined toward "giving" who sometimes think you need to be tougher.

Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul, Stuart Brown.  Meh.  I've loved interviews with him and dig the basic concept but found the book very flat.  An annoying combination of unsubstantiated (or at least un-referenced) science-ish stuff and stories that felt more like "proof by example" than "illustrative."

Being Mortal, Atul Gawande.  A surgeon writing about the inadequacies of our medical systems to address end of life.  Very lovely writing, incredibly helpful perspectives and some real solutions for all of us.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink.  I saw the RSA whiteboard talk, the TED talk and listened to several interviews before I finally got around to reading the book.  It was super great and useful.  I'm making encouraging my staff read it now too.

To Sell is Human, Dan Pink. Precursor to Drive and much of the content is familiar from other books I've read and TED talks I've seen. Great.

Follow Your Gut, Rob Knight.  Soooooooooo cool.  If you are a dork about how bacteria help your health, which I totally am (and have been since before it was such a thing.)  In a parallel universe I'm a microbiologist.

Stoned, A Doctor's Case for Medical Marijuana, David Casarett. Interesting and timely. Definitely a doctor writing a book (vs. a writer writing about doctor-y stuff) but that was part of the interest.

Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson. I loved her first book and this one was great too. Hilarious and also a helpful glimpse at what it is like to live with mental illness; a combo you don't see every day.

Anything you Want, Derek Sivers. Short and sweet and timely.

A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Anna Quindlen. Lovely little snack.

Brain Candy
It's important to turn your brain off and just be entertained sometimes.

Alibi Man, Tami Hoeg.  Entertaining and probably better for my brain than television.  Maybe.

Sweetheart, Chelsea Cain.  Twisted, sick, murder mystery.  2nd in a series featuring a lady serial killer and set in Portland, which is fun.  Good writing too.

From Doon with Death, Ruth Rendell. Despite my great consumption of quality murder mystery books somehow I missed Ruth Rendell.  This one was fun but the ending, while delighting me with a twist, annoyed me politically.

9th Girl, Tami Hoag.  Loved it.  Like crap TV but much more delicious.

The Brass Verdict, Michael Connolly.  A Micky Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) novel with Harry Bosch co-starring.  Super fun.

The Lady of the Rivers, Philippa Gregory.  One part soap opera, one part historical fiction and a dash of magic, this is the first of six books focused on the women of the the War of the Roses from the author who brought us The Other Boleyn Girl.  She is no Hilary Mantel but an interesting, imaginative and connected enough to the history that it is actually semi-educational.

The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory.  Pretty crap but I... can't... stop.

The White Queen, Philippa Gregory. So terrible.  Why do I read them?

Trunk Music, Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch again. This time it is Las Vegas, the mob and all sorts of layers of intrigue.

The Last Coyote, Michael Connelly. Detective Harry Bosch solves the decades-old crime that led him to be a cop in the first place: the murder of his mother when he was a child. CA politics, corruption and cover-ups. A must-read for Harry Bosch fans.

One Kick, Chelsea Cain. Portland writer who does the lovely, twisted, sick Sweetheart murder series has another character, Kick Lannigan, and the start of another great series.

Partial Reads 
There are too many books on my list to take time with ones that don't grab me.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, David Shafer. Big data and conspiracy theories.  Neither of which interest me but it is a Portland writer and highly recommended from a number of people.  Writing was engaging, characters amusing but I just couldn't get interested.  I made it about 60% of the way through and was relieved I had to return it to the library.

Think a Little, Change a Lot, David Wiseman.  A Readers Digest of sorts covering all the self-help, positive psychology stuff out there.  Nice that it sifted through a huge volume of work to somewhat "curate" what really works and doesn't but it was a bit too much like a highlight reel for me.

Middlemarch, George Elliot. One of the great classics.  I'm a fan of 18th, 19th and early 20th century writing but this one did not captivate my attention despite valiantly plugging along with it for weeks.

Tourist Season, Carl Hiaasen. I usually love this guy but this early book didn't do it for me and some of the dated stereotypes were just offensive, not funny.

Live Right and Find Happiness, Dave Barry. Dave Barry has been on my radar for a while but I've never read anything by him. It was fine but I'd rather take time with something else.