Day 15 - opening up my options

Next week I will be half way through my severance package; it is about time to start opening up my options.

The main thing I will do is to look outside of Austin. While a move is not really what I am looking for, I feel I need to have more open doors.

Secondary to that, I will open up my specific job searches. Specifically I will take advantage of my knowledge in managing back office IT and not just focus on managing development teams. I can and have done well in both of these areas and at this point opening those doors is the focus.

When doing this, I need to remember to tweak my resume accordingly - adding accomplishments that line up with the job at hand.

To this end, I found a couple of jobs that looked promising and sent out the cover letter and the resume. Next week, I will meet with my recruiters and have them widen the search as well.

As always, I continued with the usual daily tasks:

• Check job posting alerts (and apply for any matches)
• Check e-mail
• Catch up on tweets, LinkedIn and Facebook
• Update blog

For those who are reading the entire blog, you might be asking - "what about that second interview on Friday - should you not wait until you know the outcome of that?" I say no.

While preparing for that is certainly a top priority this week, I can not operate on the assumption that it is a "done deal" even though I have high confidence that it is. Plan for the best but be prepared for the worst.

If I get a hit on one of the other jobs I might find before the interview, the worst thing that will happen is that I will have options. Employers bring in multiple candidates, we as candidates should always try to be looking at multiple employers.

Tomorrow I am having lunch with a bunch of folks from my last job; it will be nice to catch up.