News You Can Bruise for 2005 September 13 (entry 1)

(2) Tue Sep 13 2005 20:22 PST: Attention Conservation Notice: would you like me to work at some interesting company or on some interesting project you have going? Devour my resume and send me mail.

I need to change my life. My current situation is not too bad but it is frustratingly lopsided. Currently I work at a job that's pretty boring, but I'm only working at it 3 days a week and I'm spending the other 2 workdays writing a book, which is really fun. I don't spend a lot of money, so 3/5 of my full-time salary is enough for me to live on.

I want another job, preferably one at a startup, because those tend to be less boring. As it happens, I occasionally get contacted by people who want me to work at their startups, and I just got a good offer to work on a really cool project. Unfortunately, working at a startup would seriously disrupt my work on the book, which I am loath to do. Even more unfortunately, this particular startup lives on the east coast, where I don't really want to move.

It's a good offer but not a slam-dunk, so before deciding what to do about it I want to see if there are any interesting companies here in California (or somewhere else nearby, or that let you telecommute) that would like to hire someone with my skills. I'm doing this mainly through NYCB because for some reason a lot of cool people read this weblog, and in my experience jobs found through networking turn out much better for everyone than jobs found through Craigslist.

I have a couple alternatives. The first is to maintain the status quo, which is not terrible and which has inertia on its side. The second is to work on the book full-time to get it done faster, and start looking for a job once the book is finished. The third is to become an author, making a living from puny book royalties and lucrative consulting work. Probably within a week I'll decide among these four paths.

I put my resume up for those who are interested; send me an email if you have any ideas, or comment about the general path you think I should take. My fate is in your hands, loyal readers. Disloyal readers not eligible.

Comments:

Posted by Leonard at Wed Sep 14 2005 10:39

You don't make a lot from books, but it's good to diversify your sources of income. Also once you've written a book people think you know what you're talking about for some reason.