Day Nine: There is Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Distance Traveled: 0
Distance Traveled to Date: 2.03 miles

Before I regale you with the tale of my possibly triumphant afternoon, I must first say this: get off my back! Yes, I realize that this blog was intended to “track my steps toward gainful employment,” and yes, I realize that my literal steps have been too few and far between…but cut a guy some slack. The past two days I’m sure I’ve burned hundreds of calories with my too-frequent snow blower/shoveling/ice scraping ventures. Sure, I’m not exactly keeping up my workout goal…but I am getting a workout.

Are we cool now?

Anyway, yesterday I wrote about possibly doing some contract grant writing for my friend’s agency. And I must report…that’s not going to happen. But don’t fret, friends; there’s still an opportunity there.

Basically, he’s affiliated with a newly formed foundation that will be in the market to do both grant seeking and grant making…and they’re looking for someone who can make the connections necessary to ensure the foundation’s growth. That would likely entail networking, grant writing and a fancy title of my choosing (the first thing that sprang to my mind was “Philanthropy Czar” – and he was cool with it!).

While there are still many details to be sorted out (not the least of which is the compensation I expect for my as-yet undefined – and not officially offered – role), it was a rewarding conversation made even more enjoyable when he picked up the lunch tab (hence the title of today’s post…you were wondering how I’d tie that in, huh?). So now I’m tasked with writing a job description of sorts; but how much time and effort can and should I put into something that likely could distract me from my overarching goal? Do I want to position my role as one that will allow me to stay on after I find full-time employment? Or should I dial back my commitment so I can better focus on finding a job that can keep me living the fancy lifestyle to which I’ve become accustomed?

I realize that these are good problems to have and good questions to answer. We’re going to touch base again on Friday to go over my notes and decide if it makes sense for us to be in business together in the future. Until then, my routine will be largely unchanged…and since there are no more big snows in the five-day forecast, that might even mean cracking the three-mile mark on my unemployment pedometer!