IT'S BEEN A WHILE

How did we get here?

Hello again, friends,

Last year, after 162 issues of The Idea Enthusiast Weekly, I needed a break. I thought I would bring this newsletter back at some point, but that point never really came. I felt that I had taken it -- and my consulting practice, and my speaking career -- as far as I could take it, at that point. ("That point" being the middle of a pandemic, of course).

Then, in June 2022, I accepted a position with Thumbtack, the home services platform, as their first Head of Executive Communications, writing for and advising the Founder/CEO and his leadership team. A remote company backed by several venture capital firms, with a $3B valuation and lots of good press, it was a great opportunity to refocus my career on leadership communications, something I'd done for years prior to adopting The Idea Enthusiast as a speaking and training brand. 

However, in December, the wave of tech layoffs reached my home desk and I was part of a 14% staff reduction at Thumbtack. I at least got to conceive and write the keynote speeches at our annual employee conference. "Hello, I must be going."

Being back in the candidate pool again looking for full-time work, at a time when 60,000 people have been laid off just in January, is not the most high leverage career search position. So, I got to thinking, how can I do a better job of finding the right opportunity? How can I give people in my network a chance to help, beyond just saying "let me know if I can help?" How can I not get bored and disenchanted with what is usually a draining, distressing process? How could I help others as I'm asking for help?

Yesterday, I announced on LinkedIn I will be turning my job search into a 100-day challenge, similar to the types of personal projects I've written about in this newsletter. You can view my post about it here:
 

My hope is, this might be of interest and value to some of you, especially if you are in a similar situation. Just sending resumes out isn't particularly effective. I know from experience, my search for my Thumbtack job took 15 months of doing that. Instead, I want to construct a career search process that produces a better result in less time.

At the very least, if you are a LinkedIn user, please click the button and like or comment on my post so more people see it. You'll be able to follow the project at #100DaysToANewJob.

Going forward, I'll provide updates on what I'm doing, likely three times a week. I can see a number of benefits to this:

• Being intentional and strategic about what I do and the time I spend on it
• Being accountable to putting in the effort and tracking the results
• Developing, in real time, the best assets for any jobseeker
• Highlighting resources most helpful to the career search process
• Providing a potential model for how to a conduct a job search
• Showing a future employer how I take ownership of a project
• Fame and fortune through LinkedIn metrics (haha)

I want to thank all of you again for being subscribers to The Idea Enthusiast Weekly. (To newer subscribers who joined after I went on hiatus, my apologies). I do still hope the newsletter can come back in some form, once life is a bit more settled. I do still have a book on the way, after all.

And of course, if you can help, with an opportunity or a person in your network I should meet, please reach out to me at hiregregroth@gmail.com.