Two Weeks Notice

I started this blog just about a year ago.  My one year anniversary will be on New Year’s Day.

So this seems like a perfect time to quit blogging, that’s what I’ve decided to do.

Here’s why:

1. I don’t have too much more to say. My overall philosophy around job hunting is this:  Don’t be an idiot.  Don’t be a jerk.  Use some common sense.  If you do those things, somebody will eventually hire you.  I can spend another year telling you how many pages your resume should be or what to say in your cover letter…but why?  No matter what you do, some people are going to like it and some people aren’t.  Unless you do something dramatically stupid, it’s all a question of personal preference.  I see job seekers going crazy trying to make sense of the advice out there.  I think it’s because there’s a little too much advice (and, especially, too much advice from people who haven’t hired anybody, but want to make money off of your insecurity and confusion).  Aside from in the Tales of the Cluefree, I can’t think of a single thing offhand that I’ve blogged about that will truly get you a job (or keep you from one) without fail.  As a result, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to think of more things to say about how to get a job.  There just aren’t any more tips I can give that aren’t either repetitive or painfully obvious.  I find both of those things annoying, so I don’t want to do that.
2. It’s cold in Wisconsin. As I write this post, the windchill is well below zero here in Milwaukee.  That means I have to have the heat on, which means the gas and electric company is going to want me to pay them.  Blogging is paying me…well, not much.  If I stuck to it, I’d eventually (maybe) make more than that…but the gas and electric company does not care to wait that long. The opportunity cost of blogging is not insignificant, and I’m planning to spend at least a little bit of my blogging time making some actual dollars in 2010.
3. I’m not in HR anymore. Things change, and the longer I’m out of the business of actively hiring people, the less relevant my advice is.  I could certainly get around this by keeping in touch with the HR world…reading HR blogs, talking to hiring people, going to conferences, etc.  The problem with this is that that keeps me in HR, and I’ve been saying for some time now that I wanted to do something else.  I’ve come to realize that, for me anyway, it’s a little bit of a chickencrap thing to do to say I’m going to get out of a field, and then blog about that same field.  It’s kept me in it, and it sucks up all of the time I could be spending reinventing myself.  If I spend another year blogging, that’s another year I won’t be doing something else instead.  It’s nerve-wracking to well and truly start from scratch in a completely different field, but I need to make that leap.  It’s time, and I’m ready.

This blog and the posts will remain up for at least a little while (the hosting bill is paid through January, I think).  After that, I haven’t decided what to do with the domain just yet.  I might sell it, or I might keep it and use it for something entirely different of my own…but it won’t be about job hunting anymore.

This hasn’t been an easy decision.  I’ve met some amazing people through this blog—fellow bloggers and readers alike.  I’ll miss all of you.  I just feel like if I don’t make a change now, I might lose my nerve and never do it…and those people end up old and cranky.  I don’t want to be old and cranky (well, I mean, I’ve always been cranky, and I’m certainly not getting any younger…but you know what I mean).

So the last post will be two weeks from today.  I’m keeping the regular posting schedule until then (except for Christmas Day, because I’m taking that day off, because Santa is bringing some pretty kick-ass toys to my kids and I want to see if the Tonka garbage truck picks up the trash at the Barbie Dream Mansion).

Photo by mtellin

As always, thanks to Anna at ABDPBT, who started the Fighting Listlessness on Mondays trend in blogging. Anna’s blog isn’t about job hunting; it’s about other, way more interesting things. I highly recommend it.

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