Too Close For Comfort

Since starting my interim role in September  for a charity, I have been in the rather weird situation of being based at one of my former employers' offices.  So literally I have an ID card, be it a contractor one, can get into all their buildings, bump into former colleagues and friends constantly and so on.

I guess it's been rather weird as I was let go but in some ways have gone full circle.  None of the mad complications of my former employer but in a familiar environment.  Well next week is all change as we're moving East and will have our own temporary home in a week.

A positive in many ways - moving away from the familiar to fully embrace my new job challenge. Distance should make things a bit easier to move on cleanly as at the moment I am a bit too close for comfort.  This won't stop me meeting up with people though.

The main downers comprise of location - not being in central London for the shops and social opportunities plus being so easy to get back home.  Moving Eastwood is certainly going to add to my journey time - having to hop on the Jubilee and Northern line during rush hour means I'll have to awaken from my slumber earlier to battle my way through town and then fight it out on those pesky trains - NNoooooooo. Esp as I've been off sick for past month or so I'd got to the stage where the overall cramped cattle truckesq state of the tube had somehow slipped from my mind.  Next job must be in town or North London please - will add to my list of resolutions :)

2010 - What Next?

I try not to make resolutions about any aspects of my life as I'm not the best at dealing with failure so best not to set myself up for it and therefore I don't use the word resolutions. So 2010 is now in full swing - my life has kind of been on hold for the past month or so as I had an operation and have had to have time off work.  As well as recovering the time spent cooped up at home has meant that I've had more time to think than any sane person would really want. The upshot is that I've looked at 09 and worked out what things I liked work wise and thinking about what things are going to be good to aim for 2010.

The main things are that I like being back in work and the fact that in my present job I can just get on with things without crazy buereaucy or game playing that was and still is rife in my former employer.

Career wise I have reached a bit of a plateau so this year one of the keys has to be to try new things and get back into learning more so that I can progress a bit further up the career ladder and to keep my brain ticking over. The need to learn new things applies to both the marketing and fundraising disciplines.  Social media as part of an overall strategy is defo of interest plus applicable to both areas - I have had a book for 6 months  about this topic and all I need to do now is actually open it.  Looking at the cover just doesn't seem to transmit the information to me for some reason!

Ultimately I want to move into fundraising for a charity so this year I plan to make inroads towards this.  The main things will be:
1) Head to lots of fundraising networking events and work the room a bit.
2) Get back in touch with people who I volunteered for last year and do more of the same
3) Approach people I know who run fundraising committes and volunteer my time
4) Apply for Marketing and Fundraising roles - combined piggybacking on my marketing experience will be the best way for me to get into fundraising.

Wish me luck.