Apologies for this super long career change announcement.
All 7 of you who are super into it can read the long version, the TLDR is for the rest of you.
TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read) Short Version:
I’m leaving the NH Tech Alliance (NHTA) to focus on some new ideas. I love the NHTA and this isn’t a reflection on the org or the team. You should be members and sponsor them. Career cycles are super interesting and infrequent over a lifetime and we should talk more about that.
Long Version:
I’m stepping away from the wonderful folks at the NH Tech Alliance to work on my own. More about my love of the NHTA at the end of this post. For now let’s talk about the future. I have a lot of interests and ideas swirling around my head that need time to seed and to grow. I’ll potentially do a bit of investing and consulting as well.
While I’ve done a lot of thinking about this move, how, when, etc. The actual process of writing about changing careers is rather interesting in and of itself. We have all seen a post on social media announcing something similar. How often do we do this? So I did a bit of research.
The average person holds 12 jobs in their lifetime. I’m on job number 8ish depending on what you count. Not surprisingly a lot of that jumping around is when we are younger, and it slows down as our bodies do.
Most of the time shifting jobs is a way of advancing our career (the good) or is out of our control (the very bad). For some, changing a job could also be changing careers. I became curious – How often does a complete career change happen in a lifetime?
I couldn’t find any strong data on that. Perhaps, depending on how you define career change, 2 – 6 changes in a lifetime? In a lifetime.
I have had starter jobs to fund college. Do they really count? I’ll say no for now. I had a career as a software developer that lasted well over a decade. Then I shifted to helping others in one way or another, specifically tech companies / startups. So far that’s 2 professional careers over 26 years. How many big changes do I have left? At least 1 maybe 2.
Simply put, we do not have many career cycles in our life. At least not based on recent history. Maybe things are changing though. This all presumes we have much control over the matter at all. Too many people don’t have the luxury of even having a choice. Should that be a goal? Society is very focused on career and advancement within it. Very little attention about what comes after, how, or when. What percentage of career change is intentional? Forced early retirement is a thing.
I happen to think that career change can have a multiplier effect on perspective. In many ways we are all pretty siloed within our job/role/career. Outsiders shake things up. Especially ones who have deep experience and knowledge in other areas. At any rate I am hoping this is the case for myself.
Now back to the NHTA. Please indulge me while I get a bit sappy for this ending.
I love the folks at the NH Tech Alliance.
The NHTA has a small but mighty team of 2 full time and 2 part time folks doing the job of a half dozen. Darlene, Julie, Kendall, and Stephanie are truly tremendous. I would gleefully work with each of them in the future, and I fully recommend others do so as well. Specifically, Executive Director Julie Demers, who is a superstar that I really can’t sing the praises of enough. I plan on keeping a Slack channel open. Shower them all with your support.
A quick plug: NHTA gets its funding almost entirely from membership and sponsorship. Become a sponsor and join as a member. Seriously. Support innovation in NH and organizations that champion it. I plan to once I have something off the ground.
I also had the privilege of working with so many wonderful entrepreneurs, technologists, and ecosystem professionals over the last 10+ years at Alpha Loft which merged into NH Tech Alliance. Inspiring, challenging, and hugely rewarding. You are doing New Hampshire proud.
I’ll wrap this up by saying that I am super excited for this next chapter and career. I am old enough now to wonder how many more I will get.
To everyone I have had the privilege to work with over the past 10+ years, thank you so much for giving me your time and wisdom. I have learned and grown as a person considerably for the better because of you. I am certain it will be a factor in what comes next.