Fine-tuning my Future

I'm half way my first month of unemployment and this feels great. Besides reading, sporting and drinking coffees; I've spent time to define my dreams and translated them to short- and mid-term goals. With these goals it is easy to come to actions. When the dreams and goals are clear, you don't have the FOMO (fear of missing out) opportunities since there are multiple roads to Rome.

First of all, sorry to all the people who thought I was starting in a role at 'Free as a Bird'. I felt this was like a nice statement for my new situation. I was not aware that 'Free as a Bird' is also a consultancy firm in UK. To be clear, I feel free as a bird and I'm not working at 'Free as a Bird Ltd.' :-)

Thanks to the multiple passionate people I've met the last few weeks - this passion is so contagious and inspiring! - it's easy to evaluate what is giving me energy and what not. This has resulted in a tickbox evaluation system. I have 11 boxes I want to tick when considering a new role. Since some are more important than others I have given them a weight. This rationalization is very helpful for me since I'm literally close to drowning in job opportunities. 'Embarrass du choix'. A luxurious position, I feel thankful for that.

What are my thickboxes?

1. I'm looking for a role with impact, a cross-functional opportunity

2. My strenghths should be a valuable asset - sounds logic, no?

3. Sustainability - Solidarity - MVO should be part of the company philosophy

4. A culture of 'entrepreneurship' - freedom - innovative

5. Commercial and Technical complex - Is there a spark with the product market combination?

6. Can I learn / grow in Profit / Loss ?

7. Leading opportunity to work with people

8. Work / life balance - mainly transport/traffic jams - home-office. The rest is within your own hands. It's about efficiency.

9. Salary / Benefits

10. Coaching - mentoring opportunities

11. Opportunity to start MBA next year

On top of the extreme rationalization, the gut feeling should be ok offcourse.

It would be interesting to see/hear/read how other people have dealt with this. If you have any experience in this, please contact me or reply on this article.

Thank you.

Matthijs Rabaey matthijsrabaey@hotmail.com +32 485 64 18 95

PS: Coaching / mentoring is very important, position 10 maybe shows this as not crucial. It's lower rated since I have a network outside that I might use...it's not crucial to have it inside the company for me.