Me, Her, the Boy and a Dog

Tomorrow morning I will do something I haven’t done in more than four months… I’m going back to a full-time job. Since being part of a round of layoffs from Luna Innovations on Dec. 4, 2008, I have kept afloat by beefing up my workload from my small business, CWI Media & Marketing, which I founded in 2005. Thankfully, business has been good enough to pay the bills.

My friend and pseudo business partner Todd Wickersty wrote a blog post titled Why I am thankful I lost my job. Todd lost his job in 2005, just days before he was supposed to start. It was this unexpected job loss that pushed Todd to start his own company - Business Bullpen. Todd’s business has done well enough that he hasn’t felt the need to go back to a full time gig with a larger company.

In his blog post Todd writes, “Self-employment is not for everyone, but for me, it fits like a glove.” I have been self employed for more than four months and while I have thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of working from home and setting my own schedule, it’s not something I feel comfortable doing full time. All the stress that comes with running a small business can be overwhelming and constant.

No… I am more comfortable with a steady job and luckily, I landed a gig with my alma mater doing all the things I really enjoy doing. I will be editing and developing Web sites, writing feature article, video production, search engine optimization, social media and who knows what else. The team I will be working with is made up of very creative and open-minded professionals and that’s the type of environment in which I work best. I am a “big picture” guy and love to brain storm new ideas and from what I’ve been told, this team thrives at innovative thinking.

That being said, I will continue to work on projects for CWI Media & Marketing and before anyone e-mails me with cautionary tales, I have discussed it with my new boss and he is not only okay with it, he seems to appreciate it - you see, he has run his own business since he was in grad school.

Some of my friends have jokingly said of my return to work, “The party’s over - time to go back to the real world!” I have to laugh a little because I think I have been living in the real world for the last four months and it is pretty rough out here. Sadly, the way our economy has been the last six months, more and more people are feeling the effects and are looking for jobs. They are about to get a real taste of the “real world.”

I am so very fortunate to have found such a great career opportunity with a well-respected university - especially my alma mater. When I moved back down to the New River Valley from Northern Virginia, my ultimate goal was to find a job with Virginia Tech and turn it into a life-long career. Tomorrow, I begin that journey.

Who knows what the future holds for me at Virginia Tech, but my plan is to stay with the University, earn my masters and doctorate degrees, send my son Nicholas to school there (I won’t force him, though) and become a tenured Communications professor that wears a bowtie and reminisces about simpler times when we had e-mail, instant messaging and had to use cell phones to send text messages and make calls.

Who knows, maybe one day, my grandchildren - by then, third generation Hokies - will take one of my Communications courses. How cool would that be?

Give what’s going on in the world today, very few people are looking to change jobs, but since we’re just blogging here, what’s your dream job?