It feels odd to type that.
Who would do that, especially in this economy? I have a job..many people do not. I have a career... 18 years in Information Technology Management....many people do not. I've worked for some of the largest Law Firms in this country and the world. I've consulted for tiny mom-and-pop shops, entrepreneur start-ups and charity organizations so small and bereft of funds that when I told them their new network server would cost $5500 they started a letter writing campaign to Dell, HP, Microsoft, and other companies until someone agreed to donate an older model.
I have a house, a car and a boat.. all with payments due every month to Credit Unions (yay!) and Banks (Boo!) that will not care or be impressed by my decision to walk away from my paycheck.
But I am. And Im not even sure yet what I will do for the campaign.
To be fair, I wanted out of my current job anyway. To say I don't like it would be an understatement. I don't like the job, I don't like the company, I don't like the business model, the strategy, the people I work with and for (I do like the people that work for ME though.. I will freely admit that I have an awesome team). I dont like the hours, the schedule, the processes or their plans for the future.
I wanted out. So I left. ...and so I was supposed to start a job search and call up old contacts now that the economy is starting to pickup to land back in some easy job running an IT Department and managing projects for some multimillion/billion dollar company.
Or not. Im not doing it. I'm done.
I don't want to work at another job just like the other jobs I've had for the past decade. I don't want to spend 40-60 hours of my week helping to make already rich attorneys richer. I don't want to sit in a management meeting in the morning talking about revenue being up 18% and an employee review in the afternoon talking about their annual raise is only 3% because the company is "weathering the economy".
I dont want to ask another helpdesk technician to call a partner that can't connect over VPN from his Firm-funded "seminar" in Cabo St Lucas after I just told him that he can not expense the $55/month data plan on his 2 year old Blackberry because the Firm is cutting costs.
I am taking a break. I'm stepping out off the salary treadmill for a bit. So today I called a bunch of the lobbyists I used to work for, former political appointees, a retired Federal judge and a former cabinet member to call in favors and get me in touch with someone working in Obama2012. We'll see what shakes out. Someone has got to know someone. It is a very very small world inside the Beltway.
I wanted to work for the '08 campaign. ...okay, full disclosure, I wanted to work for the GORE '08 campaign but that never happened, so then I wanted to work for the Obama '08 campaign. But I was already working. I had a full time job for the seventh largest law firm on the planet. I mean, who would be DUMB ENOUGH to quit that job just to work on a political campaign? Not me... but this time around I'll be damned if I'm going to be the guy dumb enough to make the same mistake twice.
I don't care what I wind up doing but I want in. Call it a mid-life crisis (though I sold my Porsche years ago). Call it a breakthrough epiphany. Call it Occupy MY LIFE!. Call it what you want but for the first time in my career, I WILL work for a cause that I actually believe in.
If they need a senior level IT Director or a Logistics/Project Manager, I'll do it. Of course I will. It's what I do. But if they also need a phone answerer, a stamp licker, a pavement pounder, a state-by-state campaign grind worker, a getter-outer of votes (I just made that title up...obviously) or whatever the hell else it takes to win this election.... I'll do that too.
Of course I will. It's what I do....starting RIGHT NOW.
3:57 PM PT: UPDATE: Rec List? Seriously? Wow... Now I feel the need to actually post something publicly useful and not just a slapdash screed of super-ego/id wrestling catharsis.
I'm not going to start a cliche-ridden Jerry McGuire-esque "Who's With Me?!?" meme as clearly not everyone is up and walking out of their jobs. But for anyone that might be interested in putting some time and effort into Obama 2012, check out www.barackobama.com for volunteer info and specifically www.barackobama.com/employment for actual campaign related jobs.