Man, job hunting this time around is quite challenging! It’s a combination of finding a company in a reasonably close location, looking for a position that’s not quite first job entry-level but isn’t exactly management, and trying to meet my desired price point. Now that Panda and I know where we’ll be located, I’ve had to shift my job search further west out of DC. I’d really rather not commute an hour to hour and a half each way – 30-45 minutes would be ideal. I also want something where I don’t have to start over again, but can pick up in a similar place to where I was when I left my previous job. This is difficult to find because I plan on moving into a different industry and some of the industry-specific skills they require are not part of my skill set. At the same time, I want a salary similar to if not slightly higher than what I had been paid

Adding to those criteria is my desire to work at company that either has immense opportunity to grow or has a cool, laidback work culture. Of course having both would be amazing, but I’d be happy with one or the other. A lot of companies in the region require highly technical skills – a good 75% of listings I’ve seen are for engineers, programmers, and the like. What about someone like me who is tech-savvy despite not having a technical degree? I wish there were more options out there. It seems like I find a ton of very basic administrative assistant type roles or far too complex engineering project management roles. How do I find something in between?!

I’ve definitely come across some promising leads, but boy are they competitive! I’ve gotten a few rejections and I’m still waiting to hear back on some others. I wish it was easier to find the sort of tech companies that I’m interested in, but most of the tech companies out here exist to service government needs and that sort of thing gets highly technical. I’m not in the best location for the type of work I’d like to do, which is really limiting my choices. I originally started looking for positions with opportunities to travel, but now I’ve thrown that out and will just count myself lucky if I do find a position offering that.

And the hunt goes on…