TerrieMiller.com

Wow, look at all the link love I’m getting here…thanks Mark and Justin! I love the first comment by Antinous on that Boing Boing post…”Can’t they just knit one?”

If you’re interested in the job, I couldn’t recommend a better place to work or a better group of people to work with. I know they say that 90% of all people who leave a job leave it because of their boss. But for me, it’s definitely the work. It’s good work, and rewarding in the sense that it’s toward a meaningful end. But thinking about coding web sites or managing contract developers or troubleshooting an RSS feed just makes me want to hide under the covers and not think about it. Not good for me, and not good for Maker Media.

Something I like about working for O’Reilly is that, when you do leave, you’re not “ex” or “former”…you’re GOO…”Graduate of O’Reilly”, a phrase coined by my friend and GOO Tony Stubblebine. The place changes you. You grow there. I’m in really good company.

Folks have been asking what I’m going to do after tomorrow. I love the look I get when I say, “Nothing!” I’ve been reluctant to say more because it seems like such a big overwhelming topic. The short answer is that I’m taking some extended time off to consider what my options are for moving forward, and try to find what I’m really here to do.

I’m taking a class at the Santa Rosa JC called “Introduction to Career Development”. The assessment tests and exercises are very helpful. It’s what I needed: a way to be open to everything instead of sitting here trying to think of one thing after another to seize upon.

Some of the things I’ve learned so far: my high-scoring occupational themes are “Artistic, Realistic, Investigative” — I’m a creator/doer/thinker rather than a helper/persuader/organizer.

My top “interest areas”: nature and agriculture, visual arts and design, writing and mass communication, and culinary arts.

I have a lot of interests (related to work AND to other non-work activities) in common with other women who are librarians, photographers, artists, landscapers, tech writers, translators, editors, graphic designers, horticulturists, and medical illustrators. That’s interesting, because that list describes a lot of the people I’ve tended to surround myself with in life.

I have little to nothing in common with women who are realtors, physicists, elected public officials, athletic trainers, and computer/IS managers. (OK, the computer/IS managers score higher than the realtors…but still pretty low.)

My “work values” survey puts “Independence and Freedom”, “Creativity”, and “Beauty and Aesthetics” a the top. The bottom three? Security, Money, and Power.

I’m still an INTJ, but getting dangerously close to becoming an INFJ. I think you could describe the INTJ personality type as the one who “loves to take personality assessments.”

Anyhow. All of this navel gazing is to say that it’s an interesting process, and I’m glad I’m getting more out of the class than the valuable discounts I get with my student ID (Hello, Apple Store for Edcation!). It’s a good complement to my other strategy of trying to get out and have conversations with people whose advice I respect and who have struck out on their own in some way.

But back to the “What are you going to do?” question…

I’m trying to give myself two weeks to just putter around, let ideas surface and write them all down. To do some writing about my life (relax, it won’t appear here), make some things, get my work areas at home ready to do something creative and fun. Read. Hike. Bird. Kayak. Draw. Paint. Spend time with my dog, the chickens, the hawks who’ve taken up residence next to our house. Garden. Ride my bike. Cook. Wander.

Two weeks?! Like I said. Nothing.

After that…well, it depends on what I find out. Some possibilities are going after some freelance writing gigs, taking a permaculture certification class, getting involved with volunteer wildlife work again. A longer process in any case. Graduating is just the beginning.