A Dilly of a Dilemma: Rejoin the Rat Race?

Well, life just keeps on happening. As I alleged to in one of my entries last week, somewhat out of the blue, I've received a proposition to do consulting work and it's been a dilly of a dilemma opening my mind up to it. No, not because it's awful, simply because I've been "retired" for almost five years (come 1 August) and the thought of jumping back into the rat race, even a subdued version of one, is cause for extreme and thoughtful consideration. The things this has brought up are enough to keep me busy blogging on for days. Except, of course, if I do this, I won't likely have much time to blog anymore!

So, a few details. A quick summary; hopefully (NOT!) A few years ago, I gave my resume to a guy I was playing softball with who worked at the company my brother works at. He was trying to convince me to do some stuff for him, but, it was too soon; I'd just arrived in Durham, was in the process of adjusting to my new life, and wasn't interested in adding confusion to it. Not to mention, I'd just met Mr. B and things were going wonderfully in that department (obviously). About six months later, a guy who used to work at the company I worked at for 17 years (but I'd never met him because he'd left the company early into my stint there) calls me. Turns out he was doing work with the guy from my brother's company and ended up with my resume; saw my name (he knew my Father) and the fact I'd worked in HR at that company for 17 years. He's a recruiter, and recruiters are ALWAYS working their networks. Well, there wasn't much then I was interested in since Mr. B and I were leaving to go get married in a week plus I had so much going on that summer with our wedding celebration, our honeymoon, etc. Who wanted to think about work? Not me.

A year after that, he calls me again, this time with an offer to help out the AICPA (who was relocating their headquarters from NJ to NC). This time I was intrigued enough to go chat with their HR head; a very nice woman. However, despite what I thought was a great interview and a good connection with her, she never called me again. So much for that, said my ego.

Then, we had this house built, moved, and so on and so forth.

So, here we are, June of 2008. Guess who calls? Yep, our friendly recruiter. Now he's working for a company (as a contractor) about an hour and twenty minutes from my house. He wanted to know if I was interested in jumping in with both feet, ramping up quickly (even the lingo makes me dizzy) and doing some recruiting. I told him politely, in two words, "Hell no". Recruiting? Yuck. That's right up there with writing AAP plans, in my book, or Six Sigma. Blech.

He says, "Well, do you remember so and so? He's now the HR guy here and I'll float your name past him and see if there might be some project work available in the areas you're interested in". Ok, fine; being that I was off to Puerto Vallarta the following week, I figured this would go the way of the other "opportunities".

Last week, I opened up my email to find an email from "So and So"; okay, I'll call him by his real first name, Dave. When I joined the company that I worked at for 17 years (damn, it's hard to be cagey on Blogs; but, the "innocent" must be protected), he was fairly high up in the HR organization; he may have been an HRD. Anyway, not too long after I was hired, he left. Throughout the course of one job I held not too much later, he came back and helped us with outplacement activities. BTW, for those of you who have benefited from my resume writing expertise and know of my belief that resumes should be as short as possible, you have Dave to thank for that!

Anyway, his email was interesting; he told me about all sorts of project work at his new company, that they could use me in a consultant role and be very flexible, etc., etc. And, better yet, the majority of what they require now is in the compensation area! My own particular favorite HR speciality. And, project work? Whee! I love projects!

So, I was enticed enough to go down and meet with him last Wednesday.

And, this is getting way too long so I'll finish it up tomorrow (or soon).

Mrs. B