One career drawback of working from home is that it takes its toll on the social aspect of one’s life and career. As for career advancement, who knows when the recession will end or, God forbid, another dotcom bubble bursts? Not that I’m saying that working online is a dead-end path (since there are huge opportunities that can be had) but it can cause one to get really comfortable or stagnate. That, I don’t want to happen.
The past week and at least the coming have been and will be quite the busy weeks for me. I figured that aside from concentrating solely on my money-making efforts (which are mostly writing jobs), I should also start re-establishing a public face.
My work with the university is quite limited since I’m basically just in when I have classes but otherwise, I’m working elsewhere (at home, actually) and it’s difficult to make an impact when you’re not there. I have had quite the experience in in my former industry (education technology) both in the development side and the business side. If I can only find an opportunity to to converge the two so that I’d be able to weasel my way into two fields with a single effort.
And I think I found one. Last week, I attended a couple of meetings with a tie-up of a couple of groups who are looking into getting me as a consultant. I have, informally, started to work with them but only for very minor things. I’ll be meeting with them again to discuss a major project’s they’re interested in looking at and if I’d be able to help them out as an advising consultant.
Then again, I can also do one-timer shots just to maintain a pulse in the outside world.
Like what has been giving me a hectic weekend yet again. I have been working on a short lecture to deliver tomorrow at CAL. I was invited by one of the associate deans to speak about research ethics and Internet Data. I’m getting a bit nervous since I was informed that my possible audience of 50 (what the initial venue can hold) now ballooned to 250 due to a change in venue.
While it’s good for keeping my academic face visible, it’s a bit tragic that the faculty resorts to getting a junior member to discuss such topics. Again, I’ll be speaking mostly about my own research experiences and the literature regarding the topic that I’ve come across. I just hope my stock knowledge holds out and that I don’t end up resorting to BS.
Whether I decide to add just a little bit more time for these projects or not rides on my schedule. One thing I don’t want is to stretch myself too thin that the value I generate for those I am engage with diminish. I still have my writing as my priority for now. But it’s just nice to know that, despite my online existence, my word still has some value in the real world as well.