Career Change

As some of you already know but others of you don't, I will be making a career change soon.  My employment as Youth Pastor at Crossroads will be over at the end of January, and I am looking for a full-time job in a non-church environment.  I'm going for jobs that are related to things I love to do and am skilled at.  So my focus is on training and development jobs, helping people do their jobs better, become better educated, better employees, co-workers, all that.  This has been in the works for a while, but last night was the night we announced it to Crossroads as a whole.

I wasn't sure how I'd react when I got up in front of the congregation and announced I wouldn't be working with the kids anymore.  I love working with them and I love them - but I'm also not much of an emotional display sort of person.  Somewhat to my surprise I started to tear up when I was talking about it in front of everybody last night.  I think it was good for the kids to see that I genuinely care about them, as some of them may wonder about that since I'm moving out of the youth ministry. 

I'm excited about the changes a new career will bring to our family.  The schedule Janelle and I have been keeping the past couple years, and especially in the time since we've had Belle, has been crazy.  We have no days off together, and many weeknights I'm busy with ministry stuff.  Janelle and I often don't have much time to give good energy into spending time together, and the concept of getting away for a weekend or taking even a day trip as a family is just about unheard of.  With me getting a job with a more regular schedule, Janelle will be able to work less and we'll be able to match our schedules better.  We will have weekends.  Heck, I haven't really had weekends since I was 16. 

Today I had my first interview at a place in Mountain View (not Google) that I think would be pretty sweet to work at.  The position would be good because it's in the arena I want to get involved with (Training and Development) but I don't have to put in time as an HR Generalist and learn stuff I'm less enthusiastic about.  I think the interview went well, but now I have to wait to hear back.  It's a different thing for me; every job I've had up to this point has been with people I knew beforehand as a customer or friend, or where I had some sort of a hookup.  Going in to complete strangers and trying to sell myself is an odd feeling.  But I think things went well and I hope this first interview will be my last for a long time.