Vietnam to Virginia

So I decided not to take the job in Vietnam. When on your first day of your new job you discover that half of your new colleagues are leaving the company, it is generally not a good sign. I gave it a shot for the month that I was out there, but it was clear that the organization had issues that were not going to fixable so I decided not to get on board a sinking ship.

I also decided not to go back to my old job. I realized that a large part of what was so attractive about the job in Vietnam was that it was not my old job. So I have opted for change. I am still figuring out exactly what change I am looking for, but so far things seems to have worked out well.

My situation made it easy to decide to go independent for a while and see if I can make it work. In other words, I am going to continue to work in international development, probably working for my old firm at times, but I will not be a full-time employee of theirs and so I will have the option of saying no when I want. It also gives me an opportunity to get to know lots of different firms and to pick and choose interesting assignments. Of course, that is assuming that people will actually want me to work for them.

So far so good on that front. Given the life-cycle of consulting assignment it is taking a few weeks for the first assignment to come through, but this morning I was asked to do an assignment in Ghana. Unfortunately, they want me to get started and do a few days of work over the next two weeks and that could be difficult. It’s the run up to the election…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I decided to make the best possible use of my down time and I now find myself in the tiny town of Franklin in Virginia campaigning for Obama.