Countdown

In less than 20 days, I will have to hand in my masters dissertation (or thesis, if you like). The prospect is daunting but manageable. Right now I have over 6,000 words, but the hardest part for me, the methodology, is out of the way. I'm in the midst of analyzing my dataset which I secretly get pleasure out of. Thank god for all those years having to do financial analysis, making me a pro at pivot tables. The looming prospect of statistical analysis still hangs over my head, but I think I can minimize that to a large degree.

I should have probably been a bit farther on this bit by now, but I was in London for most of last week. On Tuesday, I went to the BBC proms with a couple of friends. After spending the day traveling, then going to the science museum, we made our way to the Royal Albert Hall for a bit of Beethoven. Hillary Hahn played with the symphony for one piece, and there were several encores to revel in the classical goodness. The highlight (for me) was Beethoven's 5th. Though not my favorite of his pieces--that would be the 7th symphony--it was still wonderful.

Part of the reason for going down, other than the proms, was to wrap up a few things with my internship at ecoConnect, and go to the Green in the City event it co-sponsors with Cleantech Investor magazine. While I didn't get as much wrapped up as I wanted to (you never do), I was able to attend the event and talk to my boss about future jobs. Though there aren't any opportunities with ecoConnect, there may be a few leads through some diligent networking. I suppose we'll see. The event was interesting, talking about the future of road transport and energy solutions, and after there was a networking session (ugh). It's not that I can't talk to people. Lord knows I could do that for hours, it's more the approach part that I dislike. It always feels so awkward and date-y and a bit forced. But I suppose we all know why we're there, so there's some solace in that.

Aside from the travelling and dissertation, I'm on the job hunt, officially. The trick for me is that I have a broad background in a variety of fields--sustainability, strategy, finance, communications, politics, history, stakeholder engagement, etc. Clearly a lot of this overlaps, but describing that in a resume and cover letter can be rather challenging. And, it also makes the job hunt a bit more difficult. If I were doing something specific, like SAP implementations, that would be slighly easier to find, but looking for jobs in sustainable business and communications strategy it just a bit broader. Luckily there seem to be a bunch of great positions. Unfortunately, I have no idea how competitive they are.

It's exciting and scary, knowing that I'm in for another life change, only a year after I settled into this one. What I do know, is whether I end up in London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, or Des Moines, I'm ready for the change.

P.S. If you know of anyone looking for a sustainability consultant or marketer or CSR guru, let me know at stephen dot nemeth at gmail dot com.