Strength

It's not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong. 
― Jon Krakauer

I'm in that "you want me please want me" phase of job hunting that feels like a cross between prostitution and begging, Very fortunately, I'm not suffering in any way during this phase. I have a short job starting in January and I have plans and travel and housing for the next month so by the rules of Maslow's hierarchy, I'm set.

But what I'm hunting/searching/begging for is a career shift. I want out of my current department and to get a job in the same business but on a different side of the table. Essentially, I want to move from my current middle management job to an upper management job. And while I think my previous job is much more difficult in many ways, it seems that titles are important and not everyone agrees that my experience would translate into competence in a different department. So I have to convince them.

Fortunately, I've been in this position a lot. I've gotten a lot of jobs in my life so I know that perseverance and persistence wins the game while simultaneously my long memory wonders exactly how long this phase will last and exactly how persistent I'll have to be before something comes up.

In this context, the only way I would amend the above quote is to say that it's not always necessary to be strong but to project strength, And that's the career shifting game, a constant effort of projected strength until someone gives me a foot in the door to prove that it's not just a projection.