New Position

Today I was offered and accepted a part-time position with the Grants Office of Northampton Community College.  I will start mid-October and James will begin going to a daycare center at that time.  It will be a big transition for our family, but we are excited and ready for it.

The position is similar to the work I currently do for the University of Pennsylvania (which I will continue to do as well).  They are both evaluation coordinator/grants compliance officer type roles although how they actually play out at the two different institutions will be very different.  Penn, while an ivy league school, has been more "do what you think is right and works - from home - on your own time - however much you would like."  NCC is insistent that I come to an office, sit at a desk and work set hours.  I'm loving the fact that I will have both styles in my life.  It will be great to have time set aside to work and not also have to also juggle children at the same time.  In fact, this new set up will allow some time to do Penn work without children under foot.  Moreover, I have been craving co-workers and projects with actual people with faces.  Penn's flexibility is awesome, but it's nice to have face-to-face contact as well.  Lastly, I think that I'm doing quite well at my Penn job (always exceeding the expectations of some of my four bosses) so, knowing myself well enough to know that I love to take on new and exciting projects, the addition of NCC will allow me to work extra hard and demonstrate to a new lot of people how cleaver I am.  They are always receiving new grants to learn about, have an entire school of classes I could explore and have a spirit of innovation I totally dig. 

What a blessing this position is.  In a time when many people are struggling to find work, I got a position that is the perfect number of hours, close to home, at a place that was voted as a top place to work, with an award-winning childcare program where James and Alma (in the summer) can go and so much more. 

I'm excited! 

(And, admittedly, a little a sad about putting James in a childcare program a little earlier than we planned.  But let's not get into that right now ....)