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“My Dream Job Journal” August 1, 2008

 

 

Before I begin, I want to apologize to the readers who have followed my bi-weekly journals. Due to circumstances, in this case, the arrival of my daughter and grand-daughter from Europe on July 16^th, I did not meet my due date for the submission of my journal which happened to be on the same day. I had not seen my grand-daughter in five years, as a result, there was an inordinate amount of time put into the preparation for their arrival, and when they arrived, a great deal of time spent doing tourist types of things here in the Washington DC area.

 

I am combining in this journal, what would have been material for two journals. I will be back on schedule with my August 13^th submission.

 

As I said in the July 2^nd journal, Sabrina, the Deputy Director of a division of a national company, dealing with aging issues, had e-mailed me on June 26^th, the outline of a proposed consulting project. She suggested we meet, as soon as possible, to go over the provisions of the proposal, especially the scope of work and compensation. She said she would be back at work after the July 4^th holiday.

 

She e-mailed me July 8^th, and told me that her schedule precluded our meeting that week. After ruling out various dates, we set up a meeting for July 14^th. Prior to the meeting I  sent her a list of discussion points, relative to the proposal. Questions that I had about every aspect of the project..

 

When we met, we discussed the proposal in depth. The set of discussion points I had developed served as the    basis for a clear understanding of what my explicit responsibilities would be. The project was broken down into two specific areas: a work plan for me and an event planning component, which would be handled by an event/meeting planning company.

 

The next issue that we discussed was compensation. Since this was my first experience in the consulting area, I was not aware of the actual time involved and the extent of the compensation. Needless to say, I was surprised that the time was limited to 7-9 days. The biggest surprise was the compensation, which was well beyond my expectations.

 

After the discussion, I told Sabrina that I would accept the consulting position. Sabrina explained to me during the meeting that a well known government agency, that deals with aging issues, would be partnering with her company on the project, and that we would be meeting with the liaison from the agency as soon as possible.

 

 

 

Sabrina had arranged for a conference call on July 23^rd, with the two of us and Jan, the contact from the government agency. Because of a conflict in schedule, Jan was not available at the time. As a consequence, we are trying to set up another conference call the week of August 3^rd.

 

The time frame for the completion of this project is late October. A very tight time frame indeed. However, this gives me the opportunity to show what I can do and establish a compensation base that will only increase as I  go on to other consultant projects.

 

The journey continues.