In Which I Make Yet Another Career Shift

I didn’t set out to have so many jobs in my work life. Like most people, I had a plan after graduating from college: I was going to be a sportswriter. Yet now as I approach 40 years in my so-called career I need more than two hands to count the places I’ve worked and a few toes as well if you want to add the times I’ve switched career lanes. It used to bother me that I changed jobs so often, but nowadays I think it has made me more well rounded.

Ironically, the job I trained for in college — to be a sportswriter — is one job I never actually held aside from a summer internship at the Las Vegas Sun and a few months covering high school sports for a group of weekly newspapers in the Bay Area. Over the years I’ve worked in aerospace, healthcare, education, technology, biotech, travel, and nonprofit. I have been in corporate communications, public relations, and fundraising. And for a few years I also taught college. My Linkedin profile is prolific.

So it shouldn’t be too surprising that this summer my work life took another major left turn. Although this one wasn’t planned. I had hoped my most recent role as chief development and marketing officer at a major nonprofit would be my last before retirement. Approaching 60, I figured I would work until I could collect social security and then I’d quit the “rat race” and slow down. But life, as it is wont to do for me, had other plans.

A year into my role things started to go south for me. I’m not going to go into details, but suffice it to say I found myself in a tough work environment and I needed to get out. This was my fifth nonprofit role across a dozen years, and one thing I knew was that if I was going to leave this job I didn’t want to simply go find another similar role at a different nonprofit despite the fact that the job market was wide open and I would likely have no problem doing so. I ascribe to the parable, often misattributed to Albert Einstein, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

If I wanted a different outcome I needed to shift my thinking. Luckily for me, I have a great life partner who supported my decision to leave my job and try something new without the restraints of having to earn a set amount of money. I realize this is a luxury and that I am extremely fortunate to have a spouse that earns enough money to allow me to do what I want to do regardless of how much I make. Yes, we’d have to make a few adjustments to our bougie lifestyle, but nothing so severe that would cause us to give up too many if the things we love (like travel and dining out).

If money was not a primary concern, what would you do? For me the decision was easy — I wanted to consult and teach. In this stage of my life and career, I have a lot of experience to share with both the for-profit and nonprofit communities. I had been a public relations consultant in the early 2000s, so I’d done the freelance thing before and it wasn’t intimidating to hang a shingle and look for clients. If anything, my recent 15 years of experience in nonprofit leadership only added to the skills I could bring to my clients. So I gathered together a business strategy and launched LG Impact in June. My focus is on marketing and public relations for both nonprofits and corporations, as well as fundraising and nonprofit operations. I started to share the news of this new venture and quickly landed a first client. Today I have several other irons in the fire and I’m confident I can land enough client work to be busy, but not too busy.

The teaching piece is a different animal. I taught public relations at Arizona State University in the early 2000s and English at Chandler Gilbert Community College around the same time. In fact, I went back to earn a master’s degree in English in 2008 specifically so I could teach at the community college level. I figured then that there would be more opportunity to teach English than a specific field of study like public relations.

I decided to apply to the adjunct pool at the Maricopa County Colleges, the largest community college system in the country, and checked the box next to all 10 campuses to increase my chances of getting a slot. As luck would have it, not long after I applied I got a call from the division chair of the Language Arts department at South Mountain Community College and after meeting with her she asked me to teach two sections starting this fall. Last week I started teaching English 102 on Saturday mornings and this week I began teaching English 101 and a composition lab.

At the same time, I reached out to the Executive Director of the Lodestar Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Innovation at Arizona State University and he put me in touch with the team at the School of Community Resources and Development and after a group Zoom interview I was invited to teach grant writing online beginning in October.

Even I am surprised at how quickly I landed two adjunct teaching jobs but I am thrilled and excited to jump in with both feet. Things have indeed changed a bit since I last taught college classes (ChatGPT for one thing), but what hasn’t changed is my desire to make a difference in the lives of young people and those looking to build a career. Even in my corporate and nonprofit roles I always saw myself as a coach and teacher rather than a supervisor — a mindset I believe made me an effective leader. Teaching college-level classes is a natural fit for me.

In less than three months I went from full-time nonprofit executive to consultant and educator. I feel a weight lifted off me even though I am not bringing in big bucks anymore. Truthfully, being happy is worth more than a big salary and highfalutin title. I admit it has taken me a bit of time to come down from the stresses of a full-time corporate job. In some ways I feel like I have PTSD and it may take a while before I can relax and let the tension unlock from my neck and shoulders. But I’m definitely on my way.

My current mood is giving chillax vibes.

Best of all, my new “career” feels like something I can continue even beyond my original retirement age. I have spent a lot of time thinking about retiring, even going so far as to create a plan for what my life will consist of when I stop working. My lovely wife can probably attest it’s a subject I bring up far too often given that I’m still at least four years away from even being eligible for social security. Still, I had started a countdown in my brain with June 21, 2029 as the target date when all will be well.

But I have come to realize that spending the next four years daydreaming about a more calm and peaceful life means I would not necessarily be enjoying the four years leading up to retirement. I like to preach that the best way to live life is to stay present, but I wasn’t walking the walk on that piece of advice. I should be happy and peaceful now and find joy in not only my career but in the little things in life like Arsenal matches, great TV shows, concerts and travel and good food. You’d have thought a guy who nearly died from a heart attack at 45 would know the path to happiness is to live life one day at a time.

My new life looks like this: I teach a few days a week and prepare for classes and grade papers. I try to get to the gym often, or at least more often than when I was working in a full-time role. I cook dinner a few nights a week for my hard working wife and do the laundry and generally keep the house neat. I work from coffee shops when I want. I pick up a book and read when I want, even in the middle of the day. I may even watch a ballgame on a random weekday. In a few days I’ll be joining the board of a national nonprofit in a space that is very important to me (details to come as soon as the vote takes place in early September).

LG Impact is off and running, and I’m spending time carving out a space on Linkedin and YouTube dispensing advice. Soon I plan to launch a video podcast in which I interview nonprofit leaders to explore what’s on their minds. And I keep my eyes and ears open for potential clients, not worrying about replacing a six-figure income but instead looking for clients for which I can make an impact.

I didn’t plan for this change. But I am so glad life threw me this curveball.