I truly love my career working as the Director of Data Services. It’s a great chance to use not only my managerial experience and experience working with the legislature but also my decades of experience coding and working with the Unix text utilities and other command line programs on the Linux central database server. It’s fun creating queries and running custom reports and coming up with ways to maximize the value in data – while overseeing two divisions of employees that do data entry and processing.

It’s a great job and I have many ideas on how I can make the department more efficient, better at extracting value out of data. I am by nature of my honor committed to stay through the end of the year plus probably several more years as I received several months of training on the  technical nature of the job. Plus I’m well aware that a position looks far more impressive on a resume if you can show you’ve worked there for several years refining your skills and building up even better references.

That said, I’ve been considering my options beyond the New York Assembly should I decide to build my off grid homestead somewhere out of state. Land elsewhere may be less expensive, cities friendlier and smaller, without all the anti-second amendment and anti-rural crap folks live with in Upstate NY. How do I transfer my skills developed in my current career into a future career?

One option is to look at going back to school and working to earn certifications. I might be good with SQL, GIS mapping, RStudio and data analysis more generally but I don’t have any kind of formal certification besides from free classes I’ve taken online like on Udemy and that PACE University free GIS class. Kind of expensive and annoying to sit through lectures on things I already know well.

Another option is to look at the kind of careers I would be able to use my skills at Ina small town or city. What kind of businesses hire data analysis people who know QGIS? What kind of businesses are looking for a mid level manager who has several years of experience. I’ve reviewed resumes and interviewed many potential employees. I served as Deputy Director of Research Services for three years and are very good at vetting potential appointments by digging through public records and news articles.

Plus I shouldn’t discount my years of experience in the political communications industry, coordinating press and managing and supervising political campaigns. I’ve written dozens of campaign plans, background research on candidates and opponents, along with writing detailed demographic profiles on districts. To say nothing about my expertise in using the Democratic Committees’ VoteBuilder software – I’m top expert on it at DACC – and responsible for user accounts and accurately preparing and exporting data for the hundreds of people who use it. I’m the one who gets called when people need help. There are Democrats running for office even in red states and rural areas that need help doing research and compiling data.

The truth is I have a lot of skills and knowledge. But figuring out how to transform them into the life I want isn’t necessarily easy. I have a lot going for me but it’s not always easy to see how to transform my dreams into reality. What I need to do is hard research, face the truth and make difficult decisions – but realize that with my accomplishments even if the big leap means less pay it also means a better quality of life.