In 2003, I found myself in search of a new career. I had spent the first 10 years of my career since graduating from college working in real estate development and the legal field. Neither had worked out as I had hoped and I was at the point where I felt I needed to make a choice between either furthering my career in real estate or in law. At the time, I saw this as a binary choice to do one or the other, but as I have come to learn, rarely does life present us with only options A or B. When we feel stuck between choosing between either A or B I have often found that it is best to be on the lookout for option C to present itself. This takes a lot of patience and creative thinking.
I don’t like for anything to go to waste, especially years of experience in my life. As such, I was struggling with the idea that I had invested the first 10 years of my life in two separate career paths that both led to dead ends. It was a challenge for me to figure out how to brand myself and build a résumé that made sense to prospective employers. From my limited perspective at the time, I thought employers may see value in some of my experience, but not all of my experience. It wasn’t until I started exploring the Lake Tahoe area and realizing I wanted to live there that I began to focus my job search. That’s when someone encouraged me to consider government jobs in the area.
I had never considered working for any government entity and had always ruled it out as an employment option thinking it would be dry and boring work. However, once I started navigating various State and local government job listings I became intrigued at the variety of jobs that were available. I came across a State Land Agent job at the Nevada Division of State Lands where the job announcement described how they were looking for a candidate with a combination of real estate and legal experience to manage Nevada State properties in the Lake Tahoe basin. I couldn’t believe there was actually a job out there that could make use of all my experience over the last 10 years.
The job seemed too good to be true to the point that I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I didn’t get that job. Having all my emotions invested in one particular job working out was definitely outside my comfort zone. However, the result after going through a two month application and interview process was the State of Nevada hired me, which began my nearly 14-year career (so far) in public service. The lesson that has stuck with me ever since is that nothing has to be wasted and every experience has the potential to be utilized by an employer. I have also found that diverse experiences encourage creativity and problem solving, which is a highly needed and rare skill in public service.
Thank you for reading my blog! Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section.
Robert Nellis' Public Employee Retention Blog 