How About Some GOOD News?

I don't know about you, but I feel a general sense of change for the better around me. A number of positive things are happening which give me the feeling that the air of crisis and doom is lifting.

One ex-Canon friend of mine, who had gone through the summer feeling like the job market was dead, suddenly has one offer with a great organisation, and another offer in the pipeline. Another friend also had a very interesting job offer and meanwhile is getting 2 calls from Headhunters a week. My brother rode out a difficult re-organisation, coming out the other side with a new role.

My friend Sonny has made a breakthrough in his career recenly. Currently he's making the most of a posting with IBM in India, being trained as an SAP consultant. How cool is that! You can read his blog at http://sonnysindiaadventure.blogspot.com/.

Meanwhile, all the signs in the economy are that things are at least bottomed-out and ready for recovery, if not already so. That means that companies will plan their headcount budgets for next year a little more optimistically. Recruitment freezes will start to thaw in the last quarter of this year and especially in the first quarter of 2010.

Almost every day I hear some new change among my ex-Canon friends looking for a new role. The first months seem to have been difficult for all, but gradually people are having interviews and getting closer to new positions, or finding them already. Summer is over - the job-market is moving.

It's amazing how the sense of gloom is contagious. There was a period around April-early July when the news was bad, the atmosphere at my old company was naturally difficult and the general feeling among friends was not positive. It genuinely feels that atmosphere is lifting and the new catching disease is optimism. Even my running is improving (the pic is of me after a 10km dune run - the gray skies could not stop me running a minute faster than I hoped!)

As for me, I have a very odd sense right now that this might be my last month living permanently in Amsterdam. I don't have any firm plan about that - the experiences of the 5-month world trip from Mid-October will make clear what the next steps should be. And I will visit Amsterdam for the rest of my life no matter where I go. Living in this city transformed my life.

This morning especially I feel a creeping feeling of gradually leaving something great behind and moving onto a great next step, wherever and whatever that may be.