In addition to practical job-hunting steps, I have been thinking big picture.

I will be doing a series of leadership retreats this year (through work, but I have high hopes that they’ll be helpful personally too). Next week I am meeting with the retreat facilitators to tell them about myself.

Also, I went to a website my sweetie found (all staff at his big corporate job are using it) that has some super-scientific test “based on a Gallup study of over 2 million people” to discover your strengths. (www.strengthsfinder.com) “I already know alot about my strengths,” I thought. And I don’t put much faith in standardized testing of any kind. But when several of my biggest strengths (according to the test) were about people and relating and communicating, I wondered again why I work at a computer in a dark corner and almost never interact with the public in my current job.

The test said my biggest strength was in “Wooing”—not in a romantic sense, but in making instant connections and building rapport with new people. I think that assessment has some validity. So should I be in sales? A realtor? A PR person? In HR? A college recruiter?

Or maybe this all comes back to journalistic photography, where I could use that skill along with my nerdy technical skills and my creativity. I went to an exhibit of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistic photography last weekend, and found it really moving.