Exit strategy

I think I had an epiphany yesterday.  It all started with a phone call and now it has snow balled into something else.  Over a year ago I applied for a job at a company in New York that I really really wanted.  Well, obviously they didn't hire me.  I never heard a word from them.  They didn't call me and they never rejected me.  In fact, based on their online submission tool, they never even looked at my resume.  Which is unfortunate for them because I was actually really qualified for the position.  I was about as qualified as you could get.

But I came to New York anyway.  I transferred with my law firm to our office here, with a couple of things in mind.  One of them was to make this job that I have work for me in a way that it wasn't working in Chicago.  Is it working?  Too soon to tell.  But I have had a lot to think about since I've been here and believe me, I have been thinking.  There was a window where I was feeling positive about my job.  Really encouraged by the opportunity that coming here will/has afforded me.  There were even a few moments where I felt excited about it again - something I hadn't felt in a long long time.  And yes, there was even a moment when I thought I might still want to make partner at my law firm.  That moment was a bit fleeting though and now I've just been evaluating that option from a really realistic perspective.  Weighing every aspect of it.

But the phone rang today.  It was a recruiter.  Calling about a vice president and senior counsel position at a major entertainment company.  Although I will most likely get rejected for this position because there are just more qualified people out there for this one, I want the job.  I really wish I could get this job, some how.  And then it dawned on me.  I might have come here at the prospect of advancing my career, it's just I realized today that I might be advancing it in the wrong direction.  I'm really feeling strongly that it is time for me to move on.  What I need to be working on is not making partner, it is planning my exit strategy.

Some time in the next three years before I make partner, I need to find the right in house counsel position.  I am feeling pretty strongly right now that this is the right direction for me to be headed.  I feel like it's the right thing for me to.  So I am updating my resume this weekend, and hoping like hell that they will consider me.